Austin has three of the ten most walkable neighborhoods in the state of Texas (Spring: apartment, condo)

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by IC_deLight

Again, the definition of "walkable" is suspect.
If you mean physically walkable then any list downtown Austin is on isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Try parking near one of those high curbs you can't even get out of the car from in order to "walk". When you are walking the sidewalks and transitions between sidewalks, alleys, and roads are frequently not particularly "walkable". If you just want to circle around the block that the federal courthouse is on then sure it's "walkable" but you won't go anywhere.

Downtown Austin suffers from
bad and confusing signage;
poor transition between sidewalks, alleys, and roads;
poor and unusual road markings;
constant construction obstructions;

I wouldn't hold it out as a model of anything.

This website scores walkability based off of how many amenities are within walking distance of the neighborhood. ADA compliance of the sidewalks is a somewhat related issue, but ease of parking is practically the opposite of the goal of walkability.

[IC_deLight]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

This website scores walkability based off of how many amenities are within walking distance of the neighborhood. ADA compliance of the sidewalks is a somewhat related issue, but ease of parking is practically the opposite of the goal of walkability.

Walking distance implies a path to get there. "Walkability" is a poor choice of word to describe high density retail for people that don't actually walk there and aren't going to buy squat. Urbanophiles would cringe at Tanger Outlet stores because there is a large parking lot. The outlet stores are perfectly "walkable" (much more so than downtown Austin) when you get there - but you aren't going to walk from any "neighborhood" to get there.

The sidewalks and transitions to roads and alleys in Austin go far beyond "not ADA compliant". They are fundamentally poorly suited for walking in much of downtown.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Do you know of a better measure?

No, not off hand, but lack of a better measure does not make that one any good.

It has huge flaws in it - the closest 'school' is often a school administrative office or a therapy center for learning to walk after a stroke, or some completely other (generally) useless site. The score weights 'amenities' by what they feel should be nearby, not what a specific person might personally want. They stopped publishing their 'weights', I think, but book store was on par with grocery store, iirc? Oh, and books - proximity to a porn magazine shop adds points due to your ability to walk to a 'book store'. Proximity to a mattress store is just as important as being close to a hardware store. Your score goes through the roof if you can walk to a dozen different stores selling high-end dresses, fancy hats, and shoes that cost more than my computer.

I spent some time looking at it a while back, and it is pretty much useless for an individual, although MAYBE some use for very high-level and meaningless comparisons....

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by IC_deLight

The sidewalks and transitions to roads and alleys in Austin go far beyond "not ADA compliant". They are fundamentally poorly suited for walking in much of downtown.

I find myself wondering if you have ever been downtown.

I walk there all the time. I don't like to pay for parking, so I'll frequently park outside the metered area and walk 15 or so blocks in.

Downtown is very walkable.

Unlike _everywhere_ else in town, almost every block has sidewalks.

https://austintexas.gov/department/pedestrian-program

And there are minimal missing sidewalks.

https://austintexas.gov/sites/defaul...aft_022416.pdf


And in those rare cases where there happens to be a side missing (or one is shut down due to construction) the other side is invariably available and there is a crossing over in a block.

Contrast this to other areas of town. If there's a sidewalk closure, the safe crossing to the other side might be half a mile away. If the other side even has a sidewalk. It's particularly amusing to see a "Sidewalk Closed" sign with an arrow pointing to the other side, where there is no sidewalk.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by Novacek

I find myself wondering if you have ever been downtown.

Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I feel like they're complaining to be complaining. Most of the sidewalks downtown are wide, have very good visibility at car/pedestrian interfaces, as well as proper signaling and street signs. I can see where some parts of downtown are difficult for handicapped people who can't navigate curbs well, though.

[EMT139]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I feel like they're complaining to be complaining. Most of the sidewalks downtown are wide, have very good visibility at car/pedestrian interfaces, as well as proper signaling and street signs. I can see where some parts of downtown are difficult for handicapped people who can't navigate curbs well, though.

