And even based off that the information is faulty.

Rite Aid as my closest grocery store? Who can shop at Rite Aid for produce? WTF.

There is also a locally owned coffee shop closer than Thorton's Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

It counts a Circle K as a grocery store.

It's a kind of useful tool, but if someone chooses a home because it says there is a Barnes and Noble less than three miles from my house, they are going to be sorely disappointed to discover it is only a college text book store, not a commerical B&N.

The distances are wrong too.

The idea is a great one, and I wished I lived in a more walk friendly place, but I'm a person who likes my space, and enclosed urban living is just not for me.

I know all good liberals hate all things strip mall, but for where I live, it works well, because you can park your car in one lot, and shop at many different places, instead of park, shop, drive; park, shop, drive; ...

I never had a walk score but I have always chosen my living places based on walkable accessibility to my needs. My grandmother maintained her independence for her whole life because she lived a block from a grocery store and from a bus stop that could take her to her doctor's office or to other shopping areas. She had never learned to drive and never needed to. I always admired that.

I live two short city blocks from Whole Foods and a half mile from a major grocery store - for the times I can't afford Whole Foods. I have a 24 hour Rite Aid less than a half mile away. The post office is a 1.5 miles away but it is a pleasant walk on a cool afternoon. I can also grab a DASH, which is a small local bus that only costs 25 cents to ride, down into the Studio City shopping area where they have book stores, clothing stores, shoe stores and a Trader Joes. My bank is a half mile away as well. These past few months I've been participating in a program at Cedars Sinai, and my husband drives me to the bus stop in Studio City and I take the MTA bus over Laurel Canyon and it drops me off right in front of the hospital. It's much easier and cheaper than driving. Most months, we put fewer than 200 miles on our car - sometimes far fewer.

For a short few years, I had a job I could walk to. Hallelujah, what a treat that was! To walk out the door at the end of the day and stroll the Boulevard home again with the little cafes starting to open up and the actors arriving at the local theatre. I could stop and by some beads to make a new pair of earrings or browse through the vintage clothing racks. We have a wonderful used bookstore along the way as well, and i got a lot of my birthday presents there. None of it would have been nearly as much fun if I had had to stop and find a parking place.

I plugged in my HK address, and got an 89, which is ridiculous. It should be 100. I live in one of the densest commercial areas in the world. Literally. I flop out of the door, walk five steps, and there are a gazillion restaurants, gym, shops selling everything from electrical equipment to egg tarts.

When I checked it out more closely, though, I realized that the engine was not picking up a lot of the small "Mom and Pop" stores--hardware, laundry, fruit sellers, hair salons, etc.

Then I plugged in my address in Brooklyn, New York, and it gave me a 97. Now my neighborhood there (Park Slope) is certainly walker friendly, but I have to drag my groceries a lot further there than I do in HK.

Conclusion: Works pretty good, not 100% accurate.

The neighborhood listed at 99 as the most walkable in Portland OR is the newish nose bleed high rent "Pearl" district. The Pearl specializes in art galleries, brewpubs, and posh restaurants. Last I checked those folks are still trying to get a grocery store put in...

Meanwhile, in my PDX hood rated at 74 I can walk to 2 full service grocery stores, including one carrying all locally sourced, mostly organic foods, plus 2 banks, a hardware, movie theater, 2 vets, 5 coffee shops, state liquor store, and at least 30 restaurants. I've lived in this neighborhood for well over 30 years because of its marvelous ambience and convenience, which includes service by 3 bus lines, and in another 5-7 years, light rail.

Their algorithm needs some work, IMO.

but yeah, their algorithm needs work.

some of the things that got counted in my area as schools, bookstores, libraries, grocery stores, etc aren't what a normal person would call schools, bookstores, grocery stores, libraries... fortunately the links let me look up any of the items i was interested in, so it's fairly easy to see if you'fre moving to a neighborhood where the reading room of a local fundie religious center counts as a 'library'.

hmmm, that's not bad actually, now that i think about it... useful information to know, which entities in any given neighborhood count as a schools or libraries.

oh yeah, almost forget, my residence was a 29 or something like that. if we'd only been counting real schools and libraries, i suppose it would have been about a 5.

Zero.

We live 7 miles from the closest bus stop and 10 from the closest convenience store/gas station and still further (by quite a few miles) from the closest grocery store, so yeah . . .

and then stock up, rather than taking the time to make an extra trip for toilet paper. And too, when you live in the woods, you often have no commute whatsoever--living on the farm, I am at work & don't drive for days at a time, would be only weekly if I weren't caring for an elderly parent in town.

And that site has extinct businesses included for my town, and the mileage wrong. Interesting concept though.