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Old 06-06-2012, 04:20 PM   #121
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my comment on my neighborhoods walkable score was poorly written. I intended to say the walkscore for my neighborhood should be higher because the site missed a bookstore, library, and several parks. I tried to add them but, alas, no facebook account.
Our score is 77 but a lot of stuff that's been here forever is missed too, like the 45-year-old full service grocery that is visibly from my front porch. With both a hospital half a mile away and a funeral home two blocks away, you could go from womb to tomb in my neighborhood without a car

There's even a bike store just three blocks away, too....
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Old 06-06-2012, 04:26 PM   #122
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I got a big 17....

And I would not want to walk to a number of the places that were listed...


Edit to add... when I lived in NYC, it was a 98... I do wonder how to get a 100...
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Old 06-06-2012, 04:37 PM   #123
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I got a big 17....

And I would not want to walk to a number of the places that were listed...

Edit to add... when I lived in NYC, it was a 98... I do wonder how to get a 100...
After typing in some addresses where I have previously lived, I'm not sure that my definition of walkability is the same as theirs at all.
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Old 06-06-2012, 04:39 PM   #124
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After typing in some addresses where I have previously lived, I'm not sure that my definition of walkability is the same as theirs at all.
They show the specific locations used to arrive at the score in the left margin. Maybe that will help explain the difference?

Here's Barack obama's current address for example http://www.walkscore.com/score/1600-...ngton-dc-20502.
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Old 06-06-2012, 05:15 PM   #125
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I think the score is derived from a highly complex algorithm:

15 / ( Average residential lot size in county (acres)) = "walkability score"
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Old 06-06-2012, 09:17 PM   #126
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We are lucky to live in a 1950's-1960's neighborhood that has sidewalks everywhere and connects to streets that have sidewalks. Since it is a lower income area with lots of residents who only have 1 car in their household, there are tons of walkers. Our city also emphasizes walkability by spending money on maintaining sidewalks and expanding the sidewalk network. They do this in part by selling bonds for transportation projects, a big chunk of which goes to sidewalks and transit. They also expand the sidewalk network through zoning laws. When developers build a new project, they are required to construct sidewalk along their frontage. That is a fairly common requirement among municipalities in my state.

I checked the walkability score - 66. I forgot about the diversity of dining and groceries in the neighborhood (or on the periphery at least). 3 latino markets, 7 asian groceries, 1 middle eastern grocery, an african grocery, and a conventional grocery store, and 2 fish markets. 5 mexican restaurants, a Honduran restaurant, a panaderia, 2 vietnamese restaurants, a thai restaurant, an australian restaurant (Outback steakhouse lol), 2 pancake/waffle restaurants, 3 fast food burger joints, a starbucks, 3 chinese restaurants (2 are great!), 5 pizza places, a fried seafood restaurant, and many more I'm sure I have missed. Of course I would be 300 pounds if I ate at all these places regularly. Even if I walked to them.

Many days we never drive. Multiple parks, community center, library and the kids' school are all in the neighborhood. I take the bus to work. Shopping and dining and banking are all a couple blocks away.
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Old 06-06-2012, 09:30 PM   #127
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Interesting and accurate results for me. My town scored a 23, not surprising. I walk for exercise, drive for everything else.
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Old 06-06-2012, 10:07 PM   #128
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My cookie cutter suburban neighborhood here on the southside of Savannah GA gets a walking score of 20. It is a pleasant place to walk the dog but too far away from most businesses to do any shopping without driving the car. Jones Street which is in the historic district and has been called the most beautiful street in America by Southern Living magazine has a walking score of 92. The historic district is indeed a wonderful place to walk. At least once a week we get in the car and drive there solely for the purpose of walking. We really have considered how it might be nice to live in a place where you do not need to drive to get anywhere.
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Old 06-07-2012, 08:29 AM   #129
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I got a big 17....

And I would not want to walk to a number of the places that were listed...


Edit to add... when I lived in NYC, it was a 98... I do wonder how to get a 100...
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Originally Posted by W2R View Post
After typing in some addresses where I have previously lived, I'm not sure that my definition of walkability is the same as theirs at all.

I agree... the 17 I got had places to walk that I would not go... like a 7-11 type as a grocery store... and one is a drive thru place that sells beer and other junk... the only place that I would walk would be the local elementary school and I do not have to go there except to drop off kids...


And the 98 seems 'low'.... the building I lived in had a movie theater, a gym, a post office, a hardware type store... a grocery store was across the street, many places to eat within a block... Lincoln center a couple of blocks away where you could go and watch free stuff (or pay and watch the good stuff)... I could literally do most everything I wanted within 5 to 10 blocks of where I lived... so I do not see how you could not get a 100 on that...

PS... you could walk to the History Museum, but it was a bit longer to get there... and the art museum was on the other side of the park... maybe that is the problem
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Old 06-07-2012, 10:39 AM   #130
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Our current house has a walk score of 2 and really I don't see how it gets even that. It is a gated subdivision and is hilly and I don't even walk much within the subdivision let alone to anywhere else. It is a good 12 minutes by car to the closest gas station...

