This summer I’m not going anywhere. Okay, I’m going to work, and occasionally to the grocery store, but I’m not really going anywhere fun (sorry co-workers). I’m mostly working in my yard a bunch, but every now and then it would be nice to get out of the house (while not wondering too far from the yard). By checking in on the site Walk Score, I can learn about new places in my community by figuring out what cool things are within walking distance from my house, and I can help alleviate my girlish office figure.
Walk Score uses Google Maps to show where parks, schools, and restaurants are within range of your address (that is if you enter your address and not some exotic address in Paris). It’s a pretty nifty tool to help illustrate the importance of community as well as the benefits of not driving so much. So while it’s a downer that I’m not vacationing anywhere exciting this summer, I can still enjoy what’s in walking distance from my house.
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Walk score told me that Tasty Thai is 2.85 mi. from my house. I got excited! New restaurant… however it’s in West Linn, about 2.85 hours by car (slight exaggeration for symmetry). Someday I’ll have to check out if Sam’s station really is 3 miles away, but i think it might be “as the crow flies.” Next time, I’ll start my Walk Score from the Patisserie…
Bummer - I would have been really excited about a new Thai place as well. Plus, I’m guessing it would have been only .85 mi from my house! Oh well, I guess the internet really isn’t infallible.
I believe that walk score is cool, but nowadays more and more people prefer to drive cars. Homes are often located in an area where some establishments are easier to get to by car than on foot. I’ve recently found a type of service on drivescore.fizber.com which is called Drive Score. It shows a map of what establishments are in your neighborhood and calculates a Drive Score based on the number of places within a convenient driving distance. It doesn’t mean that drive score is better than walk score – they are equal and both necessary in the modern world!