How Walkable is Rhode Island?
Thursday, July 28, 2011
You know a good walking neighborhood, town, or even city, when you're in it. But how to assess what makes a place truly walkable?
The smart folks at Walk Score created an algorithm to do just that, and the results are available online. How well did Rhode Island fare? How walkable are we?
Pretty walkable, it turns out. Top tier walkable, in fact.
Rhode Island's overall Walk Score of 59 (out of 100) placed us third overall in the nation, beaten only by the District of Columbia (73) and New Jersey (62).
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAccording to Walk Score, here's how that number translates:
90–100: Walker's Paradise — Daily errands do not require a car.
70–89: Very Walkable — Most errands can be accomplished on foot.
50–69: Somewhat Walkable — Some amenities within walking distance.
25–49: Car-Dependent — A few amenities within walking distance.
0–24: Car-Dependent — Almost all errands require a car.
Each state's overall number was an average of the scores for its largest cities. Rhode Island's for example, was an average of 9 cities (Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Newport, Pawtucket, Providence, Warwick, Westerly, Woonsocket); District of Columbia's winning score reflected its only city's rating, that of Washington, the nation's capital (and a fine place to walk by any standard). New Jersey's score of 62 reflected an average of 61 of its largest cities.
Those city-by-city scores reflect an algorithm created to quantify how easy it is to live, according to Walk Score, "a car-lite lifestyle." This is not, they hasten to add, an assessment of how pretty any particular neighborhood, town, city, or state is for walking.
The Rest of New England: Pretty Walkable
Rhode Island crowned the New England states, with its closest competitors being Massachusetts (whose 72 largest cities created an average score of 54) and Vermont (whose 2 largest cities averaged out to 53). Again, the rural nature of a state is irrelevant; only the walkability of its largest cities. Rounding out the region were Connecticut (48), Maine (46) and New Hampshire (45).
The Least Walkable States
And remember: heat has nothing to do with it. Arizona sat at the very bottom of this year's list, with an average score of 29. Keeping it company down in the ranking's basement were Tennessee (30), Alabama (31), Alaska (32), Arkansas (32), and Mississippi (33).
The Walk Score Algorithm
Walk Score's algorithm awards points based on the distance to amenities in a variety of categories. Amenities with .25 mile receive maximum points, and no points were awarded for amenities farther than one mile.
Walk Score uses a variety of data sources including Google, Education.com, Open Street Map, and Localeze. Like any good data source in a world of wiki, Walk Score encourages users of its site to add and remove places to make a local score even more accurate.
For all the details on how the methodology works, there's a white paper to read, here.
