With a Walk Score of 63, Sydney tops our first ranking of Most Walkable Australian Cities and Suburbs. To arrive at this ranking, we rated the walkablity of more than 100 Australian cities and 3,000 suburbs.  Read the official press release and our ranking methodology.

Australia’s 10 Most Walkable Large Cities

1. Sydney (Walk Score: 63)
2. Melbourne (Walk Score: 57)
3. Adelaide (Walk Score: 54)
4. Brisbane (Walk Score: 51)
5. Perth (Walk Score: 50)
6. Newcastle (Walk Score: 49)
7. Wollongong (Walk Score: 48)
8. Gold Coast (Walk Score: 48)
9. Central Coast (Walk Score: 41)
10. Canberra (Walk Score: 40)

Australians can also look up the Walk Score of their individual addresses and find Walk Score ratings on Harcourts.com.au, Homehound.com.au, realestateworld.com.au, WestRealEstate.com.au and other leading Australian real estate sites.

“Adding Walk Score to our real estate research products resulted in a significant uplift in our site usage,” said Tom White, CEO of PriceFinder.com.au. “The thirst for relevant and useful local information, from buyers, sellers and agents alike, cannot be overlooked and Walk Score provides this in spades. We especially appreciate the insights Walk Score brings to consumers looking to lower the cost of their transportation by selecting locations that suit their preferred transport options.”

Walkability Boosts Health and Real Estate Value

Walkable neighbourhoods offer a number of health and economic benefits. For example, a 10-year long study of Australians by the University of Melbourne found that walkable neighbourhoods with proximity to shops, parks and public transit improve people’s health and wellbeing. And, over the past decade, home values in Sydney’s walkable neighbourhoods have outperformed the rest of the city and can attract a 20% premium.

Apartment & Rental Search in Australia

Apartment Search by Commute Time in Sydney

Today, we’re also excited to launch our unique apartment and rental search for Australia. Search rental listings in major cities across the country by Walk Score and commute time and mode preference (foot, bike, transit, car) on the web and with our updated iPhone app.

Australian Real Estate Opportunity

Australian real estate professionals can now use Walk Score to their advantage. Showcase your properties and market yourself as a local expert. Boost your home listings with neighbourhood information including nearby amenities and commute times.

Learn more about Walk Score for real estate professionals.

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” –Mahatma Gandhi

Want to advocate for improved walking and biking infrastructure, but not sure how to start? Anywhere you live, there is likely to be a walking or biking non-profit ready to help you get involved or be a voice for change. From group bike rides to lobbying tools to encouraging kids to walk or bike more—a bevy of resources is at your fingertips.

Get started improving walking or biking routes in your area with these tools, tips, success stories and inspiring ideas.

