Comments on: Walk Score

Walk Score

chunking express — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:22:10 -0800

By: notyou

notyou — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:27:16 -0800

Nice. The new place scored an 85. Alls we need here is a supermarket.

By: genghis

genghis — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:27:53 -0800

...in the United States

By: rottytooth

rottytooth — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:28:34 -0800

"Sorry, we are over our Google maps limit and unable to look up your address. Please try again in an hour..." :(

By: Lucinda

Lucinda — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:32:18 -0800

My house scored a 68. But I win because there's a yarn store five houses away.

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:32:44 -0800

I kind of wish it would tie into a ratings system, even just Citysearch, rather than just Google. It claims my new place is more walkable than my old place, but that doesn't take into account that the places I can now walk to are, on average, less interesting than the places I could walk to from my old place. It'd also be nice if it included accessibility to public transportation, which also encourages walking. But a very neat concept, overall!

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:34:06 -0800

Isn't walking an offence under the PATRIOT Act in the US? OK, I'm just sulking cos it doesn't cover anywhere I'm ever going to live. Great idea.

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:34:13 -0800

57. Which is a lie because walking around here is likely to get you killed (no sidewalks).

By: rkent

rkent — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:35:45 -0800

It'd also be nice if it included accessibility to public transportation, Exactly. Being within walking distance of a subway stop should automatically add like 50 points.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:36:23 -0800

18 out of 100. Yeah, that sounds about right. It's a tiny town so it should be hell of walkable, but the only way to get anywhere is on the main road, which is pretty busy and has no sidewalks.

By: jourman2

jourman2 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:37:51 -0800

Hell's yeah, 96. But I guess super crowded city = super walkable.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:40:28 -0800

I noticed if I put my apartment number in it gives that "over the limit" error. Having taken it out, I received a 66.

By: Samuel Farrow

Samuel Farrow — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:41:50 -0800

0 Backwater.

By: sephira

sephira — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:42:00 -0800

I got a 22. But I already knew this place sucks for walking.

By: jamesonandwater

jamesonandwater — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:42:11 -0800

57. Which is a lie because walking around here is likely to get you killed (no sidewalks). See my house got a 57 too, and I don't own a car - I walk everywhere and have a subway station and streetcar stop within ten minutes. I don't think this works. It also apparently considers the gym I walk from every day outside walking distance.

By: deadmessenger

deadmessenger — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:45:41 -0800

6. I didn't think it would even get that high.

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:47:35 -0800

22, which is possibly a little high for suburban Houston. There should be a few points knocked off for the several times I've been stopped by the police for walking as well.

By: Esoquo

Esoquo — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:47:38 -0800

I got a 0. I hate my house and neighbourhood. It's filled with old assholes in cars. It gets a good bike score though, because I can bike ANYWHERE.

By: empath

empath — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:47:55 -0800

Mine is 36, that's about right. There's nothing that's a short walk, but there's a lot that's walkable if you were desperate.

By: waterlily

waterlily — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:51:16 -0800

Nice, a 9. I guess I should stop walking everywhere.

By: lester's sock puppet

lester's sock puppet — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:53:10 -0800

42 here. but a bunch of the places it cited don't exist. apparently there are a few industrial warehouses that are identified as a 'coffee shop' or 'pharmacy' or 'bookstore' that are actually either warehouses or service companies that aren't open to the public--at least for walk ins. guess i'll just have to go in my car. the 'bookstore' is not there. the 'coffeeshop' is actually more then 2 miles due to the presence of a highway and forest preserve between my house and the location cited.

By: Kwantsar

Kwantsar — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:53:10 -0800

94, 98, 88. My last three places, all in different states.

By: ScottMorris

ScottMorris — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:53:22 -0800

My old neighborhood got a 69, but that was partly based on a liquor/grocery store that was burned down by arsonists almost 2 years ago and never rebuilt. Also, this isn't the neighborhood you want to be walking around at night. While I can't expect them to account for the level of violence in the neighborhood, I can expect it not to be painfully out of date. meh.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:53:59 -0800

I grew up in a 20, I live in a 66 now. Work is an 86, and I walk home from work, passing through the town center. There isn't a real grocery store though - Italian markets don't really count.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:04:04 -0800

Try again in an hour?!? Jeez. Who's got that kind of time?

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:04:06 -0800

I love this. But while its face value interpretation of business addresses probably results in mostly accurate rankings, keep in mind that YMM definitely V. When I ran my old address through this little device, it informed me that there's both a bar and a fitness center within 0.5 miles...which, while true, strictly speaking, does not mention that said bar is really only for you if you happen to be a gay man {NOT GAYIST}, and that the "fitness center"...well...um, they used to call them bath houses...

