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View Poll Results: I would rather live in a
Single-family detached home 66 56.90%
Condo/townhome/apartment in a dense walkable neighborhood 50 43.10%
Voters: 116. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-29-2016, 01:39 PM
 
473 posts, read 520,694 times
Reputation: 1034

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Logicist027 View Post
Walkable neighborhoods and single family detached homes don't work unless you all want to stuff yourself in a house. The only place where it really exists is in San Fran where multiple people shack up together. This is hardly repeatable. This is why most of the US scores terrible on walk scores.
Quite obvious.
What do you mean by "stuff yourself into a house?" My neighborhood is walkable and homes are about 1500-2500 sq ft. with lot sizes of about 4-500 sq ft. We're hardly "stuffed." You can't have large estates and walkability, but you can certainly have reasonably sized SFHs.
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Old 10-29-2016, 02:00 PM
 
97 posts, read 122,798 times
Reputation: 41
Austin TX is really walkable. It's amazing
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Old 10-29-2016, 02:17 PM
 
27,167 posts, read 43,857,618 times
Reputation: 32199
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logicist027 View Post
Walkable neighborhoods and single family detached homes don't work unless you all want to stuff yourself in a house. The only place where it really exists is in San Fran where multiple people shack up together. This is hardly repeatable. This is why most of the US scores terrible on walk scores. Quite obvious.
If one zooms in on WalkScore maps one can see where many established older neighborhoods chock full of single family homes in many cities across the country are in fact quite walkable (with scores of 70-75+), to downtown areas, grocery stores, restaurants and shops. It's not something relegated to high density housing in the mega cities and can be found all the way down to small towns as well. Examples off the top of my head...

Chapel Hill NC
Charlottesville VA
Durham NC
Asheville NC
Columbia SC
Arlington VA
Alexandria VA
Rockville MD
Bethesda MD
Bryn Mawr PA
Jenkintown PA
Bloomington IN
Columbus OH

With many more, the list goes on and on.
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Old 10-29-2016, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles
783 posts, read 694,464 times
Reputation: 961
Durham walks score 28
https://www.walkscore.com/NC/Durham

Chapel Hill walk score 35
https://www.walkscore.com/NC/Chapel_Hill

Charlottesville VA walk score 58 (finally above a 50 which is listed as "somewhat walkable")
https://www.walkscore.com/VA/Charlottesville

Asheville walk score 36
https://www.walkscore.com/NC/Asheville

Columbia walk score 36
https://www.walkscore.com/SC/Columbia

Arlington walk score 68 (best one, still "somewhat walkable")
https://www.walkscore.com/VA/Arlington

Rockville walk score 53

Columbus OH walk score 40

Bloomington walk score 40


Obviously these places are not that great for walkability. None could even reach a 70 C- score. Sure, if you lived directly downtown then you would have walkability. But obviously most people are not living in that way, otherwise this wouldn't be the case.

And how many people are moving to these cities? Where are people moving to? Texas, places like Austin which scores a 39 on walk score. None could support a subway, they might barely have a light rail. This is not a serious argument that Americans are favoring walkability.

Is anyone going to seriously argue that Texas cities are walkable? Yet they are where everyone is moving. The NC triangle is not walkable, Nasheville- not walkable.
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Old 10-29-2016, 02:56 PM
 
943 posts, read 781,989 times
Reputation: 587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logicist027 View Post
Walkable neighborhoods and single family detached homes don't work unless you all want to stuff yourself in a house. The only place where it really exists is in San Fran where multiple people shack up together. This is hardly repeatable. This is why most of the US scores terrible on walk scores.
Quite obvious.
I have no idea what you are talking about. Walkable just means you can walk to transit and shops. It doesn't mean dense or urban. Most neighborhoods made before the second world war are walkable and they are for the most part still low density and have single detached homes.

A lot of US cities could be made walkable if:

1. Put garages in the rear or side rather than the front
2. Decrease set backs
3. Sidewalks on all roads/streets
4. Place stores through out city/town rather than just in the middle of nowhere that can only be reached via car
5. crosswalks/medians/islands on all roads where appropriate
6. Put parking in rear, side, or underground for stores especially big box stores.
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Old 10-29-2016, 03:09 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles
783 posts, read 694,464 times
Reputation: 961
Quote:
Originally Posted by moionfire View Post
I have no idea what you are talking about. Walkable just means you can walk to transit and shops. It doesn't mean dense or urban. Most neighborhoods made before the second world war are walkable and they are for the most part still low density and have single detached homes.

A lot of US cities could be made walkable if:

1. Put garages in the rear or side rather than the front
2. Decrease set backs
3. Sidewalks on all roads/streets
4. Place stores through out city/town rather than just in the middle of nowhere that can only be reached via car
5. crosswalks/medians/islands on all roads where appropriate
6. Put parking in rear, side, or underground for stores especially big box stores.
Transit and shops are highly dependent on density. If people want to try to dislodge density from walkability, fine then. But you are making a fundamentally wrong assertion.

If people seriously believe this, then LA is a walkers paradise. BTW it scored a 66 on walk score, so it would beat plenty of other places. Yet somehow, people think it is so car-dependent and so on.
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Old 10-29-2016, 03:58 PM
 
473 posts, read 520,694 times
Reputation: 1034
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logicist027 View Post
Transit and shops are highly dependent on density. If people want to try to dislodge density from walkability, fine then. But you are making a fundamentally wrong assertion.

If people seriously believe this, then LA is a walkers paradise. BTW it scored a 66 on walk score, so it would beat plenty of other places. Yet somehow, people think it is so car-dependent and so on.
Well, there's a big difference between a walkable neighborhood and a walkable city.

You mention LA. There are plenty of neighborhoods in LA where you can get by without a car ... if you never venture to another zip code. The reason LA is so car-dependent is because mass transit is inadequate and your job could be five miles from your home. That's a key difference between LA and New York.

There's no reason that LA couldn't put in a mass transit system (besides the obvious one: cost) because it has the population numbers to support it. Same thing with Atlanta. But it has nothing to do with houses vs. apartments. For instance, in large parts of Queens (the NYC borough), most people live in houses. But it's still walkable and you can still get around without a car -- like, really get around without a car -- because the infrastructure is there.
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Old 10-29-2016, 04:00 PM
 
93,189 posts, read 123,783,345 times
Reputation: 18253
Quote:
Originally Posted by moionfire View Post
You can live in a walkable neighborhood with single detached homes. Your question is loaded.
Exactly and this is an example: https://goo.gl/maps/vixhDUuuNHH2 It is literally walking distance from a business district and other businesses/places in that neighborhood. It is also walking distance from a major university and a bus line as well.
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Old 10-29-2016, 04:06 PM
 
8,090 posts, read 6,955,059 times
Reputation: 9226
I live in a detached home, in a neighborhood with a walk score of 88.
https://www.walkscore.com/PA/Pittsburgh/Shadyside

My specific house has a walk score of 94.
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Old 10-29-2016, 04:08 PM
 
Location: Seattle aka tier 3 city :)
1,259 posts, read 1,404,481 times
Reputation: 993
Quote:
Originally Posted by Logicist027 View Post
Transit and shops are highly dependent on density. If people want to try to dislodge density from walkability, fine then. But you are making a fundamentally wrong assertion.

If people seriously believe this, then LA is a walkers paradise. BTW it scored a 66 on walk score, so it would beat plenty of other places. Yet somehow, people think it is so car-dependent and so on.
Ummm you do know that LA is 2nd or 3rd densest city in the country right?
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