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The walk score seems to be off at times based on our perceptions of the area. Ditto for the transit score.
But if this system of rating is based on absolutes, it makes more sense. 100 would be the very best location, and a 0 would be the worst.
My transit score is a 64... even though there is a train station less than a one minute leisurely amble away. Shouldn't my transit score be like a 80, 90, or 95 with a station so close that functions in a system that will take me anywhere via train or bus? Not really if we're talking about absolutes.
The intersection of Clark St. and Lake St. in Chicago has a walk score of 100 and a transit score of 100. Why? It has direct access to the Blue, Brown, Green, Orange, Pink and Purple train lines, and the Red line is only two streets to the East. Red and Blue run 24 hours a day, also a plus. Plus a lot of buses stop at that intersection, some are express, and some are 24 hours as well.
And up in my little ol' neighborhood I only have direct, immediate access to a single train line that runs 20-21 hours a day. Getting to a bus would be about a 5 minute walk in any direction, and only one of those bus routes is 24 hours. Even though I can get to the perfect 100 intersection with my train line (no transfers), and a bus ride to transfer to a different train line, I still don't have the number of lines immediately available to me.
When taking into account absolute numbers, my transit score of 64 makes sense, even though my transit option is ridiculously easy to get to and gets me anywhere else I need to go. But looking at it from a relative, subjective view point I would disagree with the official score and give my location at least a 90. If a bus came down my street, I would bump my relative, subjective score up to 100.
If a bus came down my street, thinking in absolutes, I could only see my transit score jump to 75, maybe 80 at most.
Well, what constitutes 100? A transit stop in your driveway? Four transit stops in the driveway? I mean, I am .18 miles from a major transit stop, and I get a 32? My daughter walked from that transit stop almost every day in middle school. It's an easy walk. I'm also less than a mile from several other transit stops.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 04-28-2012 at 07:40 AM..
Did you not read my post? Or if you did, did you just gloss over the intersection that I posted as a perfect hundred on both walkability and transit?
Clark Street and Lake Street, Chicago, Illinois 60601, United States of America, North America, Western Hemisphere, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, The Universe... to be exact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
A transit stop in your driveway?
Would that not make for a very easy transit experience? I would think that would raise the score some.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
I mean, I am .18 miles from a major transit stop, and I get a 32?
I can throw a baseball and hit people walking into the train station from my apartment... and I got a 64. If you were 0.1 miles from that stop, your score would probably be higher. If you were 0.05 miles from that stop, it would be even higher. And, if for some reason, it was in your driveway, that number would be even higher.
Is that the only major stop within 0.18 miles from you? Do multiple lines run to that single point? In a relative, subjective sense, it may be very high scoring to you. But from an objective, absolute standpoint, it probably isn't as close as it could be and probably doesn't offer the variety of routes, let alone modes of transit, that would raise the score.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
My daughter walked from that transit stop almost every day in middle school. It's an easy walk. I'm also less than a mile from several other transit stops.
That's subjective. What is not subjective is distance to transit and modes of transit available.
Well, what constitutes 100? A transit stop in your driveway? I mean, I am .18 miles from a major transit stop, and I get a 32? My daughter walked from that transit stop almost every day in middle school. It's an easy walk. I'm also less than a mile from several other transit stops.
A mile is not an exceptionally walk able distance. 20 minutes time. My apt that scored 100 was in a small town of 12000 but within a 5 minute walk of all goods and services, parks, and whatever criteria is used. Not councidentally, the town has an anti big box stance and has not sprawled put too bad. Also not coincidentally, it is the regional employment hub - and most jobs have ren kept downtown. I don't think transit is given much weight in the calculation because there wasn't very much of it in the town.
You can look walkscore's metrics up if you're curious how they come up with the scores. Maybe this will put hints in proper perspective:
If I was in my old apt (100) and I needed something from the hardware store, grocery store, post office and bank, I could walk to all be back home in 20 minutes. Where I live now (68) is probably30. Im betting you can't accomplish all those tasks in the same amount of time by walking in Louisville. How long would it take - an hour? Two?