By: rollbiz

rollbiz — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:04:07 -0800

It scored my neighborhood pretty well (86), but I tested this out on some other spots a few days ago when I found the link on Reddit and it didn't do so well...In particular, the neighborhood I work in is a kind of seedy part of town with a lot of businesses that are abandoned, it cited them as walking destinations nonetheless. Also key is that it doesn't seem to factor for your proximity to public transportation as mentioned above.

By: etaoin

etaoin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:04:48 -0800

hmm, mine lists an outfit that delivers restaurant supplies as a chinese restaurant.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:04:59 -0800

Try again in an hour?!? Jeez. Who's got that kind of time? Just refresh it; that worked for me.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:08:58 -0800

80. This explains how I was able to survive in LA for ten months without a car.

By: donovan

donovan — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:09:14 -0800

Gah, "over the Google maps limit." Can I just note that it's dumb of Google to throttle access to their APIs like this. The site's running Google Ads fer cryin out loud. Google: Be smart and allow unlimited API access for sites that show ads that drive revenue to, uh, Google. Sorry, I realize that maybe a bit of topic, but I feel better having gotten it of my chest.

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:10:04 -0800

I got a 100 and I don't own a car. But then again, I pay ridiculous rent to live in a tiny apartment in manhattan.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:12:53 -0800

It also apparently considers the gym I walk from every day outside walking distance. Yeah, when I saw the results popping up I was like "grocery within a mile and a half, library the same, park just a mile away--I'm going to rock this score!". Apparently they mean "walkable" as in "using a walker".

By: oddman

oddman — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:17:31 -0800

Many of the complaints given here are acknowledged by the website.

By: lonefrontranger

lonefrontranger — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:29:18 -0800

"sorry we are over our Google Maps limit..." fie. Metafilter FPP traffic breaks yet another website. GERROFF IT ya buggers!!!

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:49:42 -0800

I want to calculate my Walk Score! Someone sue Google!

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:07:47 -0800

It still says it's over the limit. Reloading the page 100 times didn't fix it. Usually that works when pages say things I don't like, but not this time.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:11:33 -0800

It lists a nearby drug store called "Ira Cohen, CPA." I called the number, and the gentleman who answered seemed irritated that I would think he sold drugs.

By: rfs

rfs — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:32:21 -0800

Mine aborts with a javascript error "fitness icon is undefined" - the story of my life !

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:34:18 -0800

Walking in L.A? Nobody walks in L.A.

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:40:08 -0800

Seems to be totally DOA for me. I was interested what it was going to say for my place. We look a lot more "walkable" on paper than we are in reality; too many busy streets / bridges without sidewalks. I've literally seen people killed trying.

By: The Great Big Mulp

The Great Big Mulp — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:42:27 -0800

I am apparently not within walking distance of their Google Maps limit.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:47:30 -0800

Apparently they can't find my address. Pity.

By: camcgee

camcgee — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:51:41 -0800

My place is reasonably walkable, but my score seems to fail to consider the 19 percent grade on the street I'm on, which makes some walks less attractive than others.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:26:43 -0800

I hope that they get this thing fixed, I'd like to see how the house that we're selling and the house that we're buying rank. One of our main reasons for moving is the walk-ability of our new neighborhood, I'll actually be able to walk to work. I've spent the last eight years out in the sidewalk-less suburbs and truly hate it. There is a supermarket/drugstore/hardware store within a 1/4 of a mile of my house but I can't really walk there without endangering my life from people trying to run me down with their gargantuan SUVs. The strange thing to us is that we've mentioned out dislike of living without sidewalks to some friends who live here and they've looked at us like we were bonkers. They'll say, "Why would you want sidewalks?" and we'll say, "Well so that we can walk places", and then the conversation becomes circular with no one understanding each other at all.

By: 3.2.3

3.2.3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:27:53 -0800

google key choke.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:42:21 -0800

I await the day when authorities are forced by the courts to build all bridges with sidewalks. If you ask, you'll find that driving is a legal privilege. The US Constitution says we have a right to get around. Therefore, walking is a right. Yet government money builds bridges that don't provide for pedestrians. Indeed, as someone noted above, some places, the cops stop you for being on foot! I do enjoy the convenience of having a car, and certainly the mobility to go where and when I wish. But, I have also determined that life is far better when the car is purely optional! Alas, for 4 years I've lived in locations where walking sucked.

By: slogger

slogger — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:58:24 -0800

Huh, I really wish that thing was working. I'd love to check out how my neighborhood ranks. We must have nearly two dozen restaurants/bars/shops in my neighborhood, in what's otherwise a rather mundane midwestern city.

By: amyms

amyms — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:06:18 -0800

EVERYTHING in my town (grocery store, park, restaurant, gas station, video store, etc.) is within walking distance... lol... Of course, the drawback is that you have to live in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of inbred hicks.

