# What's your home's Walk Score? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560 "2009-05-15T19:41:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Alpine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpine/32/17813_2.png) [@Alpine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpine)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/81 "2009-05-17T02:46:11Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Unless waiting will allow tectonic plate movement to bring my home closer to urban/commercial centers, I don’t think there’s any point in waiting longer. Ditto! I knew mine would be a zero before I tried. What did surprise me is that they pinpointed my address - to within a 1/2 mile, anyway. I was expecting “no such address”. It doesn’t take into account the amenities I do have in my backyard - xc ski trails, hiking, biking, etc. I’d rather be close to those than a hot dog cart (which is what it pulled for ‘restaurant’). ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/82 "2009-05-17T03:00:12Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > 82, but it definitely missed a few things, but I didn’t expect it to list every business on Mont-Royal (and the large park across the street is not a full 0.7km away!), and said park does cause some businesses to be farther away than the software seems to like, but we’re young and healthy and there are a bunch of things that are considered walkable to us just outside the radius shown on the map. It missed a lot of items near my aunt’s place in Cote Saint Luc. Ed ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/83 "2009-05-17T03:54:17Z")
Another zero here, but I expected it. I live in a small rural community, in a 30 year old subdivision originally intended as retirement and summer homes. NO ammenities of any kind closer than 2 miles away. But it’s a great neighborhood to walk in, and very quiet, and in the woods…completely worth the 30 minute commute to work. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/84 "2009-05-17T04:49:42Z")
I got an 18, which sounds about right. I don’t know what people have against sidewalks in New England, but it’s annoying. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m planning on catching the 3 o’clock show at the movie theater tomorrow afternoon, and I need to leave now. ---
**Author:** ![jormundgondir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jormundgondir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jormundgondir)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/85 "2009-05-17T04:59:51Z")
85 where I live now north of Berkeley 92 when I lived in SF 94 when I lived in Alaska 3 when i lived in Hawaii. Huh! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/86 "2009-05-17T13:33:35Z")
Mine is 51. I think that’s a bit low, it includes somethings that aren’t important to me, like a Christian bookstore, and excludes others, like two small parks within 200 yards, includes the Regal Beaglesque meat market nearby, but excludes the two bars I actually patronize which are just a slightly further walk away. And includes the nearby Sylvan Learning center as a school. Both of my kids are walking distance to school, but the district thinks the street nearby is too dangerous to cross, so they send a bus anyway for the elementary school kids. Maybe this is cheaper than crossing guards at the big intersection all morning. Strangely enough, some parents closer to the school jay walk across this road with their young pups, which I find mildly insane. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/87 "2009-05-17T14:06:39Z")
Mine scored a 42, car-dependent. It might be a bit low but still in the right range. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/88 "2009-05-17T14:17:17Z")
I’m a 12. I have a convenience store a mile away that doesn’t show up on the list. The “grocery” store that shows up is actually a combination butcher shop/gourmet food shop. Go figure. The real grocery store is about 2 miles from here. Still not very walkable, as the route is a soft-shoulder highway for at least 1/2 the distance. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/89 "2009-05-17T14:29:45Z")
2 out of 100.\* Beautiful. I’d be a lot happier if being that remote at least meant I got my own cave, or something. \*That’s also counting the local gay bar as a restaurant, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/90 "2009-05-17T15:01:28Z")
Not surprisingly, I rated 0 also. Apart from the post office, which is half a mile away, and a sorta mom-n-pop store across the street from it, there’s nothing really closer than the convenience store (3 mi) and the closest grocery is about 7 miles away. I drive 25 miles to work. And I’d not live anywhere else. I love the boonies!! Wow - even the last place we lived only rated a 15, and there was \*tons \*of stuff within a mile! And the house where I grew up rated 68. Wish I’d known - I walked everywhere when we lived there. OK, sometimes I rode my bike, but still… ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/91 "2009-05-17T15:09:32Z")
Totally bogus score of 57. The list was at least 50% wrong in terms of business locations. A lot of the business shown haven’t been open for years, and several were shown in the wrong location or under the wrong classification. For example, it says there is a grocery store at Westheimer and Beltway 8; nothing there but gas stations. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/92 "2009-05-17T15:13:47Z")
85 out of 100…very walkable. I live in Sparks, NV about a block away from a Raley’s (supermarket) and a Starbucks. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/93 "2009-05-17T16:51:41Z")
63, but it’s misleading. Half of the “close” places are the cruddiest examples of their categories in the area (the little “food store” that’s a place where people buy smokes and lottery tickets). Beyond that, there are a few places I’ll walk (the CVS drugstore, the pizza place, Autozone), but generally that’s in the winter, spring and fall. It’s too damn hot around here to realistically consider walking anywhere more than a couple hundred yards, unless you like being wet with sweat. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/94 "2009-05-17T16:52:59Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Totally bogus score of 57. The list was at least 50% wrong in terms of business locations. A lot of the business shown haven’t been open for years, and several were shown in the wrong location or under the wrong classification. For example, it says there is a grocery store at Westheimer and Beltway 8; nothing there but gas stations. There hasn’t EVER been a grocery store there either- the closest ones are the Randall’s at Wilcrest, and the Kroger (?) just West of Gessner. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/95 "2009-05-17T20:43:13Z")
89 here. It’s a fair score, but not for their reasons. They’ve missed a couple of key business, and added in things that don’t really count. For example – Movie Theaters: Castle Chem Dry Cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/96 "2009-05-17T21:49:23Z")
Mine is surprisingly, unrealistically high. We got a 71, very walkable. It’s laughable, frankly. We live in an area that’s as walkable as you get in a little hill town in eastern Kentucky, with a gas station, a pharmacy, a few restaurants, a bar, a gym and the county library a perfectly reasonable walk in good weather. But the grocery store they claim we have nearby is the gas station, the coffee shop is a gas station 6 miles away (who walks 6 miles for a cup of coffee, I ask you?), and things like the movie theater and school _might_ be as close as they claim as the crow flies, but there are multiple inconvenient mountains and things in the way that make actually getting there a 10-20 minute drive. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/97 "2009-05-18T04:10:44Z")
57 - Somewhat Walkable. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/98 "2009-05-18T06:43:24Z")
Good grief. I only typed in my address, expecting to see an error message because I don’t live in the US. Still, it worked out a walk score for my place: 82. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/99 "2009-05-18T06:50:33Z")
Hmm. It is a big buggy. It lists ‘Ryde East School’ as being within walking distance, which it is, but makes no mention of the other three schools which are even closer. Very odd. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560/100 "2009-05-18T06:52:54Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > Hmm. It is a big buggy. It lists ‘Ryde East School’ as being within walking distance, which it is, but makes no mention of the other three schools which are even closer. Very odd. I noticed that too. It doesn’t always choose the closest option. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-homes-walk-score/496560.md?page=6)