Walkscore.com

Walkscore.com is the first large-scale, public access walkability index. According to the "Washington Post", "Walkscore.com ranks communities nationwide (and soon, globally) based on how many businesses, parks, theaters, schools and other common destinations are within walking distance of any given starting point." [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080301711.html "Web Site Takes a Pedestrian View." "Washington Post" 7 Aug 2007] ]

Algorithm

According to the site's creators, :"The Walk Score algorithm awards points based on the distance to the closest amenity in each category. If the closest amenity in a category is within .25 miles (or .4 km), we assign the maximum number of points. The number of points declines as the distance approaches 1 mile (or 1.6 km)—no points are awarded for amenities further than 1 mile. Each category is weighted equally and the points are summed and normalized to yield a score from 0–100. The number of nearby amenities is the leading predictor of whether people walk." [ [http://walkscore.com/how-it-works.shtml Walkscore.com] ]

Walkability rankings

In July 2008, the website released a list of the United States' most and least walkable cities. According to the "Christian Science Monitor", the site lists the nation's ten most walkable cities as follows: [ [http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/21/how-walkable-is-your-city/ "How Walkable Is It." "Christian Science Monitor" 21 July 2008] ]

# San Francisco, CA
# New York, NY
# Boston, MA
# Chicago, IL
# Philadelphia, PA
# Seattle, WA
# Washington, DC
# Long Beach, CA
# Los Angeles, CA
# Portland, OR

And the ten least walkable cities:

# El Paso, TX
# San Antonio, TX
# Fort Worth, TX
# Kansas City, MO
# Memphis, TN
# Oklahoma City, OK
# Indianapolis, IN
# Charlotte, NC
# Nashville, TN
# Jacksonville, FL

ee also

* Racewalking

References