1. Do a neighborhood walkability audit. Use Walk Score’s iPhone app as organizing or grassroots vehicle for community or policy improvements (see how nonprofits used Walk Score for a walkability audit). Many community members and organizations take the grassroots approach to improving their neighborhoods. Join Walk Boston, for instance, and volunteer to document pedestrian problems by taking pictures and other activities. Seattle’s Madison Park neighborhood locals rallied to take photos of sidewalk problems, broken pavement and overgrown shrubs to send it to the city of Seattle for fixes. Another active citizen used Walk Score tools to document barriers to walkability.
2. Connect with local advocacy groups. The Alliance for Biking & Walking has assembled an impressive list of bicycling and walkability/pedestrian groups across the United States and Canada. Find your local advocacy non-profit group and learn how to get involved.
3. Be a walking tour ambassador or join a group walk: Seattle’s Feet First has opportunities for walking ambassadors to lead public walks around neighborhoods across King County. Colorado’s Walk2Connect offers guided individual or group walks where you can learn about the land, meet new people and get fit.
4. Advocate for better biking and walking infrastructure. New Orleans citizens and Bike Easy organization helped get biking and walking street and sidewalk improvements built into the Super Bowl transportation upgrades in 2013. See how biking and walking advocates won victory with increased biking lanes and pedestrian improvements in New Orleans.
5. Rally and ride together: Bike San Diego offers opportunities for people to join a walk, bike and rally event to advocate for change, meet fellow people-powered enthusiasts and get outside (sans car).
6. Snap photos of your missing effin’ sidewalk: Feet First Philly has a photo contest called “Where’s my effin’ sidewalk?” Share photos of obstacles for pedestrians and bikers across Philadelphia. A uniquely Philly-attitude-celebrated activity that could be replicated in other cities.
7. Meet with professionals to discuss bike plans and make a difference: League of Illinois Bicyclists is hosting a Bike Summit on May 15 in the town of Normal, IL. Meet with more than 100 engineerings, planners, local bicycle advocates to discuss the state bike plan, how to overcome barriers to bicycling and more.
8. Get kids walking and biking: Join Safe Routes to School local movements such as using League of Michigan Bicyclists education toolkits, safety tips and legislative advocacy support. Join a local walk to school effort with other parents and kids.
9. Promote walking with wayfinding signs. Do it yourself. See how New York City introduced wayfinding signs to encourage walkers. There’s even a crowd-funding wayfinding venture started to build more wayfinding signs and the Atlantic labeled a Raleigh, North Carolina initiative “guerilla wayfinding.”
10. Promote safety with crossing flags. Learn about DIY crossing flags for neighborhood intersections. Some companies like Key Bank support walkability grassroots efforts to keep streets safe—like this crossing flag set in a Seattle neighborhood.

More inspiration and success stories happen every week. Learn more about walkability. Get outside and get involved.

Sitting is the smoking of our generation, according to a Harvard Business Review article. Walking is the answer. A mountain of research brings this fact to light. Walking is a free, easy, low-impact way to combat adverse health effects of prolonged sitting, and so many other health ills. You don’t have to train for a marathon to combat unhealthy impacts of sitting. Just walk. It’s good for the body and mind.

“Walking is the closest thing to a magic bullet for health,” says Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine. Put another way by Mayo Clinic obesity expert Dr. James Levine, “You don’t have to join a gym… You just have to switch off the TV, get off the sofa and go for a walk.”

1. Lose Weight by Living in a Walkable Neighborhood
Want a quick and easy way to lose weight? Find a walkable place to live. The average resident of a walkable neighborhood weighs 6-10 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood. Neighborhoods with poor walkability are barriers to physical activity, while research shows people walk more if living in a walkable neighborhood.

Walkability impacts public health by “…affecting the relative convenience and viability of pedestrian travel and biking for both recreational and utilitarian (trip) purposes, and thus they influence the levels of physical activity,” reads a study from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Offset obesity by walking: A study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that people genetically prone to obesity can offset that tendency by walking. A brisk one-hour daily walk reduced the influence of obesity by half.

2. Walk to Combat Cancer
Women who walked 1 to 3 hours per week had risk of death from breast and uterine cancer reduced by 19%. When they walked 3 to 5 hours per week, their risks of the same cancers were reduced by 54%, according to a study by Harvard University.

Men who walk briskly for at least 3 hours a week after being diagnosed with prostate cancer were 57% less likely to see the disease progress.

3. Walk to Reduce Risk of Heart Disease
Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center writes, “An analysis of numerous studies on walking and heart disease concluded that the risk for developing heart disease decreases as the amount of walking increases.” Retired men who walk more than 1.5 miles per day had a significantly lower risk for heart disease (compared to men who walk less), according to a New England Journal of Medicine study. Walking at a moderate pace (3 to 4 miles per hour) for up to 3 hours each week (equates to 30 minutes a day) can cut women’s heart disease risk by 40%, according to a Harvard study.

4. Walk to Reduce Blood Pressure
A Korean Institute of Sport Science study proved a decrease in blood pressure in those who followed a walking exercise similar to the recommended 30 minutes per day, five times a week given by the American College of Sports Medicine.

