Archive for the ‘ Walkability ’ Category

The walkability of a neighborhood can be one of the most important factors in considering a senior living community. Many seniors do not drive and rely on their ability to walk to maintain their health and independence. Check out Assisted Living Source’s Top 100 Walkable Communities where assisted living facilities are listed by their Walk Score.



Just in time for opening day of baseball season, Walk Score ranks the most walkable ball parks.

Who wouldn’t want a ball park with plenty of places to celebrate (or drown out your team’s sorrows) nearby?

And the winner is… Pittsburgh Pirates’ PNC Park – Walk Score 95!

And just like the housing market, stadiums built before World War II or after the late 90′s are very walkable.  Stadiums built from 1960 – 1990… not so much!

In 1969, 42% of children walked or biked to school.

In 2001, 16% of children walked or biked to school¹.

During a similar time period childhood obesity increased from 6.5% to 17%².

These stats are striking: about 2.5 times fewer children walk to school and about 2.5 times more children are obese.

Walk Scores for Schools

Wouldn’t you want your child’s school to be a walkers’ paradise? We’re excited to announce that Education.com is now showing Walk Scores for schools!

School Data on Walk Score

We’re also showing Education.com’s school data on all Walk Scores in the United States:

We’ll be doing more with walkable schools in the future—and we’re excited about this first step!

Washington D.C. is emerging as a leader in the car-lite lifestyle.   12% of residents walk to work and 1 million people ride the train daily.

Harriet Tregoning is the Director of the Office of Planning for Washington D.C.  Last month at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference she gave the following presentation on how D.C. is using Walk Score as an urban planning metric.

Here’s a surprising fact about “green” buildings: transportation to a building accounts for twice as much energy as operating the building¹.

USA Today reports that only one of the six green-home award winners picked by the U.S. Green Building Council has a Walk Score higher than 50.

Can a home or office really be green if the only way to get there is by car?

Kudos to Kaid Benfield at NRDC for saying it best here:

One result is that the added environmental benefit of the residences’ laudable green features will be offset by the environmental damage caused by the sites’ automobile dependence, poor environment for walking, and relative distance from jobs, shops and services.  Another result is that the public, the building industry, and policy makers will continue to be misled about how best to achieve true environmental performance in our built environment.

Big news!  We’re thrilled to announce that the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Front Seat (makers of Walk Score) to enhance Walk Score.

We’re using the grant to add public transit, transportation cost, and greenhouse gas emission data to Walk Score.   We’re also going to make Walk Score open source!

Today we are launching WalkScore.org where we’ll make the Walk Score source code publicly available.  We’ll also host forums there for discussing walkability and other improvements to Walk Score. Visit WalkScore.org to sign up for updates.

So what does this mean for you?

• You’ll see public transit stops on the Walk Score map
• Public transit accessibility will be factored into your Walk Score
• You’ll see your predicted transportation cost and greenhouse gas emissions provided by The Center for Neighborhood Technology

We are grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for their generosity, vision, and support!

Read the press release.

Thank you John D. Rockefeller!

If your Walk Score is 70, is that good or bad?

We just added a “Compare Your Score” feature to Walk Score that shows how your score compares to other people in your city. Look up any address on Walk Score and you’ll see the new Compare Your Score box just under the map.

Well, I thought I was sitting pretty with a Walk Score of 95 in Seattle—but it turns out 14% of Seattlites have a higher Walk Score!

How about where I grew up in Kansas?  That house has a Walk Score of 60 and 29% of Topekans have a higher score.

Don’t tell my boss, but I just spent the last hour looking up every place I’ve lived!

Looking for a bright spot in the housing market?  CEOs for Cities just released a study based on data from Walk Score and ZipRealty that shows one point of Walk Score is worth as much as $3,000 depending on the metro area.  Read the study.

Upset about your home’s value?  The good news is that you, your neighbors, and government can work together to make your neighborhood more walkable—and a higher Walk Score makes your home worth more.

Here’s the value of one point of Walk Score by city:

In 13 out of 15 metro areas, higher Walk Scores are directly linked to higher home values.  Homes with above-average Walk Scores are worth between $4,000 – $34,000 more than similar but less walkable homes.

So why do Las Vegas and Bakersfield have lower home prices with higher Walk Scores?  My hunch is that those sprawling cities don’t have enough walkable neighborhoods to create a price premium.  Also, in Las Vegas residents may actually pay more to be farther away from The Strip.

Read the research report and let us know what you think!

The Walk Score iPhone App is available for free in the Apple App Store!  The app makes it simple to get the Walk Score where you are right now.

Download the app to get:

• The Walk Score of any location
• Map of nearby amenities with walking directions
• No more typing addresses! (use GPS instead)
• Reviews and ratings of amenities

Did you know men are 3X as likely to bike to work as women?

Did you know weather matters less than you think?  Montana and Alaska have some of the coldest temperatures and highest levels of cycling.

What else don’t you know?! The Benchmarking Report from the Alliance for Biking and Walking is the most comprehensive report we’ve seen on bicycling and walking in the U.S.

I love all of the city rankings and state-by-state comparisons. Go Portland!  The #1 city for biking to work.