walkable communities

This post features actual research. Well, by my low standards, it's research. Following a conversation I had with a friend a few days ago, where I was critical of the walkable character of Quincy, Massachusetts, I spent a few minutes on WalkScore.com "testing" how pedestrian friendly certain communities are.  Quincy, with a rating of 85, is considered very walkable. Some of the other followers of this blog (yes, I know where you live and work, those of you who work, that is) live in considerably less walkable places.

I am critical of WalkScore's methodology and results. Their algorithm seems to catalogue the relative density and diversity of public and private amenities like schools, shops, banks, hair salons, as measured from a fixed zip code datum. This zip code datum, which generalizes and condenses the broad sweep of a geographical human settlement into a convenient, fixed point, is biased towards any major type of population center. Houston, Texas and Dayton, Ohio are considered walkable communities, and if you have a residence near the downtown area, then this is true. However, most people do not live near the "main drag" where most businesses and public resources are located. This is especially true for Quincy, where several commercial clusters dominate certain arteries and the major blocks of residential neighborhoods, consisting of one and two family dwellings, surround these amenity zones. A ten minute walk from my house lets me get to a multitude of amenities, but I still own, and to a certain extent, depend on an automobile.