By: 23skidoo

23skidoo — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:13:10 -0800

So weird. When I spell out the word "west" in my street address, it thinks I live about 1/2 a mile away from where I live. When I use "w" it thinks I live where I live. It's a nice database of "what's by my house", but my score of 65 is way inflated. I live by the freeway, and there's all sorts of things that I don't want to walk by that I have to in order to get to stuff. To get to the chinese food place, you have to walk by the apartment complex with the dumpster where people always leave old nasty couches. To get to the coffeeshop I like, you have to walk by a mechanic, a Cricket cellphone place and a liquor store.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:15:41 -0800

Where I grew up gets a 2 because we lived outside of town with dairy cows munching the grass directly across the road. But we had the woods right up to the back of the house, and that should be worth a lot of points. Still, now I live in a city, everything is walkable, and I refuse to buy a car.

By: jason's_planet

jason's_planet — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:25:42 -0800

It's a little misleading in that it doesn't take into account how difficult the actual walk will be. My old neighborhood in Brooklyn scored high but it wasn't pedestrian-friendly at all because I had to cross one of two busy roads (either Ocean Parkway or Coney Island Avenue, each one a small highway with stoplights) to get anywhere where I wanted to be.

By: miss tea

miss tea — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:25:58 -0800

92. And I do not live in Manhattan. Amusingly, however, they ranked Cumberland Farms as a grocery store. Yeah, if you want to live on white bread, slurpees, pabst and cigarettes.

By: corpse

corpse — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:40:31 -0800

My parents home in rural NC got an 8, which was not surprising. What was surprising, was where I lived in Greensboro NC got a 5. This is in a reasonablely sized city. Current hood got a 94.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:51:45 -0800

It should work anywhere you can get Google Local results, not just the US. My home in Canada scores a 69 -- whatever that means.

By: Kwine

Kwine — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:48:10 -0800

83. Not bad for flyover country! Especially since I have no car.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:51:02 -0800

When I got it to work, my current house got a 49 when it should have gotten a 0. I guess that they don't take the complete lack of sidewalks into account.

By: AJaffe

AJaffe — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 06:47:09 -0800

98!

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:11:28 -0800

It's been 14 hours and its still over the limit?!? BOOOOOO.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:46:35 -0800

My little burg rates a 17 - no surprise. It looks like the site chokes when it has to compute the latitude/longitude of your selected location. If you feel really geeky, first choose one of the "celebrity locations", then go to the end of the URL in your browser bar and substitute your lat/lon for the one selected. By the way, you can determine lat/lon by typing in an address here.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:04:11 -0800

Well, fucking fuck. I have no way to prove that I am more awesome than you guys in this important category, as they have google-mapped out again.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:09:10 -0800

SteveInMaine is flagged as FUCKING FANTASTIC for his advice about the latitude/longitude. Now I can show that I get an 89 and am more walkable than most of you. Yes!

By: LarryC

LarryC — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:39:09 -0800

Woohoo! My little midwestern town scored a 68, largely due to all the little mom and pop Hispanic grocery stores and restaurants that have popped up in the last ten years. Viva la raza!

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:23:33 -0800

SteveInMaine: That page won't currently return coordinates; geocoder.us currently works for me.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:33:27 -0800

Well I got an 89, not quite as awesome as I had hoped, but still pretty goddam awesome.

By: mbd1mbd1

mbd1mbd1 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:16:55 -0800

92, w00t. I can't imagine not walking to the store, bars, restaurants, work, park, etc. However, changing my address my a half block puts my score at 94. Kinda touchy metric, I guess.

By: chupacabra

chupacabra — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:59:24 -0800

91 for my hood (capitol hill) in seattle

By: tehloki

tehloki — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:44:15 -0800

My house got a 35, but it wants me to send my kids to school in Detroit (I live in Toronto). WHY DO YOU WISH TO WIPE MY SEED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH, OH DEVIOUS MACHINE!

By: zorro astor

zorro astor — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:48:59 -0800

cool site, but every time I've tried to use it it hangs.

By: nax

nax — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:21:38 -0800

What does it say about us that no one seems to have noticed (or at least commented) that it does not include places of worship. Also it said that the closest movie theater was 1.64 mi. and the library, which is NEXT DOOR TO THE MOVIE THEATER was half a mile. Hmm. Apropos all the comments, right now its sole criteria for "walkability" is distance. If they could add some sort of walk-rating into it, that would be great. All in all a neat little service, if they can work the bugs out.

By: Dreama

Dreama — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:46:57 -0800

It says that my house is .14 miles from a movie theatre. The venue is actually an amphitheatre for concerts and doesn't show movies. They do hold an Italian food festival there in the early fall, though. It's also only .14 miles if you go over a cliff and run across two very busy roadways. Perhaps via rappelling? Though that's not exactly walking, is it? This site would be useful if it relied a bit more on human knowledge and a little less on Google Maps.

By: dd42

dd42 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:21:26 -0800

Tiny little college town in Iowa: 80. I can live with that.