How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?
Posted by Glenn on August 26, 2007 - 9:00am in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Alternative energy
Tags: neighborhood, new york city, retail, transportation, walkability, walkscore [list all tags]
Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute: Not Exactly Transit Oriented!
Typically, when people think about how sustainable a neighborhood is, they probably think of neighborhoods with lots of organic stores, solar paneled roofs, small hybrid cars and a strong recycling/composting culture. And all of those ideas have their place, but I would argue that the most important is how walkable/bikable a neighborhood is. From Streetsblog, we discover a new website, Walkscore gives us a chance to calculate this aspect of different neighborhoods. While this is admittedly a crude measure and has some fairly obvious flaws, it is in many ways a good rough measure of how walkable a given location is compared to others.
Just pure density does not a walkable neighborhood make. It requires a healthy mix of residential, retail, services and office space. It means basically being able to accomplish pretty much any of your necessary daily trips by foot and not requiring an automobile.
For instance Amory Lovins' Rocky Mountain Institute gets a fairly low score since pretty much anyone that works there or wants to get lunch off campus HAS to drive there. However, most of Manhattan gets a 90+.
What is Walkscore? How Does it work?:
Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Check out how Walk Score doesn't work.
What does my score mean?Your Walk Score is a number between 0 and 100. The walkability of an address depends on how far you are comfortable walking—after all, everything is within walking distance if you have the time. Here are general guidelines for interpreting your score:
* 90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
* 70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
* 50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
* 25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
* 0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!
It would be an interesting exercise to overlay these results with car ownership. If anyone can attempt this with census data on car ownership and commuting patterns, it would certainly be an interesting contribution to showing how walkable neighborhoods have reduced carbon footprint.
Walkscore is self-admittedly not perfect. It only uses an "as the crow flies" distance calculation which does not take into account how far something is to actually walk there on legal sidewalks. For instance, what if there is a retail strip half a mile away, but there is no direct pedestrian access to get to it because of how the streets are arranged, requiring a mile and a half trip instead. But in discussing that with some urban planning folks, this is still interesting information, because potentially the barriers and obstacles could be removed and pedestrian access could be prioritized over other rights of way. It also is not 100% up-to-date with all the potential destinations that contribute to the score. So if the nearby grocery store recently closed, that might not be included.
One key lesson from walkscore after taking a tour of various places that I have lived before is that while DENSITY is pretty important, ZONING is probably even more important. My childhood home in Staten Island, which was in residential only zoned area, received a score of 50, while similarly dense places I have lived in Ithaca received over 80. Also, ultra-dense places like Manhattan have fairly similar scores to mixed use areas of the outerboroughs and even small town centers.
A low-cost, pro-small business initiative that would vastly improve the walkability of any neighborhood, would be to ban residential-only zoning and specifically encourage mixed use zoning everywhere, even in the heart of the most suburban sub-divisions. Even if all plots at street intersections became eligible for commercial, retail or other uses, it would go a long way to producing more walkable communities.
Another lesson that I hope people have started to realize is that transportation is not just Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and trying to figure out how to replace all of them with non-petroleum sources of energy. People in walkable communities make just as many, if not more, trips in a given week and they travel much shorter distances. Transportation policy should be about providing people with access to the goods, services, workplaces that they need, not encouraging land use patterns that place all of these as far from each other as possible and desperately trying to link them all together with roads and highways that are costly to build and maintain.
And not only are walkable communities more resilient to oil shocks and produce less carbon emissions, but they are healthier for our bodies too!
The good news: My address in the West Nineties of Manhattan scores 95 -- I live in a walker's paradise! Hooray! Now the bad news: An increasing proportion of my neighbors drive. My block is choked with parked SUVs. The traffic now resembles midtown -- 30 years ago there were far fewer cars. The sad fact is that the more affluent the neighborhood gets, the more people drive. They are drawn to the richness of a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. But they can't be stopped from bringing their cars here. This is a source of daily anger and torment to me.
its one reason I've been jobhunting in Manhattan.
