If you live in Seattle, chances are you can do most of your errands by walking:
Seattle was ranked as the sixth most walkable city of the 50 largest cities in the US, according to Seattle-based WalkScore.com which rates neighborhoods, cities and states to determine how walkable they are.
The site found New York as the nation’s most walkable city, followed closely by San Francisco. Boston, Chicago and Philadephia were the other states [sic] that triumphed above Seattle in the walkability category.
[…]The top three walkable neighborhoods in Seattle were Denny Triangle, with a Walk Score of 98, and South Lake Union and Belltown, which both received the high score of 97.
Cool graphic of the Day is this this interactive map of Seattle neighborhood walkability scores. Walkability scores for other Washington cities are found here.
Oh…and this interactive map is runner-up Cool graphic of the Day. It allows you to see walkability scores for cities around the country, and you can restrict it to cities that fall within a desired minimum and maximum population size. Nifty.
Do many people live in the Denny Triangle? I ask because one of the things you need to have in a walkable neighborhood is people! Sometimes Walk Score can be a little screwy. For example: walk score thinks it’s cool that I live walking distance to a library, but the library they list is inside a women’s prison!
I’d think that Eastlake would rank as every bit or more walkable than Denny and there’s scads of people in Eastlake.
@1,
There are some apartments-condos in Denny Triangle.
LOL… They rank my neighborhood as car dependent. It’s not. I’ve been getting around just fine without a car. Unless I want to go to the library, of course, then I drive.
@2 But, it doesn’t strike me like a real people friendly, walkable, cozy place, like Eastlake, yet Eastlake get a lower score. I’m just trying to figure out Walk Score, because its always seemed a little screwy to me.
I found the muted color tones of the map very soothing and enjoyed the changing scores as I moved the cursor about.
My own walkability score would include the number of friendly taverns in the neighborhood and the number of pawnshops with guitars for sale.
I don’t know about the scoring or its validity, but the future of urban areas in the USA and the world shall require greater walkability, mass transit, bike paths and other superior options to single occupancy vehicles for transportation.
Oil and its pollution byproduct are increasingly expensive and comfortable urban living is the solution.
Having just spent a couple of weeks in Beantown, I found it very easy and comfortable to get around w/out a vehicle (and obviously less expensive than renting a car and paying for parking…).
We’re on the right path with stuff like “Voters may be asked to increase car-tab fees by $100”
h/t Stefan Sharkansky
5
Indeed.
The biggest problem with making a neighborhood less car-dependent (either “walkable” or accessable by bus) is the ability to go grocery shopping nearby, and to carry the products home. Most available carts (the kind you buy, not the kind in the stores) carry a rather limited amount of goods. This rules out a weekly trip to feed a family of 4+, you would have to do your shopping almost daily.
Which has it’s advantages, because then you can plan your meals based upon what’s fresh and on sale, and not try to stock up on canned/frozen/processed foods to fill your pantry or freezer for the next year. My understanding is that residents of most European cities do the bulk of their shopping in that fashion.
@8 rhp6033 on 07/20/2011 at 5:52 pm,
You raise a good point about grocery shopping.
It was one of the things I needed to adapt my life to when I gave up the car for good 7 years ago.
There are many benefits to this European style of shopping however.
Let me give you a few that go to the top of my list:
1) The weight of ‘stocking up’ prevents one from acquiring more and unnecessary items, leading to healthier eating.
2) Fresh vegetables weigh less.
3) Packaging food costs money and natural resources. Fresh food must come from closer, local producers.
Of course, one needs a well stocked grocery store within a mile or two for this to work, but the grocery deserts we have created are in part due to the big box groceries store oasis’s made possible by car culture.
For many Seattlites, Pike Place Market is a solution.
@8
The big weekly shopping trip is a byproduct of suburban, car dependent development. Put the store walking distance away and those big weekly trips are the exception, not the rule. Like the European model you mentioned.
Who the fuck has four kids anymore? The fastest growing family demographic in America is the never married, no kids set. And yet our developers and electeds act like that’s still the norm. WTF?
Seeing one or two of those big 4 wheeled garden carts locked up outside the Fred Meyer by my house is a common sight these days and they’ll hold a weeks worth of stuff easy. Saw one tied to a bicycles pannier rack today.
@9
I must disagree with this statement: “Fresh food must come from closer, local producers.”
I work in a grocery store that almost only sells organic produce (some local farms are not organic certified), and most of the produce comes from California and Mexico. Many staple vegetables do not grow year-round in the Northwest. And people get angry when they can’t find their favorite fruits or vegetables and only get more frustrated when you tell them, “Out of season!” Some popular items, like avocados, don’t grow up here at all!