Everyday Systems

Here is a cool website for all you Urban Rangers. It gives your city a "walk score" based on how many places you are able to walk to. I think it does any place less than 5 miles. I'm not sure though. My house got a six

www.walkscore.com

Looks very nice... I wonder if this will affect real estate prices?

My place (in cambridge ma) got a perfect 100. No wonder I find urban ranger so easy...

I figured all of Manhattan must be one big 100, but my mom's building (where I grew up) on the upper west side is a mere 97. This makes me suspect the methodology: walking distance to Zabars, Fairway and Citarella and not 100? Please.

Reinhard

I love New York City. I'm visiting my friend there in December. I unfortunately live in Cape Coral, Florida. And I assume at least half the population to be retirees that don't want to do any walking. I have some decent restaurants about 3 miles away so I am going to try to ride my bike there as a reward on the weekend. I'd walk, but my Irish skin doesn't like the sun. Plus, I like going fast.

The score for my current address is 18 of 100. I try to ride my bike places, but I do end up driving most everywhere for the sake of time. (Suburbia...)

Fortunately, I'm moving to an address that scored 65 of 100. Hooray for the north end. Seems to track anything under 7 miles on my results.

Hey, that's passing! Congratulations!

It might sound silly for something like walkabilty to factor into making real estate decisions, but it's actually hugely important. You might wind up having to do with less space, but you'll be healthier and happier. Not a bad trade.

Though with 2 kids (one who's now sleeping in the kitchen), I do appreciate that there are significant cons as well

Reinhard

Where I am living now got a 45, which doesn't sound too bad, but they obvously didn't take into account the neighborhood. Way too dangerous to walk anywhere but to campus/work. Even that's a little scary sometimes.

So then I plugged in the address of the place where we will be going after this, and only got a 23. But it's a delightful town with lots of wonderful destinations and pretty safe streets. So I don't understand the low score, unless they took points off for Minnesota winters, which are not conducive to long walks. But we have a mall, so maybe I can be a mall walker during our 9 or 10 months of winter weather. (Just kidding. It's not really that long. No more than 8 tops.)

My house got a 15. However, if I just want a walk, it's a really great location - good sidewalks, quite safe, a nice stretch down to the local school and back, some hills but not too many....

The ratings must be based on "what you can get to." And there, I'll admit, this location isn't great. There are just a few stores at the one-mile range, but the walking is less pleasant/easy and I tend not to bother. So, in terms of "walking that's woven into daily activities," it's kind of accurate for me.

On the other hand, it was neat to see that some places that I thought were too far to walk are no further than my normal "exercise walk." So maybe I'll try a few more walking trips to local shops.

Checked the algorithm, and it does look like they take "errand-running" into account big-time.

And I'm wondering about some of those distances. They look like "crow flies" distances rather than real walking distance.

Still very cool.

My hometown (where I'm moving in January) scored a 25, eek! However, it missed a LOT of stores right near the house we bought, so I don't know how accurate that website is. I could walk or bike anywhere in town without needing to start the car at all....

I just found this and checked out my house. It scores a 25/100, which is better than I would have rated it. But, it counts the liquor store in the industrial sector down the road as a "grocery" store. I guess -- if you count Top Ramen and a 5th of whiskey as groceries!

My walking out here is not so much Urban Rangering as Semi-Suburban Sociological Exploration.