A mile is not an exceptionally walk able distance. 20 minutes time. My apt that scored 100 was in a small town of 12000 but within a 5 minute walk of all goods and services, parks, and whatever criteria is used. Not councidentally, the town has an anti big box stance and has not sprawled put too bad. Also not coincidentally, it is the regional employment hub - and most jobs have ren kept downtown. I don't think transit is given much weight in the calculation because there wasn't very much of it in the town.
You can look walkscore's metrics up if you're curious how they come up with the scores. Maybe this will put hints in proper perspective:
If I was in my old apt (100) and I needed something from the hardware store, grocery store, post office and bank, I could walk to all be back home in 20 minutes. Where I live now (68) is probably30. Im betting you can't accomplish all those tasks in the same amount of time by walking in Louisville. How long would it take - an hour? Two?
Perhaps you missed the part where I said under a mile from several transit stops and .18 mile from a main stop.? .18 mile is under two-tenths of a mile. It's about a five minute walk. You can see it from my front door. From there, one can get a bus into Boulder, the county's main city and the location of a lot of jobs.
Perhaps you missed the part where I said under a mile from several transit stops and .18 mile from a main stop.? .18 mile is under two-tenths of a mile. It's about a five minute walk. You can see it from my front door. From there, one can get a bus into Boulder, the county's main city and the location of a lot of jobs.
Perhaps you missed the point that access to transit might not have much weight in walkscores metrics. Because if a bus doesnt run on Sundays, or is subject to service cuts or something, guess what - your place isn't walk able anymore.
Perhaps you missed the point that access to transit might not have much weight in walkscores metrics. Because if a bus doesnt run on Sundays, or is subject to service cuts or something, guess what - your place isn't walk able anymore.
Did walkscore look at the bus schedules? I didn't see that in a cursory glance at the metrics. In any event, the route I am 5 min. away from runs 7 days a week, weekdays from about 5:30 AM to 10:30 PM, Saturdays and Sundays (slightly different schedule each day) from about 7AM to 9-10 PM. I don't think there are any service cuts planned, and anyway how would walkscore know what's in RTD's future plans. We have had this bus service for at least 30 years now; it may change a bit but I don't think it's going away; it's a proven route. I thought we were talking about walkscore's "transitscore" program.
Well, what constitutes 100? A transit stop in your driveway? Four transit stops in the driveway? I mean, I am .18 miles from a major transit stop, and I get a 32? My daughter walked from that transit stop almost every day in middle school. It's an easy walk. I'm also less than a mile from several other transit stops.
Not a place that has driveways for one thing.
Did you see my post earlier? Even "excellent" is only in the 70s. A perfect score is for a center city where lots of transit lines converge. While I think TransitScore is flawed, I think it makes sense to distinguish these places.
Did you see my post earlier? Even "excellent" is only in the 70s. A perfect score is for a center city where lots of transit lines converge. While I think TransitScore is flawed, I think it makes sense to distinguish these places.
Lots of houses in Denver have driveways. We rented a tri-plex in Denver (Sloan's Lake) that had a driveway and an attached garage.
If walkscore is to be useful, it should focus on residential areas, IMO. I mean, it's nice to know that if you get to downtown Denver, you can get a bus around town, but it's also nice to know where you can go from home.
Lots of houses in Denver have driveways. We rented a tri-plex in Denver (Sloan's Lake) that had a driveway and an attached garage.
If walkscore is to be useful, it should focus on residential areas, IMO. I mean, it's nice to know that if you get to downtown Denver, you can get a bus around town, but it's also nice to know where you can go from home.
Eh. That has nothing to do with what I said.
I meant the very high transit score numbers are in centers of cities (see previous posts) not a residential neighborhood with driveway. Centers of cities have much more transit lines converging to a point so this makes sense in its own way (see previous posts).
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