Walk Score
July 23, 2007 5:22 PM   Subscribe

 
Nice.

The new place scored an 85. Alls we need here is a supermarket.
posted by notyou at 5:27 PM on July 23, 2007


...in the United States
posted by genghis at 5:27 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


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

:(
posted by rottytooth at 5:28 PM on July 23, 2007


My house scored a 68.

But I win because there's a yarn store five houses away.
posted by Lucinda at 5:32 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


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!
posted by occhiblu at 5:32 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by Abiezer at 5:34 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


57. Which is a lie because walking around here is likely to get you killed (no sidewalks).
posted by IronLizard at 5:34 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by rkent at 5:35 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


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.
posted by DU at 5:36 PM on July 23, 2007


Hell's yeah, 96. But I guess super crowded city = super walkable.
posted by jourman2 at 5:37 PM on July 23, 2007


I noticed if I put my apartment number in it gives that "over the limit" error. Having taken it out, I received a 66.
posted by basicchannel at 5:40 PM on July 23, 2007


0

Backwater.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 5:41 PM on July 23, 2007


I got a 22. But I already knew this place sucks for walking.
posted by sephira at 5:42 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by jamesonandwater at 5:42 PM on July 23, 2007


6. I didn't think it would even get that high.
posted by deadmessenger at 5:45 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:47 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by Esoquo at 5:47 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by empath at 5:47 PM on July 23, 2007


Nice, a 9. I guess I should stop walking everywhere.
posted by waterlily at 5:51 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 5:53 PM on July 23, 2007


94, 98, 88. My last three places, all in different states.
posted by Kwantsar at 5:53 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by ScottMorris at 5:53 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by cobaltnine at 5:53 PM on July 23, 2007


Try again in an hour?!? Jeez. Who's got that kind of time?
posted by aubilenon at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2007


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...
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by rollbiz at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2007


hmm, mine lists an outfit that delivers restaurant supplies as a chinese restaurant.
posted by etaoin at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2007


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

Just refresh it; that worked for me.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:04 PM on July 23, 2007


80.

This explains how I was able to survive in LA for ten months without a car.
posted by mullingitover at 6:08 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by donovan at 6:09 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by Mach5 at 6:10 PM on July 23, 2007


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".
posted by DU at 6:12 PM on July 23, 2007


Many of the complaints given here are acknowledged by the website.
posted by oddman at 6:17 PM on July 23, 2007


"sorry we are over our Google Maps limit..."

fie. Metafilter FPP traffic breaks yet another website. GERROFF IT ya buggers!!!
posted by lonefrontranger at 6:29 PM on July 23, 2007


I want to calculate my Walk Score! Someone sue Google!
posted by Justinian at 6:49 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by aubilenon at 7:07 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:11 PM on July 23, 2007


Mine aborts with a javascript error "fitness icon is undefined" - the story of my life !
posted by rfs at 7:32 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


Walking in L.A? Nobody walks in L.A.
posted by sourwookie at 7:34 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:40 PM on July 23, 2007


I am apparently not within walking distance of their Google Maps limit.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:42 PM on July 23, 2007


Apparently they can't find my address. Pity.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 7:47 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by camcgee at 7:51 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by octothorpe at 8:26 PM on July 23, 2007 [1 favorite]


google key choke.
posted by 3.2.3 at 8:27 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by Goofyy at 9:42 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by slogger at 9:58 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by amyms at 11:06 PM on July 23, 2007


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.
posted by pracowity at 12:15 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by jason's_planet at 1:25 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by miss tea at 4:25 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by corpse at 4:40 AM on July 24, 2007


It should work anywhere you can get Google Local results, not just the US. My home in Canada scores a 69 -- whatever that means.
posted by chunking express at 4:51 AM on July 24, 2007


83. Not bad for flyover country! Especially since I have no car.
posted by Kwine at 5:48 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by octothorpe at 5:51 AM on July 24, 2007


98!
posted by AJaffe at 6:47 AM on July 24, 2007


It's been 14 hours and its still over the limit?!? BOOOOOO.
posted by Justinian at 7:11 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by SteveInMaine at 7:46 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by Mister_A at 9:04 AM on July 24, 2007


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!
posted by Justinian at 9:09 AM on July 24, 2007


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!
posted by LarryC at 9:39 AM on July 24, 2007


SteveInMaine: That page won't currently return coordinates; geocoder.us currently works for me.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:23 AM on July 24, 2007


Well I got an 89, not quite as awesome as I had hoped, but still pretty goddam awesome.
posted by Mister_A at 10:33 AM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 12:16 PM on July 24, 2007


91 for my hood (capitol hill) in seattle
posted by chupacabra at 12:59 PM on July 24, 2007


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!
posted by tehloki at 1:44 PM on July 24, 2007 [1 favorite]


cool site, but every time I've tried to use it it hangs.
posted by zorro astor at 2:48 PM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by nax at 4:21 PM on July 24, 2007


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.
posted by Dreama at 5:46 PM on July 24, 2007


Tiny little college town in Iowa: 80. I can live with that.
posted by dd42 at 7:21 PM on July 24, 2007


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