The good folks at walk score have added transit access as one of the scoring criteria – at least in those cites like Portland that have Google Transit feeds.
I’m happy to report that being 0.16 miles from the Streetcar line has driven my walk score up to 98 (aka “Walker’s Paradise”)!
They also now have an iPhone app.
4 responses to “Walk Score Adds Transit”
Of course there’s still many improvements that could be used. Some of the more advanced calculations shown at the CNU summit will help to correct form things such as freeways and rivers being in the way.
I just ran my location in the old town center of suburban Tigard and got a score of 91 (vs. an average of 56 in the city). It’s probably moderately true, but it likely doesn’t account for things like a.) the quality of what you can walk to, b.) sidewalk existence/quality/continuity, or c.) whether the destinations counted are actually what they claim to be or are of benefit.
As an example, it lists seven schools in walking distance, but those include a ballroom center (twice) and a dive shop, but not a single actual public school.
Huh…the addition of the MAX stop, .38 miles from my house, and the bus stops, both basically a block away, didn’t do anything for my score. It’s still 88, which is amazingly high for anything East of 82nd. I’m pretty sure that my score is higher because I’m wedged between a large park, a movie theatre, a high school, all of the stores at Eastport and along 82nd – including a large fitness center, and a library. If I could live on imported food from Eastern Europe and sub-sandwiches, I would consider it a walkers paradise.
In comparison, the Lents Town Center scores around 68, depending on the address you use.
Agreed with Alexander above – it would be great if they could turn next to tweaking some things here and there to reflect the actual reality on the ground.
I entered my old New Jersey “neighborhood”, which came up in the 80’s mainly due to the fact that my old building was located just behind a 6 to 8-lane highway full of strip mall and Big Box-sprawl as far as the eye could see. No useful regular transit back there (one hourly bus to Newark, and a couple of rush hour commuter buses that did loops from the train station two miles away), and I’d hardly consider 8-lane death sprints across high-speed traffic with only one marked pedestrian crossing each mile, to (insert Big Box store here), as a component of what makes a “walkable neighborhood”.
Here at home in Portland, I’ve always found it kinda funny that WalkScore includes the Oregon (adult) Theatre near me on SE Division at 35th as one of my neighborhood’s, ummm, amenities. Heh.
0.16 miles from the Streetcar line
And don’t forget Frequent Service on Line 15 as well as Lines 17 and 77. Which brings up a question (that the link doesn’t seem to answer): Are they considering the amount of service, since transit in NW Portland isn’t same as it is in Boring?