Walkscore.com
In my quest to find a good house to buy, I've generally been wildly guessing how walkable places are to shops, restaurants, coffeshops, public transportation, etc. Then I found walkscore.com where you enter an address and it will look for all the proximity of all these things around you to see how car-dependent or walkable you are. When I visited my sister in Seattle this past Thanksgiving, both my sister and her husband worked for some of the days I was there so I was on my own for a little while. But there were several local eateries that were quite delicious and within walking distance. A grocery store was a lengthy but walkable distance when I ran out of contact lens solution, too. And in the bigger picture, who can really argue against using less gas whenever possible?
I thought I'd figure out the scores for the major places I've lived at the last few years:
- Sugar Land: 40/100
Car-dependent. Having grown up in this house, it makes sense why walking to places was so foreign to me until later in life. - Tower Manor: 91/100
Closest restaurant: Player's. Haha, that was a regular place to get food. - Jester: 75/100
Yeah.. a car really was for the most part unnecessary. - Buena Vista: 89/100
In hindsight, I really only had to drive to work and HEB. - Mesa Verde: 45/100
After living in highly walkable areas for four years, it makes sense why it was kinda disconcerting when I first moved here. And why I want out. :-P
And a few other significant places in Austin right now...
- Office: 22/100
We always have to drive out for lunch... - Old Office: 28/100
I'd argue that it's worse than the current one because there wasn't a lot of variety in the walkable restaurant department. - Space12: 55/100
Somewhat walkable? I think I agree with that. Whenever I've been there, it's never occured to me that I should walk to get certain things for the different events. - Mosaic: 72/100
We have walked to BurgerTex from Mosaic before....
Overall, I have to say.. not bad. A lot of it makes sense but some things are just done wrong. For example, Starbucks is NOT a restaurant and 711 is NOT a grocery store.
Ah heck.. while I'm at it. Different neighborhoods in Austin. I just sampled an address or two from each neighborhood that seemed to pretty typical of what's available:
- Crestview: 82/100
- Allandale: 78/100
- Mueller: 58/100
- Scofield Ridge: 45/100
- The 297 Collective Area: 40/100
- Edge of Downtown: 78/100
- Heart of Downtown: 100/100
