[aldente]

...namely, that we are sleepwalking into desperate circumstances largely determined by our addiction to oil, our supply of which mostly comes from distant lands full of people who hate us, et cetera
http://kunstler.com/mags_diary13.html

[savethehumans]

People, DO read this week's Kunstler commentary--it's a real eye opener!

[Devil]

Wake me up when he has something new to say, please.

[Wildwell]

http://earth.google.com/

Zoom in and out of the earth, the worlds major cities and large areas on most areas down to car detail level.

Compare the patterns of urban development in LA, New York, London, Barcelona, Paris, Frankfurt, Sydney and Tokyo and so on.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'l')et me guess. The United States is a f##cken suburban wasteland?

[Wildwell]

Well put it like this, you can see why people in the South of the US are worried...

Hatred? Nobody mentioned hatred. It might be an Education for some people though to see why some are more worried than others.

[I_Like_Plants]

It's only available in .exe files!! AARGH!! Why, I'm inclined to march right up the street (OK ride my bike) and go talk to them about that......

[Wildwell]

Well, while you're up there can you tell them to add more detail for the UK as I'm looking for a good place to escape to!

[Lanthanide]

I know there has been a bit of talking about walkable neighborhoods lately.

I just found this site which could be useful: www.walkscore.com

Enter an address and it will use google maps to find nearby businesses/services in the area and give you a score from 1 to 100 in terms of walkability. It uses google maps and should work anywhere in the world that has business information available, not just the US - worked for me in NZ (I got 37/100 for my house).

This needs to be taken with a grain of salt of course - I don't really care how far away the nearest bookstore is, but the nearest doctor could be important. Schools are another problematic item - the nearest school may be single-sex only, or not the right age range, or not as good as the school 2 miles away that you'd rather send your kids to instead.

But it is at least a good start to help in your hunt for a walkable neighborhood.

[Mahmoud]

Just 17 out of 100 for mine. I think it all depends on how far you want to walk. In my case, there is plenty around, but its about 1 km away or more. I think anyhting under 1.6 km is decent.

They really goofed up on the dardware and grocery store scores, they claim my nearest grocery is 12.4 km away!

[blukatzen]

Hi, thanks for posting this!
I got a 68/100 for living in a "neighborhood" in Chicago. (city proper). We're in the NS Bungalow heaven belt, so it's not all apartment complexes around here, more "neighborhood". One can't just scoot down to the corner for something, but maybe 3 to 6 blocks away. It's more of a bike situation in our neighborhood. But then again, I don't have the congestion that due East of me brings with the parking, noise, trendy shops, bars, nightlife.

So, it's a trade-off sometimes.

Blu

[basil_hayden]

0 out of 10.

The nearest anything to me apparently is a school 2.52 miles (~4 km) away.

Perfect.

[emersonbiggins]

My neighborhood scored an 80/100 (with NO sidewalks!!) and I still must dart across a 50-mph arterial to get to most of the businesses listed on the map.

Definitely take the score with a grain of salt. The site doesn't profess to do anything other than measure distance/proximity, and certainly doesn't take into account the width and speed of streets, or even the presence of sidewalks, perhaps the most important characteristic of walkability.

[thuja]

75 and lovin' it

[dinopello]

EB has a good point, although proximity of multiple types of destinations is very fundamental. It does not address walk quality. There is a lot of factors that go into that - everything from infrastructure (connectivity, sidewalks, cross walks) to saftey (driver behavior, crime) to aesthetics (buildings, greenery etc). Walking is a very experience centric way of getting around. There are many academic papers that address it and there are some attempts at bring those factors into a rating scale such as

Walkability Score

One of my favorite blogs had an entry on buildings, which is one of the areas we really suck at in the US in the last 60 years

Close Encounters with Buildings

My location scored an 85, BTW. Mostly well deserved.

[Andrew_S]

I was impressed that it even recognized my mere street address - but wrong town (Helsinki).

Yet more surprised when given the town name in addition to the street it actually found it!

Thing is, it scored a mere 5/100.

Maybe I'm just so used to walking that I don't mind walking to the nearest post office (1 mile about) and pavements (sidewalks) are standard. I often walk to the centre of town (2 miles), just 35 minutes walking (although bus services are good if I'm feeling lazy). I must be some sort of hillbilly according to them or just of some older generation which walked or cycled to school.

Really, where I live is very walkable, if you can walk! (Going on my example, I wonder whether that site is for the mobility challenged, which of course is another issue.)

On edit: okay in fairness, it may due to lack of data in this case.

[Clouseau2]

I scored 94/100!

Of course I live about 3 blocks from downtown in San Francisco

I only use my car once in a while, I take the metro most of the time, or walk or bike!

[kpeavey]

I got a 78. Google apparently is not familiar with this particular part of town. It's walkable...in the daytime...if you carry a knife...and go with a smart, loyal, viscious dog...and a gatling taser...and body armor...bring your insurance card and a medic alert bracelet, if appropriate.

EDIT: Totally wrong, its 51

[Pixie]

My neighborhood got an 83. HOORAY!

Thanks for posting this. I am sending it to all my friends.