Comments on: Walk Score: bringing math to walking

By: FSBO

FSBO — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:13:13 +0000

It’s difficult to me to understand how computer counts my walk, drive and others scores. By what criterion it judges? I don’t agree with my mark and I feel upset! I don’t need most things (Gas Station, Railway Station) that computer proposing to me. But I found a service http://drivescore.fizber.com/ that offers me to choose things by myself. So my score become much higher then it was last time.

By: Eric, your haikuist

Eric, your haikuist — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:38:08 +0000

Excellent points, David. And I’d really like to see how Canadian cities look in the heat maps. A lot of Vancouver def has poor walkability (especially the south and east where I never seem to go. hmmm…), though I recall Toronto has a few big dead spots, too. One completely unscientific and quite possibly unjustified difference I find is that the walkable neighbourhoods in Vancouver seem a bit more self-contained. Where I am now, I can buy or do pretty much everything in the ‘hood (except go to a movie), but the two Queen East neighbourhoods I lived in Toronto (Leslieville and Beaches), it seemed like I was going downtown every weekend.

And the walk score for my address is 73, but it misses *two* grocery stores, *three* bars, Welk’s hardware, and a bike shop, all within the “400m “optimal distance” measure. Based on their criteria, I think it should be in the low 90s.

By: Tyson

Tyson — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:36:56 +0000

So what’s your score? I got 87, but it didn’t find Little Hardware Co, Super Valu Grocery, or Melriches Coffeehouse.

By: David Pritchard

David Pritchard — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:38:03 +0000

Yeah, WalkScore is pretty cool – but did you see their new heat maps for 40 US cities? If not, check out New York, for example.

I think this index is accidentally quite good. It indirectly captures things like climate through retail viability – if an area has terrible climate or transit, then people are less likely to walk, and more likely to drive a little further to somewhere with lots of parking, and therefore the walkable retail will go out of business – which gets captured by their index.

The main problem is with data (as you noted) and categorization – each store has to fit neatly into a single category, which is rarely true. (For example, the convenience stores near me actually stock a fair selection of movies, comparable to a typical chain video store.)

As for East Van… well, to be honest, there aren’t a lot of places other than the ones you know about. Much of Vancouver is still pretty unwalkable, at least by east-coast standards. The surprises would probably be Collingwood Village (Joyce Skytrain), the Sunrise area of East Hastings, the impending boom at Kingsway and King Edward, and I think there was one spot down around 33rd and Fraser. But none of those hold a candle to your hood.

- David