walk score

http://www.walkscore.com/

I came across this website and I thought it might be of interest to some of you. Basically, you enter your address and it will go through and calculate a score out of 100 based on what businesses and parks, etc fall within "walking distance". It's not perfect as it is based on data in Google Maps and not all businesses are listed; however, I still found it interesting.

The score for my current address came up as 27, which I thought was quite low considering I feel like I'm in walker's paradise compared to where we used to live. However, if I move the address over a 5 min block, the score jumps to 75, which feels more accurate to me. :)

It's a cool tool if you're moving to a new area and want to get a basic overview of what's in the immediate surrounding area. Plus, it promotes the whole idea of trying to walk more, and living in an area that allows you to leave your car behind more often.