legot73

My house got a 25, but I could think of closer places than most of the ones listed. A lot of people sure are out walking right now for a 25/100, though. For fun, I tested my college address, which was a great location in Iowa City (236 steps from a brew pub, and 266 from the best wings in town), but only scored an 80.

raster

I have to agree that the walkability of a neighborhood is based much more on the quality of things nearby than the amount of things nearby. The corner stores that the map lists in my area as "grocery" (clearly a loose category) sell nothing more than dutch masters and doo rags. The nearest actual grocery is about 1.5 miles away.

makeinu

I think the notion of 100% walkability is kind of silly. Even if your neighborhood had everything you needed, you'd still want to leave it to visit friends, go to work, go to that shop on the other side of town which is only place stocking that hard to get item, etc.

And, for the record, we are talking about walkable neighborhoods, not homes. I would hope that everyone's home is walkable (except mine with the 60 mph highway from the bedroom to the kitchen ).

Hey, for some people, a dutch master and a doo rag is all you need.

nelson249

Curses, my new place doesn't yet exist on google maps. If anything it will be better than the old one.

Gotcha38

0 / 100. That's one of the dumbest websites I may have ever seen. The closest bar was a gas station. The closest grocery store was a gas station/ auto repair place. The closest park they listed was probably 15 miles away, but it was listed as 5 because they must've been using the interstate. The closest eatery was a golf course. ********.

donnamb 

Are any of you reporting the errors to them? It sounds to me like they want to improve the site and would welcome them.

wahoonc

Yep I sent them a few suggestions...but they don't have much control over the Google API stuff. FWIW I checked our retail shop listing and we are still showing on the map where we used to be...3 years ago along with the new location...gee we are a chain now I have also notified Google, but don't really expect too many results.

Aaron

vulpes

In the meantime, I think this thread qualifies as one of the sillier. I mean 107 posts based on faulty internet resources? Gimme a break.

Platy

Yeah, but if it worked better it would be a good resource.

gwd

How would the resource not be faulty? Roody put it in a nutshell, if you want to know how walkable your neighborhood is, take a walk. But it is useful to gauge how bad the site is in case someone is considering moving across country. The only way to guage how badly it works is for a large number of people from a wide range of locations to hammer on it and report back. So we got a lot of posts and by going through them a person investigating a potential home site out of state can get a feel for how much trust to place in the walkability measure from the web site. There is some useful information in here for a car free person considering a move to a new town.

chephy

68 for me. Should be way higher than that though; the website's data for Canada is very spotty. They don't list ANY Canadian schools for example. Instead they list the closes U.S. one (mine was 38 miles away... must be measuring straight across Lake Ontario ).

My parents' place in suburbia/satellite town got 12. But I don't find it isolated when I visit. A train/bus station is under a mile away (makes it VERY easy to visit them by public transportation, with express trains/buses running between there and downtown Toronto). A sports centre (complete with a swimming pool and ample space for playing outdoor games with friends) is just across the street. And everything else is within 10-minute biking distance (it's not such a big town). And just west of the town's boundary is the Niagara Escarpment - prime road biking territory with wicked hills! It's really not a bad place; and you could easily get by without a car.

chephy

I heard stories of various CAN-BIKE instructors... and how ones who used to cycle in smaller cities were terrified initally when they got to Winniped and encountered nasty driver attitudes. But according to the story the Winnipeg ones who moved to Toronto were similarly terrified!

TimJ

I finally noticed this thing: 86. And that's way low, they don't list half the stuff that's within a mile of my place. The only thing I can't get within 1 mile is dim sum or really good ramen.

ModoVincere

28 out of 100....I pretty much agree with this.
Have to cross a road to get to a sidewalk which ends about 1/2 mile up the road. Then you'd have to walk either in the road or on the dirt/grass/mud up the hill to get to a major road. You can then head north along a sidewalk to get to Starbucks, several fast food places, and several clothing and sporting goods stores. You can then go under the major road through a tunnel and come out on the other side, then continue north till you get to a pretty big intersection which you take your life in your own hands trying to cross. If you make it accross, you can then shop for groceries or get more fast food.

Basically, walking is doable, but not a pleasant experience.

smyth

this test is flawed, haha. my house got a 23, i've got a bar, a wawa, another bar, my bank, a grocery store, barnes and noble and a target within a couple hundred yards. and the bar and wawa are both under 100 yards. That sounds very walkable to me.

haha, fun test though, thanks for the link.

kyle

bpohl

I got a 60, and I live in downtown Indy. That's just plain sad.

cerewa

A number of us have had pretty accurate results, which might explain part of the interest in this thread. Apparently Google's data points are good in some places and not in others.

cerewa

Thought you all might be interested: Because of this thread, I decided to the following comment to walkscore.com. Below is a copy of the reply e-mail they sent me.

> ((((What does my score mean?
> ...
> 50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are
> within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a
> car.))))
>
> I think walkscore.com is a great idea; thank you for developing it.
> I was a little bit disappointed that the website's "what does my
> score mean" section has a car-centered tone, though. I live in a
> neighborhood that requires a means of transportation other than
> walking for many everyday trips and walkscore.com scored it
> correctly in that regard. However, my housemate gets around mainly
> by public transportation and I almost always go by bicycle--which
> is nothing unusual in this neighborhood. I would be thrilled if the
> interpretations of the scores implied that non-walkable
> neighborhoods require you to get around by "car, public transit, or
> bike" or "means other than walking" instead of by "car".

thestoutdog

28 out of 100...that's why I ride my bike!

chephy

I've been playing with this thing today trying to find Toronto locations that would score 0 and 100. Found both.

Novakane 

Yes, the data is rather incomplete - I scored a 28 but it's missing quite a few locations in the area including several convenience stores and half a dozen shopping centers which means it excludes a good number of stores and a movie theater which would at least triple my score if not more.
I entered my previous residence I just moved from and it also scored a relatively low 45 - and again it's excluding a large number of resources in the area.

Oh well.

gcl8a

My house in Denmark worked!

I only got a 25, though.

gcl8a

My old place, in the heart of downtown -- near anything you ever wanted, including a major train station a mere 500 meters away -- only got a 66.

So, it might not be so accurate.

donrhummy

I noticed Bill Gates' place scores a 6. (They have a link to it on there).

adgrant

My place on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan scored 100 which seems pretty accurate to me.