5. Walk to Reduce Diabetes Risk
A New England Journal of Medicine study tied walking with reduced risk of diabetes. The study of more than 3,000 overweight adults found that walking 2.5 hours per week (along with a healthy diet) reduced the risk by 58% of getting diabetes. For overweight adults 60 years and older, the reduced risk was 71%.

6. Walk to Keep Arteries Unclogged
A Journal of the American College of Cardiology study found that exercise before a meal may help stem the effects of high-fat foods on blood vessel function. Walking is good for the heart and its arteries and vessels in many ways, including stemming build-up and clogging of arterial walls. Unclogged vessels and arteries keep blood circulating throughout the body, to organs and limbs.

7. Boost Mental Health by Walking
Many studies prove that exercise can improve mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. Depression, a disease that afflicts 9% of the American adult population according to the Centers for Disease Control, is reduced by walking, an activity that replenishes endorphins that influence the feeling of well-being. Physical activity also boosts self-esteem and cognitive function, according to research in the National Institutes of Health.

Want more joy? Cities with good public transit and access to amenities promote happiness.

8. Walking Combats Arthritis and Strengthens Joints
Knee arthritis sufferers were able to increase the distance walked by 18% and gained nearly 40% boost in joint function after finishing an 8-week walking study. They also experienced significantly less pain and needed less medication after walking, based on research in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

9. Enjoy a Healthy Pregnancy
Pregnancy doesn’t have to mean your health decreases. Walking just half an hour every day helps pregnant women prevent back pain, swelling, constipation and other pregnancy-related irritations and health conditions, according to research by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

10. Walk for a Healthy Brain
Walking regularly reduces brain atrophy and mental decline, resulting in a 50% reduction in risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia where thinking, memory and behavior deteriorate over time. This according to Rush University Medical Center research.

Seniors, take note: Exercise, including walking, in your 70s may stop brain shrinkage, a sign of aging linked to dementia, according to Edinburgh University research.

Tools that make it easy to live a healthy life:

1. Move to a more walkable neighborhood.
2. Discover places and nearby amenities within walking distance.
3. Find a place to live where you can walk, bike or take public transit to commute or get around.
4. Advocate for better walkability in your neighborhood.

Live in a walkable neighborhood to boost your health and prevent disease. Walkability matters. We have partnered with many researchers to explore the value of walkability. Find a place to live in a walkable neighborhood on Walk Score.

“New York City has saved more lives since 9/11 than it lost during 9/11, due to walkability,” said Jeff Speck, urban planner, architect and author of Walkable City, at a recent Seattle Town Hall talk. “A mile driven in Montana is less safe than a mile driven in Massachusetts.”

Walkable cities see fewer deaths by automobiles, have greener carbon footprints, boost business and promote health.

With baby boomers retiring and millenials starting careers—urban areas with high walkability are in high demand by both large chunks of the populace.

Walkability has many benefits—economic, environmental, health. For urban planners, developers, engineers and governments, Speck offers a 10-step approach to create walkable urban areas that would also attract talented workers, businesses and high-disposable-income retirees.

Speck says many small to mid-sized cities and downtown cores have poor walkability and are built to accommodate cars. “They are unsafe, uncomfortable and boring.” Rome was listed on Lonely Planet’s top 10 walkable cities, Speck believes, because of its fabric—everyday collection of streets, monuments and other cultural and civic qualities. Pedestrian-friendly cities need to be more than just safe with pretty spaces.

New urbanism—Speck’s approach—goes back to the future, embracing traditional urbanism (classic, walkable towns and neighborhoods) vs. automotive urbanism (sprawl and cul-de-sacs). Speck’s city vision includes four essential conditions to create a walkable built environment:

1. Useful—everyday means for people to do errands and live a non-car-dependent life.
2. Safe—pedestrians need to stand a fighting chance of getting around safely sans car.
3. Comfortable—like an outdoor living room.
4. Interesting—vibrant life on sidewalks, diverse building architecture, welcoming vibe.

Speck also said, “Walk Score is the cutting-edge of walkability.”