I've been living in downtown Austin for the past three years and within a two mile radius I have everything I need (which translates to up to an hour walking, perfectly doable for me; I like being outdoors even in the peak of summer heat). I don't even have a car. I never felt I've needed it -the amenities and shopping I want, I can easily access walking (maybe a $7 Uber ride once a week).

[AguaDulce]

Rosedale is ranked fairly high, even though it has very few sidewalks, which means walking in the street, as there are many cars parked in front of homes.

Redfin - News Releases

[AguaDulce]

Notably, many Austin drivers are oblivious to these kinds of crosswalks:

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

This website scores walkability based off of how many amenities are within walking distance of the neighborhood. ADA compliance of the sidewalks is a somewhat related issue, but ease of parking is practically the opposite of the goal of walkability.

Originally Posted by Westerner92

Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I feel like they're complaining to be complaining. Most of the sidewalks downtown are wide, have very good visibility at car/pedestrian interfaces, as well as proper signaling and street signs. I can see where some parts of downtown are difficult for handicapped people who can't navigate curbs well, though.

For many of us(especially those of us who had polio and have three screws holding one foot together), "walkability" is rooted in the physical activity. From what I've seen downtown for the past 7 years, much of the area is torn up by construction with sidewalks eliminated(admittedly on a temporary basis usually), shunting the pedestrian traffic across intersections with broken pavement and voids in the surface. Much of this is noticed by cyclists as well. THEN, you get to "neighborhoods" that have no curb, no sidewalks, narrow streets with vehicles parked from one end to the other...hardly what I would call "walkable" in the strict physical sense. Doesn't matter how many organic clothing stores and fair trade coffee shops with free wi-fi are in the area.

[austin-steve]

I agree that the "walk score" is a joke. Downtown Austin is a wreck if "consist reliability" "peaceful unbadgered strolling" were to be a measure. One never knows from one day to the next what sort of street closure or construction might interrupt an established routine, or what sort of chaos one might have to endure. For those into that, great, it's perfect. Personally, I could probably be ok in a downtown condo and walking Town Lake every day, but the city blocks themselves I would find unenjoyable as a daily walk.

My neighborhood (Western Oaks) near Beckett/Davis is extremely walkable from all measures than matter to me and my wife as people who walk a LOT, every day, to many different places. Yet my address ranks very low (in the 30s out of 100). To me, that makes walk-score just as stupid as one of those surveys that tells you which breed of dog you are.

For my low-score house I can walk in less than 15 minutes to a multitude of shops, restaurants, two coffee shops, Alamo Draft House, Dick Nichols Park, a fabulous HEB, two wooded nature trails, a bus stop (morning and evening only though), and Mills Elementary (though we don't have school age kids anymore). I can also enjoy running routes of any distance, cross intersections safely, and will soon be able to bike all the way into Zilker Park in under 1 hour once they finish that bridge of Barton Creek.

Oddly, the apartments on Spyglass near Zilker, which has the #30 bus, and a direct sidewalk to Zilker or the Barton Greenbelt straight to Barton Springs pool and the Barton Springs restaurants just a bit further (about 1 mile) scores even lower than my neighborhood. And it's a location from which someone could easily live a "car-less" lifestyle, and would be walker's paradise both for recreational walkers and destination walkers.

The unreliability of the walkscore is another example of the dumbing down of people.

Instead of journeying to a neighborhood to see for themselves, people will rule out perfectly suitable 'hoods based on an idiotic and useless score. Instead of visiting a school for a tour, and to meet some teachers and get a feel for it watching kids and talking to others, parents will rule out a perfectly good school over some statistical measure score. The more data and information we havem the dumber we are, unless we go see for ourselves, whatever it is.

Dare I say if some numbskull moves to Austin thinking it's "a walkable city", they will be sorely disappointed unless they personally make their own list of what they want to walk to, how often and why, then go find that exact matching neighborhood themselves. And then they might see that the "perfect" location in fact has a low "walk score", and that the walk score is useless.

Steve