[Wahlet]

With the price of gas going up, there are probably more people who, like me, want to live in walkable neighborhoods. Walkable meaning: grocery shopping, theaters, parks, libraries, bookstores, hardware stores, schools, work, and other necessities are within walking distance.

In preparing for a move to Wellington, having never been to NZ at all, and planning not to own a car for at least a year, and hopefully indefinitely, I've done a ton of online research to find out which neighborhood to live in. It has been slow going with patchy information on some neighborhoods. However I discovered this website today: http://www.walkscore.com/. EUREKA! It will show you all services available near a given address, and based on distances to those services, calculate a "Walk Score" of zero to a hundred. It will also provide you information on those services. VERY helpful. I just had to share it with y'all.

[benandclare]

Just a paltry 18 here :uhoh

[Milliemoo]

Hi,

You might have to take those scores with a pinch of salt. I just typed in Auckland CBD and it scored 83 whereas Devonport only scored 63.

Maybe it's just a NZ thing, but the info doesn't seem very accurate. It doesn't have a library listed for Devonport or any clothes and music stores or bookstore or the nearest gym.

Great idea if they can update the info though :nice1

Milliemoo

[Wahlet]

Hi Milliemoo,
The WalkScore website says something about the fact that it is US/Canada/UK based but they are expanding to other countries. That might explain what you're seeing (or...not seeing?) :-D

[Milliemoo]

aaahhhhhh that explains it then. It'll be great when it's all finished, mind you, I guess it's one of those things that will constantly need updating.

Wonder how they organise that? :confused:

Milliemoo

[tigerlily]

The thing about Wellington is the hills. It might be a very short distance, but if it's up a very steep hill, you might not get there too quickly. I live in Wadestown which is a very short distance to the CBD, but it's down or up a very steep grade. It does wonders for your endurance though! So far we have not bought a car. The only really tricky things are that I would like to be able to pop over to the beach (a 15 minute drive or 50 minute bus ride- and then the choices are limited of which beaches the bus even goes to) and trying to bring home the groceries for a family of 4. I bought a little trolley, but it's still a different way of shopping then when you have the whole back end of a car to fill up.

[bartons]

Apparently we've got a New World, a library and a hardware store 2 miles from here. We were baffled till it dawned on us:the 2 miles are across the bay. So beware: the walking includes walking on water!

[gpbenton]

The site does seem to have Wellington sorted.

Thorndon 75
Mount Victoria 89
Seatoun 42
Churton Park 25

Those numbers seem about right to me.

[Kim39]

Te Awamutu gets 42......happy with that:nice1


Kim

[mikewalkerfrom]

Brilliant website! The place we're looking at gets 37 :nice1

[Carol]

49 for where we live!
And that includes some mistakes.... so it should actually be better than that!
Cool!

[Rusty]

My current town scored 9! BUT, it seemed to miss our big park in town and a 24 hour Tesco I can walk to in 5 minutes?
I guess you take the score with a large pinch of not fully researched salt.

[Croft]

Where we live in the UK right now scores a ...



...wait for it ....





2 !!!!!! Yes, Two.

[CJ22]

Reading the fine print, the data that forms the score comes from Google. Google's data is mostly user-submitted (in the best Web 2.0 stylee). So the accuracy and completeness of the data is out of their hands. Google's data is patchy, especially for areas with low population.

[dilanium]

Nice, Palmy got a 75!

The town I live in now got a 23.

[Jennispink]

I like it, even if it isn't perfect:)
Where we live now 33
Where we want to live 65:D

[shakyle2906]

Here's ours -

Hastings, NZ scores 52

Neath. where we are from originally scores 33

Sharon

[CJ22]

I did hear that the Streetview (http://books.google.com/help/maps/streetview/) camera-cars were recently spotted in Auckland, so maybe Google Maps will soon have Streetview for Auckland. That should make our house hunting easier!

This is the hotel we stayed in in Miami via street view. Click and move the mouse around to look arojund:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=37.09024,-95.712891&spn=47.167389,92.8125&z=4&om=1&layer=c&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-google-svn&utm_medium=ha

[Mels]

Where I live scores..... 7 out of 100!!!

Mels

[CJ22]

Where I currently work, a big fat ZERO :)

[Mels]

Where I currently work, a big fat ZERO :)

But as you 'work' there, you would have no need of anything around you as one would have their nose to the grindstone, working reeeeally hard and not looking up for a second - wouldn't one? :laugh

[Croft]

Where I currently work, a big fat ZERO :)

Antarctica??

[CJ22]

Not quite. Telford! Yep, it's really like that...

Try it - TF2 9TX

[BkyMonster]

Great find!
Where I live now, have a 12 (good old suburbia), where I work 70. To be fair where I live there is a great bike path and lovely trails...but nowhere to go to! Just walking for the sake of walking.
Not sure where in NZ I'll end up so I'll have a look at this then. :D

[missy+mrmagoo]

Where we used to live in UK - 51
Where we now live in NZ - 0 (and that doesn't include the 300 meter long driveway)
Guess we'll have to keep the car for a while then.

[Tia Maria]

Where we use to live in Camden - 89!

Not sure where you'd have to be to get 100 as we had loads of facilities less than 60 seconds away from us.

Great link!

Cheers

Tia

[Sam B]

Only 45 for Cambridge, which is crazy as it has everything except a cinema. It missed out a lot of services.

[TheLanes]

Great - Cambridge scored 98 out of 100!

[TheLanes]

Whoops - thought it was good - it came up with the wrong Cambridge - Sam B is right only 45!

[thezorbster]

We've gone from a huge 5 where we were in the UK to a whopping 0 here in Hicksville! Sounds about right to me.:D

[Carey]

Another 0 here in Suffolk; suits us fine!

Currently weighing up whether we 'could' live in suburbia which is where it seems is the only place I might get a job.

[castleclan]

18 for my house in Suffolk but went up to 85, 2 minutes walk west!

[CJ22]

Yes, moving to Auckland will basically be an urbanisation for us. We're used to living in the sticks. But we didn't want to risk it straight away in NZ, till we've got a feel for the place.

What parts of Suffolk are you in? We lived between Colchester and Ipswich for several years.

[Carey]

CJ22 have PM'd you.

[JayBee]

Only just found this today - really useful ...many thanks.

[Kerry and David]

Where I live now scored 15 - where I would like to live in NZ scores 37.
K x

[Leccy-Lee]

Only just seen this thread, sorry but where do they get there info from?
Its so wrong surely? I can only assume its worked out on amenities rather than safety etc.. For example.

A quite rural street i grew up on in Sussex UK = 17/100
A well known dangerous street (i never use it at night) in Hastings UK = 89/100

There get people killed they will!

[Caroline and Dave]

0 for us in Dairy flat where the house is being built. 17 for Albany which I find very hard to believe, the shops are only 500 m away.