Anne with Cupid’s Arrow

Walkscore is a website that computes and reports how walkable, bicycling friendly and amendable to public transportation a locale is rated. You can enter a simple zip code or complete street address and get your scores. A map of the location’s surrounding area is also displayed and the map is populated with nearby amenity destinations. Playing around with the site, it soon became evident that Walkscore valued running errands over simply walking for exercise. You might live on a perfectly walkable street, but unless you can easily walk to a restaurant, park or store, your area’s score will be low. In order to help to monetize the site, Walkscore also acts as an apartment search engine albeit with an environmentally friendly motif. Still, it is a fun website to take out your address book, maybe while you are compiling your Christmas card list and compare where you live to where your friends and relatives live. On my Christmas card list, Jay and Carl crushes the competition. Living in Seattle’s University neighborhood they win with a walk score of 91, a transit score of 66 and a bike score of 96. This means they live in a “Walker’s Paradise”.