Friday, January 14, 2011

What’s Your Walk Score?

In a recent post on The HoCo, Chris Bachman writes that when comparing the cost of suburban living versus city living “the affordability of Columbia vanishes once we factor in transportation costs.”

One of the resources he used for his post is a website called Walk Score where you plug in an address and it spits back a rating of how walk friendly it is. For instance, my home in Ellicott City received a low score of 22 out of 100, putting it solidly in the Car Dependent category. On the other hand, my work address on Dobbin Road rated an 80 for Very Walkable.

The irony of course is that in reality my office is not very walkable. While there may be plenty of places within walking distance, there are no sidewalks or crosswalks to connect them which causes many people to drive to Panera Bread which is less than a tenth of a mile away.

I also checked out my sisters place in St. Augustine Beach. During my last visit we walked to the beach, the bar and a great farmers market yet her ranking was still in the Car Dependent range with a 29.

It seems that Walk Score doesn't really know the score.
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