I personally think New York is likely the best city to live in for the coming fuel crunch. Its already dense enough.
At least in Manhattan, the encouragement to have a car is tempered by the difficulty finding a parking place :)
its one reason I've been jobhunting in Manhattan.
I personally think New York is likely the best city to live in for the coming fuel crunch. Its already dense enough."
--The one problem with this is that when the economy gets a cold, NYC tends to get the flu,so to speak, because finance is really the foundation of the economy. When Wall ST. starts laying off, the RE market tanks, so on and so forth. About every 15 yrs the housing market here seems to collapse. the last time was in the early 90's, so we are basically due (and the layoffs are starting on WS) If you do move here, DON'T BUY. Rent something for the time being and I guarantee they will be giving stuff away within a couple years. There is a ton of building going on right into the teeth of this thing . perfect storm.
Matt
"My block is choked with parked SUVs. The traffic now resembles midtown -- 30 years ago there were far fewer cars. The sad fact is that the more affluent the neighborhood gets, the more people drive. They are drawn to the richness of a pedestrian-oriented neighborhood. But they can't be stopped from bringing their cars here. This is a source of daily anger and torment to me."
--Yes, I think this shows the limits to the model. I have lived in NYC for the last 10 years and do not consider it particularly ped-friendly. A lot of this is cultural which I think is why it doesn't show up in the model. There is just an acceptance here of domination of the streets by cars. Cars tend to be very non-deferential to peds crossing streets, bikes etc. the police take a very pro-car approach. It would be unheard of for a cop to ticket a cab for harrassing a biker ,even if they were in one of the intermitant bike lanes or for charging a ped in a crosswalk.AS far as walking goes, the city is ped friendly until you have to cross against turning traffic which is usually every few blocks.
Matt
Thanks for showing this!
I checked our house, and the walk score was 26, which is not walkable. I live in a suburb of Atlanta, not New York.
The reason we bought our house here is because it is on the edge of the University where my husband works. He walks to work every day, and my children walked when they took classes there. Many of our neighbors work on campus, and walk to work.
There is a bus stop on campus, so our house is walking distance of a bus stop. (This is rare in the Atlanta suburbs.) This was another reason we moved here. The map doesn't have that information.
There are other things the campus has, including eating places, concerts, a large library, and a book store, but the map doesn't include these. My impression is that it is looking only at commercial establishments.
I think the idea of the walkablilty score is a good one. My example shows that there are a few things that get left out. If you are looking at the neighborhood, you will probably want to combine a real-life look around with what the map tells you.
This program definitely has limitations and you identified a big gap - institutions. Obviously the typical college campus was designed around walking being the primary mode of transportation with everything from food to entertainment to visiting co-workers and friends very nearby or within close reach.
But just to play devil's advocate, for many institutions, you have to be a "member" of a community to have access to many of the offerings of an institution, which is where much of the Town v. Gown tension arises. This may not apply everywhere, but you get the point.
And now that you mention it, I wouldn't be surprised if America's reaction to peak oil would be to retreat into closed off or semi-exclusive institutional or religious/ethnic/class/trade communities.
Am I not a citizen, but a consumer? That's really how my Walk Score is geared. My result is quite funny, because I live in a small town (pop. 2,000) on the shore of a rather large lake. It didn't get that there are three Coffee Shop possibilities in my little town, and flagged a coffee shop across the lake (about 12.5 actual miles as the crow flies) with a real journey of 45 minutes by car! It missed the fact that we have a rather nice county park on the shoreline in town and that we have a public beach right at the end of my street. Bookstore? Does anybody go to a bookstore anymore? I suppose I would browse once in a while, but Amazon is my rural bookstore. Walk Score found one across the lake again. My local in-town hardware store wasn't listed and neither was my local pharmacy. Movie theater? Laughable. Fitness center? There's trails across my road which lead up to the National Forest. Why should I pay to sit on a friggin' machine as a consumer of health/lifestyle?