Book Excerpt

The number of nineteen-year-olds who have opted out of earning driver’s licenses has almost tripled since the late seventies, from 8 percent to 23 percent. This statistic is particularly meaningful when one considers how the American landscape has changed since the seventies, when most American teens could walk to school, to the store, and to the soccer field, in stark contrast to the realities of today’s autocentric sprawl.

A Demographic Perfect Storm
Meanwhile, the generation raised on Friends is not the only major cohort looking for new places to live. There’s a larger one: the millennials’ parents, the front-end boomers. They are citizens that every city wants—significant personal savings, no schoolkids.

And according to Christopher Leinberger, the Brookings Institution economist… empty nesters want walkability….

…

If Walk Score is so helpful in helping people decide where to live, then it can also help us determine how much they value walkability. Now that it has been around for a few years, some resourceful economists have had the opportunity to study the relationship between Walk Score and real estate value, and they have put a price on it: $500 to $3000 per point.

…

…the demand for walkable urbanism already outpaces the supply. This disparity is only going to get bigger.

Full excerpt from Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

Listen to Jeff Speck’s NPR interview.

Bikers bring supplies to areas hit by Hurricane Sandy. Photo: Sarah Goodyear

Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Katrina. Earthquakes. Flooding. Tsunamis. A wave of natural disasters seem to be sweeping our world in ever-increasing intensity. As populations rise, greater numbers of people are affected—residents, businesses and travelers.

Walkability can help communities recover more quickly—providing better escape routes, emergency crew inlets and access to food and supplies. Find temporary housing after Hurricane Sandy with Walk Score rental and commute tools.

5 Reasons Walkable Neighborhoods Are Valuable After Disasters

1. Walkability means survival—access to food, water, neighbors—in disasters.
   “Walkability is important for quality of life, but in a disaster, it may be life and death,” wrote Grist in the aftermath of an Australia flood. “If you live in the urban sprawl, you’re SOL if you can’t get to a mall or downtown, because that’s where all the necessary stuff is. Cities are more resilient when the stuff you need can be found on a small scale from neighborhood to neighborhood.”
2. Community resilience can be part of sustainable development and urban design.
   How can urban infrastructure be made more resilient? In an Atlantic Cities interview with green urban planner Jonathan Rose, complexities are apparent, but Rose says, “Urban infrastructure systems actually call on all four of the kinds of resilience… engineering, ecological, business… and emergency.” Andrew Zolli, co-author of Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back, says of resilience, “…it’s the ability to recover, persist or even thrive amid disruption.” In Haiti’s earthquake aftermath, Zolli highlights how citizens, NGOs and groups set up hubs to handle different aspects of recovery—including alternative forms of economic exchange (as ATMs are electricity-dependent). “One way to make cities more resilient… is to design… more opportunities for these improvised responses to occur.”
3. Bikes can aid people when utilities and other transportation options fail.
   Walkable streets mean bikes can maneuver more easily, arriving with supplies more speedily. Atlantic Cities article Power of Bicycles in Disaster about bikers aiding New Yorkers after Hurricane Sandy is inspiring. “When the trains and buses stopped running, bikes were one of the few reliable ways of moving people, objects, and information around streets choked with debris. They don’t require the gasoline that people are still lining up for hours to get. They don’t need to be charged up – just add some basic food to a human being, and you can power the legs that turn the cranks.”
4. Walkable streets and communities offer more escape routes.
   Natural Resources Defense Council highlights some of this on their blog, quoting a Middle East survival story as lesson for Western world walkability. “In Beirut, due to the variability of its fabric, everyday needs have to be met locally, as you’re never sure whether a road will be there or not.” Multiples routes along with amenity diversity, clearly matter.
5. Kids and families can unplug and spend quality time in communities. New York Times article Hurricane Sandy Reveals a Life Unplugged shared stories of adults and kids alike who went through digital withdrawal, but rediscovered life without electronics meant more face-to-face time with their own families and community members.

Vow to support small and locally owned businesses this holiday season. Walk to local stores or shopping hubs in your community. Take public transit, carpool, bike or walk—stay healthy while supporting local businesses.

