Most pedestrians out there are well familiar with Walk Score, the Seattle-based online walkability calculator. For those of you who aren’t, Walk Score calculates the walkability of an area based on its proximity to services (shopping, grocery, entertainment, etc). It doesn’t determine walkability in terms of pedestrian amenities (e.g. sidewalks and signaling), but is a good gauge for how easy it is to get around an area by foot.
Since the data relies on Google Maps, it’s changing all the time, so even if you’ve done it before, go ahead and check out the Walk Score of your home again. It seems that ours has gone up a few points since I last checked.
For a broader look at walkability within Seattle, Walk Score has determined the Walk Score for every neighborhood in Seattle. Seattle rates as the 6th most Walkable city in the county. Walk Score counts 77 different neighborhoods in Seattle, ranging from the most walkable (Pioneer Square – score of 99 out of 100) to least walkable (Blue Ridge – score of 32 out of 100).
Some neighborhoods have very walkable centers but include a lot of land that isn’t close to those centers (see Capitol Hill). That said, you can look at the map of Seattle walkability to see patterns of the most walkable areas. Of course, downtown and its surrounding neighborhoods incorporate the largest, most walkable area of the city. There are also scattered islands of walkability that correspond to various neighborhoods (e.g. Columbia City, Georgetown).
One way that Walk Score can be especially helpful is when looking for a place to live – to help you determine how easy it will be to walk to the places you want to go. You could even use it look for jobs – walkable areas are usually full of places that employ people and usually make for a wide array of lunch options.
It’s wonderful to live in an age where information like this is available to people who can use it to make decisions, and it’s great to live in a walkable city.