But my life is much more than shopping. Where' my nearest bus stop? How far am I from the Post Office?
it's not very accurate either. it placed a point for a store in lenexa Kansas only a few blocks from my house in olathe smack dab inside my subdivision.
Mine is about 80. I live in midtown Houston, 2 blocks from light rail (which I take to work). Large grocery store next block over. As far as living in a mostly unwalkable city, this is about as good as it gets. I could conceivably get by without a car altogether (my girlfriend and I share a single car.)
Personally I think zoning should be disposed of altogether. If you want to talk about market-based solutions... dumping zoning allows density to increase very quickly in neighborhoods, in a de-facto mixed use manner, where people want to live, while still keeping prices realistic. Houston has no zoning; as a result, neighborhoods very quickly respond to demand by building townhomes, condos, etc.
15. But that's because this is a rural farming community. It's a 1/2 mile to my mailbox. :) I think this little game is somewhat deceiving, if entertaining, because it assumes that one must go to a grocery store for food, commute to a job and so forth, most of which is not applicable to me. It also appears to arbitrarily decide that "pack 'em in like sardines" is a desirable way of life. But, I suppose some folks like that sort of thing, or are trapped in it ( if that's the case, you have my sympathy ). I'll pass thanks. I have no intention of changing my location to satisfy some "walk score". :) I can ride a horse & buggy if needed for long distances (over 10 miles).
This tool is really aimed at urban/suburban/town dwellers, not rural farming communities (especially if you are a farmer).
Hi Glenn,
Great idea ... in fact was just getting a comment ready for Stoneleighs Roundup about how 'inflation beating' things were in my neighbourhood when I took a break and looked in here.
Anyway I live in a small city of 60,0000 on a 1/4 acre lot and, if I follow the criteria correctly, would rate a 90. The only thing that is beyond walking distance for me is a major lumber and building supply store. Actually I think we would rate higher if you counted how far I have to go for vegetables, which is the back garden in summer and the freezer in winter.
Previously owned 9 acres but feel more secure here without the need to own transport and with just enough land, properly worked, to produce basic needs.
Many urban and suburban have the idea that security resides in large acreages when they have never grown so much as a carrot ... actually with the carrot fly problem, that has increased so radically here, that can be a real feat. Maybe change that to 'never have grown so much as a bean sprout'. One can starve just as easily in the country as in the city and I would think that the 30's spoke to that. ( on another flat note one should remember that the country (or Exurb?) is further from city soup kitchen than even the suburbs).
Lots of scope implicit in your topic, so will surely look in again to see further chat. If you don't mind I will post a site dedicated to things about providing for oneself and others: http://www.wtdwtshtf.com/
I live in the boondocks and was going to say much the same thing. The thing I find interesting is that the headings are things for which I, basically, have no interest. Heck, I not only don't go to movies but we stopped getting broadcast TV years ago.
Here is what I would include on the list:
How much of your food is grown locally or by yourself?
Why do you have to go to the grocery store so often? Don't you keep food on hand?
How much of your own power do you produce?
How much of your water do you produce?
How much of you heat and cooling do you produce?
To me, these are far more important than whether you can walk to a restaurant.
As an aside, our mailbox is a 30 mile round trip but we only go for the mail a couple of times a week and then do other errands at the same time.
Todd
I imagine this was driven by recent demographics, which indicate that more people live in urban areas now than in rural. So from that perspective it makes sense. It may indeed help those who want or need to live "close in" to have a better life, and I don't have a quibble with that. I lived in some very large cities myself once upon a time, and they do have their attractions. I miss the variety of cuisine available in Seattle for example. But; my attitude now is that although a major city is a fun place to visit occasionally, I wouldn't want to live there anymore, if only because of the crowding and traffic. I like the freedom to step outside my woodshop and take a leak or bag a deer that happens to be walking by, without worrying about nosy neighbors. :) I like the freedom to dig a pond or fill one in, or cut a tree down without getting permission from some self-important "community committee". If I want to put up a building or tear one down, I just do it.