Local Portland, OR bagel shop

Counter mall-frenzied Black Friday and couch-potato-style Cyber Monday by walking and shopping locally at brick-and-mortar places on Small Business Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. Holiday shop locally—on that day or any day.

Communities and local economies thrive when we shop locally. Contribute to a virtuous cycle of local economic impact.

• For every $1 spent at local businesses, 45 cents is reinvested locally vs. 15 cents or less from non-local purchases. Retail Merchants Association
• Since 1995, small businesses have generated 64 percent of new jobs. US Small Business Administration
• Local stores help sustain vibrant, walkable town centers—essential to reducing sprawl, car use, habitat loss and pollution. Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Support small, local businesses in walkable places.

Get out and into your community.

Seattle pedestrian nonprofit Feet First is launching a pilot program using Walk Score to mobilize Rainier Valley citizens to report walkability problems. Feet First will analyze data collected via Walk Score’s new iPhone app and website and present it to City of Seattle officials to help resolve local pedestrian challenges.

“People care about their community’s built environment and infrastructure, but they do not always know where to turn to effectively report particular problems in a neighborhood,” says Feet First Executive Director Lisa Quinn. “This innovative technology increases the number of ‘eyes on the street’ that can capture information in real time. With limited budgets, this app is a valuable resource for Feet First and government agencies that are looking to invest their time and money into projects that will provide safe, easy, and accessible ways for people to choose to walk.”

Feet First’s Rate Your Space campaign will help anyone who lives, works or plays in Seattle’s Rainier Valley identify safety hazards, maintenance issues and other pedestrian-environment deficiencies. Wheelchair users, parents, workers and others can use Walk Score to identify broken sidewalks, hazardous street crossings, etc. Campaign kick-off: November 9, 2012 at 5:30 PM at Rainier Community Center.

Kudos to Feet First for training and educating neighborhoods about walkability. Walk Score hopes their efforts help improve infrastructure—and can be replicated across Seattle to create healthier, safer and greener communities.

Type your address in the search box above and register your vote!

Influence and Share Your Walk Score
Brag about your Walker’s Paradise location and support walkability by sharing your score on Facebook and Twitter. Disagree with your Walk Score? Suggest a different score and add places to help us give your neighborhood credit for what’s nearby. The next time the score for your address is updated, we’ll use this information.

Also New: Neighborhood Photo Tours
Our neighborhood tours are now bigger and better! Simply click on “Neighborhood Tour” to browse a photo tour of what’s nearby. Easily add comments to any photo and contribute photos of the places that make your neighborhood unique.

Have you done it yet? Ever? Walking your kids to school has a myriad of benefits for families, their health, the environment and local communities. Kids learn from their parents the value of a feet-first mindset. Who knows? When your kids grow up and commute to work someday, perhaps they’ll recall school morning and/or afternoon walks and opt out of being a daily single-car driver.

October is International Walk to School Month. Oct. 3, 2012 is Walk to School Day with some neighborhoods creating a “walking school bus” to pick up kids en route to school. Join thousands of parents and kids who take a foot-friendly commute to school this fall. One day can make an impact.

Seattle-area mom, Anne, shares why her family values walking to school and shifting their suburban lifestyle to live more locally and drive less:

“As parents, we all want the very best for our kids. Best education. Best neighborhood. Best community. As moms, we spend a considerable amount of time in the car, running kids to school, to soccer and a host of other activities. Not only does driving around get expensive, but it can also take away precious family time and feel like you are living in the car.

“After spending three years commuting 30 minutes each way to school and activities, our family made a commitment to localize – schools, activities and daily routine – in an effort to drive less. Kids grow quickly and we want to spend quality time connecting face to face with our kids and not looking at them in the rear view mirror.”

Dad finds quality time on walks to school

Ed, a Seattle dad, has walked to school for years: “The daily walk to and from school with my daughter is one of the greatest treasures of being a parent. For 10 or 15 minutes each way, we’re completely free from the day’s distractions of work, homework, chores, music, TV, web–whatever. It’s just the two of us and whatever is on our minds. Quality time of the highest degree.”

