Our home in suburban Columbia: NOT walkable.
I was playing around with “walkability” scores for my current (and some prior) addresses at Walk Score.
- Current House (Columbia, SC): 3
- Indiana Condo (outskirts of Bloomington, IN): 3
- Where I grew up (West Chester, OH): 15 (and that’s much better than it used to be!)
- My in-laws (Salem, OR): 31
- Boston Apartment (Charlestown, MA): 78
This isn’t a completely accurate representation, since we have a vast outdoor mall just over a mile away from us with gobs of things in it — Columbia is far more walkable than our Bloomington Condo (fondly known as “ass end of nowhere”) was. I wouldn’t consider that walkable for everyday “oh gosh I need a cup of milk for that recipe” errands, but it is if you’re planning on doing a lot of shopping. It’s the carrying-things-home that would be a problem!
In any case, it’s an interesting toy to play with, and can definitely be worth looking at if you’re moving and are torn between a few good places.