My POV may sound selfish to some, and perhaps it is. But until you've experienced this level of seclusion it's impossible to know how liberating it is. Not many folks that live this kind of life have a full time shrink. :) As Hank Jr. says: "Country folks can survive" :)
No man is an island
Rural density varies considerably, and you are apparently on the low end for even rural density if you can kill a deer (in season ?) with no one noticing.
Transportation is a greater issue for rural locations far from the nearest town, doctor, dentist, feed store & supply, school, etc.
Before my grandfather bought a farm close to town, he went to town every other Friday "if the weather was good", except around harvest time. Post-Peak Oil, travel in rural areas will be constrained, as will support services.
Exurban commuters, a significant % of the rural population in some areas, will likely disappear.
Alan
Alan, you're correct on all counts, but a little planning goes a long ways. And, yes in season :) I'll be looking for dove soon, yum! My little patch is inhabited by all kinds of critters besides deer. Fox, beaver, 'coon, 'possum, dillers, and so on, including the occsasional cottonmouth (had one in the garage this summer!). All the usual field&forest life found in NE MS. A regular zoo. :)
Btw, I love NO and the Gulf coast generally. We try to get down there every year or 2. Have some good friends down that way. I finally found a source for Abita beer up here. :)
Hey Gene,
I do all those things above except shooting the deer that wander up the small river (or is it large creek) by my house, and like I said I live in a small city of 60,000. I don't need a personal FF transportation device and the city gives me a library, winter recreation centre, art galleries (of a sort), a Playhouse, a railway and bus station for inter city travel, also many many social groups from a dalia growers association to a Hells angles club.
I've Lived in the boondocks and enjoyed it but wouldn't want to spend my life there, and anyway I can walk there in about 20 minutes:)
If we as a 'civilization' hadn't done time as much as we have in cars maybe we could have taken that time and those resources to make our living arrangements livable. This is where I think Glenn's article leads. Be nice if it took a swing past population control as well too ...
That sort of personal freedom of choice in lifestyles is one of the great things that makes this country as great as it is. And in large part what made that possible is personal cheap transportation - oil in other words. If, or when, that choice disappears we will have lost one of the things worth living for. I really hope we can find a way to avoid that loss.
So you guys with the grand ideas for electric, pocket size cold fusion generators, or just plain magic; and the talent to make them a reality; better get to work. No more time off. ;)
No problem living without oil all we have to do is go back to a preindustrial population, something we should have done by choice rather than have it forced upon us by circumstance. The problem lies in having an anchor that keeps one from being part of that solution.
There are many types of anchors and a walkable community can be one as can a quiet woodland dell. Personally I am betting on the small town a good garden and a tradeable skill or two.
Best wishes and keep those flints dry.;)
All of these things that you have mentioned are important when Peak Oil's effects become palpable. But remember (not just talking to you but to others) that the Walk Score is NOT a "Peak Oil Safety Indicator". It admits right up front that it's a service to help homebuyers find a community that is highly walkable. Thus, it is catering to people who want to live in a city and want to walk around to various large stores. It's not catering to people who necessarily want to be self-sufficient in a crisis situation.
Todd,
I think the Walkscore web site was not intended for people who are asking the questions you are asking. And if you already know the answers to the questions you ask, then Walkscore is irrelevant.
And ironically, I think that for those who do not know or care to ask the questions you ask, the site is equally irrelevant. Who cares about walking when there are two cars in the garage?
Maybe there's a third group who just want to confirm how "Safe" or "Screwed" they are. A quantitative scale by which to compare themselves with the rest of the country, like a credit rating or salary survey.
Here we go again with "Those who are ignorant of history are doomed...".
Although zoning currently is a major impediment to sustainable mixed use development, zoning laws were instituted for very good reasons which are still existent.
After a 24 hour noisy metal stamping factory moves next door to your house, your opinions on zoning would likely changes, since even earplugs would not keep out the low-frequency vibrations from stamping. Similarly, most people would not like having a junkyard, porn store, toxic waste dump, shooting range, etc. move in next door and destroy property values and quality of life.
