Walkability
Aug 10th, 2007 by Oana
With no car or bike in Edinburgh, we walked absolutely everywhere. We lived quite centrally so we walked everywhere in our neighbourhood, of course, but we also walked across town. An hour to the movie theatre at Ocean Terminal? No problem. 7 miles to Asda (Walmart)? Of course. We did sometimes take the bus, at night or when we got too tired to walk back from our destination.
Now that we’re back in Vancouver, we’re finding ourselves reverting to a car-centred lifestyle. It’s not like we live in the suburbs, so we should really be walking more. I like this Google Maps tool called Walk Score, which I found through ParentDish.
Walk Score rates neighbourhoods based on their walkability. Our Edinburgh address scores 75 out of a possible 100 points. Our current place in Vancouver scores an 87. My parents’ place in the suburban boonies scores a measly 13, which is nonetheless almost double Ian’s parents’ score of 7.