WalkScore.com announced recently its list of the top 10 Most Walkable Cities in the US.

San Francisco took top honors, followed by New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington DC, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. Walk Score only factors in the number of grocery stores, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, stores, etc., to decide how walkable a neighborhood is. Anything over one mile doesn’t factor into the score. They don’t include street width or design, safety, sidewalks, clustering, topography, water or weather, all factors that greatly influence how walkable a neighborhood is. I entered my home address at the site to get my neighborhood’s score, and it was no surprise to see 23 out of 100, a score in the lowest range possible. But what surprised me was that there was any score at all. The site offered a list of every kind of store, restaurant, school, park, etc., that it could find in my area. I live less than a mile from two grocery stores, nine restaurants, two bars, one elementary school, one bookstore, one library, three pharmacies and a yoga studio. And, as much as I would love to, I would never dream of walking to any of these places. There isn’t a single sidewalk in my community. Our roads are winding and hilly, making it dangerous enough for car traffic, let alone pedestrians.

Comments left on MarketWatch.com on this story seem to share my sentiment. Those who live in the less-walkable areas of cities such as LA and San Francisco seem to be baffled by these results, while those who live in the parts of cities where it’s easy to get around on foot celebrate what they’ve always known. While it’s clear that Walk Score isn’t using an inclusive method to determine walkability, it’s good to see this story garnering the attention it’s getting, from a spot on NPR to appearing in the Wall Street Journal. This kind of attention and public reaction shows that people want to live in walkable communities, and that people want an alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles.