Walkscore.com is a fun interactive tool that allows you to view the ‘walkability’ of a neighborhood: the density of shops, restaurants, and other points of interest. Walkability is a big factor for me when choosing a new neighborhood. I love being able to step outside and be somewhere interesting (rather than in the middle of suburbia or urban sprawl). If I can people-watch from my living room window, even better.
Our apartment in Zurich (walkscore of 48 out of 100) was a little too far into suburbia for my tastes, even though most of the basics (grocery stores, public transport, restaurants) were less than a 10-minute walk away, and the city center was about a 20-minute walk away. It also had the benefit of being a 15-minute walk from hiking trails, forest, and a gorgeous view of the city and the lake, features which don’t earn it any points the way that the walkscore is calculated.
The neighborhood of our Munich apartment will be a move in the right direction, with a walkscore of 72. Ideally it would be even higher (and we did view a couple apartments in more happening neighborhoods), but this place was a good compromise when we considered apartment size, proximity to the city center, transportation options, and other factors that are important to us.
Our address in Milan had a glowing walkscore of 88, and it was definitely my favorite neighborhood I’ve ever lived in to date. But I’ll try to keep an open mind and let our new Munich neighborhood (where we will be taking up residence in January) grow on me.
The walkscore technology is far from perfect (making mistakes such as categorizing hotels as grocery stores, for example), but it seems to do a good job on the relative walkability of all the neighborhoods I entered into it.
What’s your neighborhood’s walkscore?
“Tiny town of B” where I live (between Cologne and Duesseldorf)comes in at a lowly 23.
But I walk to the large multi-national work office as well as to the vegetable market, restaurants, etc. so go figure.
I thought that was really interesting and I typed in all the different places I’ve lived so far. What’s interesting: the small village I grew up in Austria is only in the 20s, which I find strange. Though small, it has all kind of different stores, restaurants, it has schools and other public buildings in walkable distance. In addition you can r e a l l y go for long walks in the woods and on hiking trails. So why is the score so low? My guess is because they counted the bigger stores and movie theaters in the next bigger city and even the philarmonic in Vienna, which is about 30 miles away. So is it only “walkable” if there are some major infrastructure close-by?
Ya, we live in Zürich, (Seefeld are) and also got a 48 for a walk store. Plus they said the closest drugstore was 2.6 miles away ever though there’s an Apotheke right around the corner.
Same here. The libraries in our town don’t come up, nor does the cafe in the same building! It’s a great idea that needs a better database.
The data points for my neighborhood in Bern – which is Uber-walkable – is also really off. We got a walkable score of 41 but they missed the Migros and Coop and library and two apotheks and three coffee shops and two book stores and … The whole reason we live here is so that I can live my life on foot.
My old neighborhood in Washington DC got a 97, which I figure was about right.
Mine got a 57, but it didn’t really look like it was finding all the stuff that was nearby. I tried my old Boston addresses and in those cases it looked like it was actually finding everything.
My hometown address, where my dad still lives, got a 0. That’s totally accurate.
HAHAHAAAA, I got walkscore 0! Its not too bad though 😉
Walk Score is a very useful service i think. Location is one of the main factors that can determine your future purchase. Thats why it is so important to estimate it before making any serious decisions. I ve tried this service and my score is just 25. But how often do we walk nowadays? For example i use my car in most cases. So it probably could be useful to determine your Drive Score as well. This tool i ve found at http://drivescore.fizber.com/ With it buyers can see how close establishments are by car. Here my result was a bit higher. I got 45.
Our little town only got a 22, but I walk almost everywhere and we have two supermarkets, two butchers, two bakers, two churches, two banks, school, kindergarten, library etc. Maybe they only count the exciting stuff. 🙂
Hm, my current California address has a walk score of 45 which I think is rather generous…
Whereas my upcoming address in Rome has a walk score of 71 which I think is rather low considering its surroundings…
But it’s an interesting page! Grazie for the link 🙂
Mine got a 75, but it put the nearest drugstore the next country over and skipped over several parks between where I live and the one it identified as “closest.” Very neat website though!
My address got a big fat whopping “0”, but that really doesn’t surprise me!
My suburban neighborhood got a six! I’m surprised it scored that high… I’m curious how it compares to my old neighborhood in Japan, but Japan’s not supported yet. Thanks for sharing that tool – awesome!
Aw, my old apartment in Rome only got a 50. Poor via Paola Falconieri…Actually, even though it was a good hour and a half to two hour walk, I loved spending a Sunday afternoon walking from Monteverdi to the Centro, especially down the steps that connect Monteverdi to Trastevere.
Unfortunately, a native New Yorker, I’m now stuck in the car culture that is LA.
Love this blog–wish I’d discovered it while I was still an expat…next time around when I pick up and move though 😉 In the meantime, I invite you to check out my site for culture vultures exploring Europe without the deep pockets:
http://cultureonthecheap.wordpress.com
A piu presto,
Olivia
It’s a great idea, but I agree that the database needs some work. The grocery store and drugstore that are right next door to our apartment fail to show up. As a matter fact, our house in Chicagoland which was way out on the edge of suburbia (and where you couldn’t walk to anything) has a higher score than our apartment here in Switzerland where we live car-free.
I found it to be quite accurate when searching US addresses. But it definitely has issues in Europe.
By the way, it completely missed our towns 3 grocery stores, 2 bookstores, 2 coffee houses, 3 drugstores, 2 parks, local public library and all of the local bars and restaurants! All less than 3 kilometers (and a 10 minute walk) from our house.
Strangest, it said that the nearest drugstore was more than 30 miles away. Again, there are 3 less than 3 kilometers from us. And Zürich, with multiple drugstores, is only about 10 kilometers away!
My hometown score was higher. And you cannot get to anything without driving!
And why is everything listed in miles? I suspect it is because it is US-centric.
My little town got a 15. Yeah, you do need a car if you live here. I’m surprised that our old apartment in Berlin-Mitte only got a 49 though. I thought it was very walkable.
Is this a blue-blood only program? I looked at the school selection for my home address, and discovered that it only lists religious and private schools- all public schools are excluded.
It also missed some local shops, but less systematically.
I live in Munich too and my walk score is 69! I like my neighborhood a lot, and I think the score is quite accurate.