We’ll probably start adding new stories into these two existing posts in the future, but here are a few more pertinent stories about the release of Walk Score‘s neighborhood rankings over the last few days:
Site makes strides to score walkable cities
USA Today
“With the surge in gas prices, people are really considering the consequences of where they live,” says Mike Mathieu, chairman and founder of Front Seat. “The idea with Walk Score is to take walkability, a thing that used to be subjective, and make it objective.”
How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood
Wall Street Journal “Numbers Guy” Blog
“The single biggest predictor of whether people walk is the number of nearby amenities,” he said, citing a 2002 telephone survey. He does, however, hope to incorporate public transit information by the end of the year, and is investigating using Google driving directions to calculate distances since Google doesn’t offer walking directions. He also plans to allow people to customize the scores if, say, they are childless and want to filter out schools from the amenities.
Walk Score helps you save on gas by moving to a more walkable neighborhood
Dallas Morning News Tech Blog
I’m not sure Walk Score will tell you anything about a neighborhood’s walkability that your eyes won’t, but it’s interesting so see an effort to quantify the quality of walkability. The site works on a pretty simple principle. It figures that walkability is largely determined by the number of amenities within a mile — and preferably much less — of your dwelling.
Calculate, compare neighborhood “walkability” with Walk Score
The Oregonian
High gas prices appear to be driving many visits to the Walk Score site, said Mike Mathieu, 39, founder of Front Seat, a for-profit company with a mission “to connect people to the places we live and resources we consume.” But he considers walkability a shorthand for benefits that go beyond gas savings – a lighter environmental impact, less congestion, healthier lifestyles less prone to obesity, a better chance to know the neighbors. “If you’re thinking about environmental issues, health issues, the cost of gas…one of the biggest decisions you can make is where you’re going to live,” Mathieu said.
How walkable is your neighborhood?
Washington Post‘s Raw Fisher
Even with its flaws, walkscore.com is an interesting tool for comparing suburban locations. Especially in this era of soaring gas prices, it can pay to know that one neighborhood will require far less use of the car for basic errands than another. (Check out the comments for some more insight)