The most magnificent examples of urban development on Earth were all results of some form of zoning. For example, Paris the "city of light", followed the design standards of Baron Haussman. Most people would argue that Paris has a more beautiful and functional design than Houston (with its' absence of zoning).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Haussmann
OTOH, non-conforming uses are key to adding character to a neighborhood.
The French Quarter had, until ~5 years ago, a sheet metal fabrication company taking up most of a city block (est 1880s from memory). Forklifts with sheets of metal amidst locals & drunk tourists. Oyster shucking & wholesaling still goes on in the FQ.
When I lived in the Faubourg Marigny, I had to contend with the air pollution of a wholesale bakery :-)
And Commander's Palace restaurant is a non-conforming use, as are most corner grocery stores.
Less zoning could be very good,
Alan
Watch it Alan you're getting close to promoting anarchy, maybe NO is ready for that but is the rest of the land ?:)
BTW have you ever lived close to a factory farm chicken ranch? I have and the first I knew of it was when I woke one night to the most ungodly stench but when I looked outside could smell only the lilacs in bloom, confused me no end till I found out, that being good neighbours, the farm would clean out once a week at night, rather than in the day, and by the time I woke the smell outside was gone leaving only the pong inside. I started to think we were haunted... it was an older farmhouse on the edge of city zoning.
I agree less zoning could be very good and if we were very good then no zoning at all.
I expect a lot of the issue is scale. Localization requires mixing up a variety of uses. But it one thing to have a dozen chickens next door, a whole other thing to have 10 thousand!
Paris, the City of Light, had its design standards imposed by fiat by Baron Haussman. It was forcibly reconfigured. How many people were displaced? I love Paris, I'm currently thinking of moving there permanently, but the actions that lead to its grand avenues could never (and should not) be recreated.
If you reread, I never said Houston was beautiful. What I said is the absence of zoning allows a city to rapidly reconfigure itself to meet changing demands (ie. higher urban density) while keeping property values affordable because there are not artificial constraints on the market.
woolie,
you're right about zoning and the unwalkability of much of Houston. I assume you live near Fiesta, probably in a condo in those condo's built a block north of Sear's Tire and Battery store. And although the neighborhood is very walkable for you, its seriously impaired for your girfriend after dark.
I don't like that program. The information seems very inaccurate for Galveston. I live a quarter mile from the beach and 1/4th to 1/2 of a mile from two schools which have basket ball courts and a track, yet we have no parks. I live within 1/2 a mile of of six restaurants, the same on the program. I'm within 1/2 of a mile of a medical school, a nursing school, health clinics and have great public transit with a block to the bus and 10 blocks to the streetcar and can get to shopping easily, with 3 book stores, several coffee shops and several bait stores in range plus the bicycling is great. Many of my neighbors don't own cars.
The program really ought to at least put live bait as a transportation requirement, it will even things up with Manhattan,Boston,Philadelpia and Washington D.C. which also need to be moved along with New Orleans and Galveston. (sarcanol alert, you humorless so-and soes).
I think the walkablity and bikeability may be a function of the age of neighborhood as much as anything else. Almost all the buidings were built between 1870 and 1915 around this part of Galveston, and those types of neighborhoods were built with more easily accessable small busineses in most cities. Looking out the windows by my desk I can also see a former neighborhood grocery and a former tavern, and neither has any parking except on the street. I'm within 1/2 a mile of the port, and many of the people that live around here were employed as longshoremen at the port when it was built. Bob Ebersole
The program really ought to at least put live bait as a transportation requirement
But bait tastes *SO* much better once cooked with a roux and rice !
Best Hopes for Cajun Cuisine,
Alan with cooked bait within 1/4 mile
Alan,
It sure does. I often buy bait shrimp and cook 'em myself. They cost $2.00 a pound, about 1/3rd the cost of "table" shrimp and are almost alwaysmore fresh They are often smaller than the table shrimp, but since there's only 2 or 3 most often when I'm cooking, the size doesn't matter.