On the other hand, it shows my old townhouse in HOuston as having a walk score of 73 and I think they are dreaming. Yes, some of that stuff is theoretically less than a mile away but with the heat and humidity I sure didn't see many people walking to them....
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Old 06-07-2012, 11:26 AM   #131
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I don't think it takes terrain or humidity into account.
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Old 06-09-2012, 09:10 AM   #132
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Are we ready for the boomer tsunami? I'll be downsizing and hope avoid driving, as my urban condo is withing walking distance to most things. I bought my condo four years ago and now other condos in the building are selling for nearly 100k more. I see the trend continuing as more baby boomers retire. DH and I still maintain two residences at present until I am retired, then I'll be happily ensconced in the urban lifestyle I prefer.
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Old 06-09-2012, 11:18 AM   #133
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As a suburbanite, what I find troubling is most of the current Electric Vehicle crop has a range of 80 miles.

Not sure if this is b/c there is a technology barrier between range vs battery weight, or if the auto manufacturers have already written off suburban/exurban commuters as a shrinking minority.
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Old 06-09-2012, 01:28 PM   #134
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As a suburbanite, what I find troubling is most of the current Electric Vehicle crop has a range of 80 miles.

Not sure if this is b/c there is a technology barrier between range vs battery weight, or if the auto manufacturers have already written off suburban/exurban commuters as a shrinking minority.
Batteries (and therefore extra range) are very costly, and an 80 mile total range is sufficient for the vast majority of daily commuting.

According to this site, as of 2003 the average commute was 15 miles each way, and only 11% of people traveled more than 30 miles each way.
(graph below is from the web page above). So, an EV with a total range of 80 miles would easily do the trick for 90+% of commuters. Well, provided they didn't want to use a heater or AC, but that's another issue.

The electric vehicle aren't selling well now (compared to their projections), in part because of their prices. Increasing the size of the batteries (and therefore the vehicle price) probably won't help things.

Heck, with over 50% of people commuting less than 10 miles each way, bicycles would be a perfect answer for many people if weather and safety (adequate bike paths?) weren't such big factors.

On a typical day, how many miles one-way do you travel from home to work?

Excel | CSV | Table Version
SOURCE: US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Omnibus Household Survey. Aggregated data cover activities for the month prior to the survey.
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Old 06-09-2012, 02:42 PM   #135
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The question is of course the life style one prefers. A cramped Urban style or the spacious semi rural style? It is nice that the neighbors are 200 feet away. If one is retired, then one can avoid rush hours, (of which in a smaller town there are very few), and drive when there is less rush.
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Old 06-09-2012, 02:58 PM   #136
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Old 06-09-2012, 07:52 PM   #137
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Thought this site might be relevant to this thread:
Get Your Walk Score - Find Walkable Apartments and Rentals
28. I don't know how well this website handles Manhattan, but it doesn't do very well in Central Oahu.

It doesn't seem to understand topography or roads. It's true that we're less than a mile from the nearest Costco, but that's just using dividers on the chart. The reality is a steep climb down into a gulch and a tall hike out on private roads. Most people drive the 4.7 miles that it takes to get to the bridge over the gulch. I've been jonesing for a zipline.

The website doesn't know any of the neighborhood parks (or bars, for that matter), it doesn't know Wal-Mart or two local grocery stores, and it thinks that the nearest entertainment is Hawaii's Plantation Village.

If I wanted to walk, it's about 30-40 minutes uphill to the shopping center. We have several neighbors do it on our street for their exercise & groceries. I'd bicycle the route without breaking a sweat.

But, hey, at least it knows where to go to catch Da Bus.
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Old 06-10-2012, 04:04 PM   #138
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As a suburbanite, what I find troubling is most of the current Electric Vehicle crop has a range of 80 miles.

Not sure if this is b/c there is a technology barrier between range vs battery weight, or if the auto manufacturers have already written off suburban/exurban commuters as a shrinking minority.
The question might be assume you had retired, how many miles would you need to drive to get things done? Of course its kind of hard to do any economic justification on an electric vehicle, even with cheap electricity, as they tend to have a long payout, as indeed do hybrids. With the increasing mileage as cars go to 4 cylinders with a turbocharger, and stopping the engine when the car is stopped with a foot on the brake mileage will get somewhat better.
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Old 06-14-2012, 12:34 PM   #139
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Maybe Midpack can do a survey to see how many folks here either returned to a city from the suburbs or plan to. We all know he puts together many interesting surveys.

DW and I have absolutely no desire to be in a big city. A 55+ retirement community sounds pretty good if and when we downsize from the suburban mega mansion. We may visit one of those communities this weekend, which also happens to be located in our town.
Your perspective is shared by a fair number of Boomers who don't want to put up with "diversity" in their day-to-day lives. They want to be around people their own age and economic level so that they won't feel out of place in the constant ebb and flow of city centers. The newer 55+ retirement communities are a far cry from those of yesteryear, with many more physical activities available beyond golf, tennis and swimming.
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Old 06-14-2012, 08:22 PM   #140
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Even though we live in very walkable place, in my imaginary life I would have a second little house in a very unwalkable but very peaceful and quiet place far from a business district, and just go back and forth as my soul required.
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