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How walkable is your neigborhood?


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um...don't put too much stock in this....

I put in our business address just for fun (Ottawa NW) and it gave me an 82...with these "walkable" attractions:

Movie theatre - "Cina-mini 2" right......

Library -- Grand Rapids Press. um??????

Grocery -- Meijer and Family Fare .23 miles away. (It's actually counting POST OFFICE BOXES at the main P.O. as locations!)

Yikes!

ps: My home in Holland got a 55.

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I got an 58 here in Schaumburg just off of Golf Rd. All with 6 lanes of speeding traffic, no buffers, no trees, setbacks, broken walk signals, green lights that last 4-5 minutes, etc...

It appears that this site puts most of its criteria in the amount and distance of places. When I think of walkable I instantly think of sidewalk conditions and how it works with traffic and road. If I had to I would rate my area at 25-30.

BTW WalkScore says my local grocery is a 7/11. :lol:

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My parent's house in Jenison scored a whopping 3. Although I must say that the businesses on this thing need to be updated. It listed my book store as Bargain Books which has been a Fitness 19 health center for the past 6 months and my hardware store was Handy Andy which hasn't been open 10 years.

But if I type in an address of a house right on Baldwin/14th Ave. the walkable score improves to a 14!

Some things hurting the score are:

a)Movie Theatre - You really don't see a lot of neighborhood movie theatres any more.

b)Bars - Georgetown Township doesn't permit liquor by the glass.

c)Coffee Shops - They fail to count the new Starbucks in Meijer

d)Hardware Store - Meijer...'nough said

Other than that though in terms of schools, parks, grocery, pharmacy, "restautrant"...everything was quite accessible.

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I live near Breton Village, and my score was 52. But, its not accurate at all.....

First of all, it says one of the houses down the street is a restaurant, and that another one is a bookstore. In actuality it's probably just a mailing address for the person who owns the business, because those businesses are definitely not there. I wonder what would happen if I showed up on their doorstep looking for a magazine, or some chicken?

It also picked up on something called "Design Home Cinema", again on a residential street, and called it a movie theater.

But the most interesting one I got was that, according to this site, I live 0.49 miles from Onaway State Park, and 0.50 miles from Winterhawk General Store, also in Onaway, Michigan. It places both of them in a residential area on the southeast side.

By the way, if you enter the corner of 28th St and East Beltline Ave (3400 28th St SE, 49508), the score is 75. There may be a lot of businesses around that area, but I wouldn't exactly consider it walkable. And even that location has errors: nearest drug store is Kmart, 0.23 miles away, with an address of 4111 N Kent Mall NE? I don't think so.....

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I live downtown, and our place scored a 97, with Morton Party store as my grocery store, too! It also lists a Meijer by Michigan Ave and Monroe, does anyone know why this is? We still have to go to Meijer/Target out in the suburbs to get the full list of groceries, buy prescriptions, and to rent movies, but otherwise it's pretty walkable. Downtown Grand Rapids living is incomparable to places like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, etc., so it's a pretty inflated number, but still a very interesting website!

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I wonder where this site gathers its information? It must get it from somewhere. It lists some very strange businesses in our area, and only has 1 of about 5 coffee shops within a mile of our house, so that would lead me to believe they don't have anyone local in the Grand Rapids area giving them accurate information.

This is a big disclaimer they have too, under "How it doesn't work":

How It Doesn't Work: Known Issues with Walk Score

We'll be the first to admit that Walk Score is just an approximation of walkability. There are a number of factors that contribute to walkability that are not part of our algorithm:

* Street width: Narrow streets are better for walking because they slow traffic.

* Block length: Short blocks make it easier to navigate the grid.

* Topography: Hills can slow you down, especially if you're carrying groceries.

* Public transit: Good public transit is important for walkable neighborhoods.

* Freeways, Rivers, Canyons: These things can divide neighborhoods and hurt walkability.

* Safety: How much crime is in the neighborhood? How many traffic accidents are there? Are crosswalks well marked and streets well lit?

* Aesthetics: Are the sidewalks shaded by trees? Are there appealing parks and public spaces?

* Pedestrian-friendly design: Are there walking paths? Are buildings close to the sidewalk with parking in back? If buildings have large parking lots in front, they are less inviting to pedestrians.

* Weather: Some visitors have suggested that in some places it's simply too hot or too cold to walk significant distances on a regular basis.

ie our website and algorithms are pretty much useless :lol:

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