Now you've talked me into it again! I'm off to the grocery and the bait store, shrimp etoufe' here I come!
1/2 lb of shrimp per person
1 stick butter
2 tbs. flour
bunch of green onions
fresh garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Tony Chacere's creole seasoning
white rice
clean shrimp. Thats 1/2 lb cleaned, or about 3/4ths lb. with heads
put rice on to boil
melt butter, use two sticks if more than about 3-4 people
whisk in flour, cook for about 5 minutes, or until flour just starts to get a very light brown, then thin with water to the thickness of cream gravy
throw in garlic minced very small, or mashed in a garlic press, Tony Chachere's, about 1 or 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, green onions chopped and saute while doing this for about 2-3 minutes keep it stirred
throw in shrimp, cook no more than 3 minutes. When they change to solid white they are done, remove from heat, serve over rice
goes great with a crusty french bread and a salad
The thing to remember is don't overcook the shrimp, they get small and tough quick, and keep the etoufe' stirred so it doesn't stick. Crawfish is even better, but don't use tomato paste for crawfish etoufe' but be sure to use the fat. Always preboil crawfish before cleaning them.
Also, if its more than the next day until garbage day, freeze shrim or crawfish heads until trash pick-up
Bob Ebersole
Yes, near the midtown Fiesta, but not in those condos, but a nice, restored 1920s duplex on Eagle St at Caroline. You have to keep your eyes open after dark, but I've lived in this neighborhood (in different parts) for about 5 years now and only once had any instance of crime (car window broken.)
Galveston is wonderful, and extremely walkable, given it was completely platted out before cars really existed. If they reopen the Interurban railway, I'd visit frequently. But it's such a long and unpleasant drive to get there now...
woolie,
one of our city councilman, Dianna Puccetti, is trying to open commuter rail between Houston and Galveston. It won't be on the old Interurban Right Of Way, much of that has bben eaten up over the years, the Gulf Freeway is on a part of the Houston land, but there is other railroad ROW.
I've got her coming to Alan Drake's workshop at the ASPO Conference Oct. 17-29th at the Hilton America's in Houston. I hope you are planning to attend, it should be great.
There idea is to get electrified commuter rail to Clear Lake, then hook up with Houston Light Rail. Our federal government is paralised, but we really need to start on mitigation now, so I'm working on my local end. Communities with plans in place are going to get federal funding first when congress starts pannicing. Bob Ebersole
Yes, I hope to attend (trying to scrape together the cash.)
I like this as a way to find things when out of town. If you are on business or on vacation it quickly lists all the things around you in categories. Even to find stuff in your own community that you may not have known about.
My score is 68 for a small town of <4000. I hope WalkScore keeps improving, it is an excellent idea. I should say I live two blocks from a train depot, but alas, cars are still king and passenger rail is only a gleaming possibility here in 30 year old metro transit plans which gather dust.
To my surprise, my Manhattan Beach address in CA scored an "unwalkable" 48. Yet most of what I need day to day is in downtown Manhattan Beach, .82 mile away.
What is missing is how pleasant that .82 mile is to walk or to bike ride. In many parts of Southern Cal I would not want to walk half that distance. But here, it's great.
Yup - that's absolutely true. And part of this exercise is to show how there are many other factors than pure distance that influence the "walkability" of an area. But it's a good starting point.
Agreed. I looked up an old address on Long Island and was astonished at how well it scored. I never realized: The distances were not far. It was just so astonishingly miserable to walk anywhere! Pure automobile land! Even to walk a few blocks was traumatic.
My score was 71, in Mill Valley CA (Bay Area)--
It missed several opportunities, a major public school, and Whole Foods Market a few blocks away--
I posted this link a month or two ago in a DrumBeat. Before, the site would often be clogged and give no result.
It is also faulty in not including transit access. And some other details as well.
None the less, a useful tool.
I got 77 in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans. A recent TODer visit can confirm how walkable it is (except for movie theaters).
Best Hopes,
Alan