Join the movement to get kids walking or biking to school. Why? Safe Routes to School stats show a 20th-century US trend away from kids walking to school.

• In 1969, 48 % of kids 5 to 14 years of age walked or biked to school
• In 2009, 13 % of kids 5 to 14 years of age walked or biked to school

Let’s reverse that trend in the 21st century.

Health. Safety. Sustainability. Social equity. Community appeal. Access to nearby amenities. These factors all encompass walkability. Three Seattle-based organizations, Feet First, the International Sustainability Institute and The Alliance for Pioneer Square that work together to improve Pioneer Square streets and public spaces, conducted a walkability audit using Walk Score’s new iPhone app.

“For over ten years, Feet First, the only pedestrian advocacy organization in Washington, has worked to ensure that there are walkable communities throughout the state,” said Feet First’s Lisa Quinn. “The new Walk Score app is a wonderful complement to Feet First’s walking audit reporting system. This innovative technology increases the number of ‘eyes on the street’ that can capture information in real time. With limited budgets, this app is a valuable resource for advocacy organizations and government agencies that are looking to invest their time and money into projects that will provide safe, easy and accessible ways for people to choose to walk.”

Explore Pioneer Square’s parks, alleys, shortcuts, and more

Seattle’s oldest neighborhood, Pioneer Square, (Walk Score = 86, Transit Score = 100) is home to professional soccer, baseball and football games for sports fans; train, ferry and bus hubs for commuters and visitors; buildings for businesses, retailers and residents with plenty of boutiques, eateries and Puget Sound views.

Who knew Seattle has a proper national park? This neighborhood gem and national historical park is part of America’s western frontier Klondike Gold Rush history. Entrance is free. Did you know about this shortcut between Pioneer Square and Chinatown/International District? How about this alley that has been transformed with flower boxes? Or an alley with a bike shop and public events that range from movies to circus acts? Nice spots to explore.

Identifying walkability problem spots

Poor ADA access on certain sidewalks causes issues for wheelchair-enabled fellow citizens and stroller-pushing people who need curb ramps. This problem spot is highlighted on the walk audit as an opportunity for improvement after the steel plate is removed for construction. These areas will become particularly key to give people with disabilities access to a new streetcar being built down Jackson Street. Other walkability barriers and problem spots are a transit plaza that could use more vendor activity to encourage walk appeal, and cars parked on a pedestrian-friendly zone that discourages walkers and community gatherings.

Valuable tools for advocacy organizations

“The International Sustainability Institute used the new Walk Score app to highlight a walkability audit of Pioneer Square conducted earlier this year,” said Liz Stenning, the institute’s project manager. “Adding pictures and comments really helps bring these places to life. The Walk Score app could be a potential tool for policy change. If problem spots receive numerous comments and ideas for infrastructure change, they could be shared with policy makers. Just as important, sharing the gems and unique places of a neighborhoods is a way to promote businesses, off-the-beaten path spots and neighborhoods in general.”

Why are walkable (and bike-friendly) neighborhoods important?

• Community: For every 10 minutes a person spends in a daily car commute, time spent in community activities falls by 10% (Sightline Institute).
  
• Health: Health care costs attributed to a lack of physical activity are $76 billion annually (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
• Environment: Carbon emissions from vehicles will be 41% above today’s levels by 2030 if people don’t drive less (Urban Land Institute).
• Economic: Boosting all US trips by bike from 1% to 1.5% would save more than 460 million (expensive) gallons of gas per year (Walkable and Livable Communities Institute).

Do a walkability audit of your neighborhood

1. Download the app from the Apple Store
2. Take a walk around your neighborhood and add photos of local gems and problems spots
3. Share with friends. Encourage them to “like” or comment on your favorite gems. And see if they agree about problem spots that need to be fixed. NOTE: Any gems or problem spots added via the app can also be found, commented on, liked, etc. on WalkScore.com.