Do You Need A Car?

by FrugalBabe on August 22, 2008

So, do you need a car or not?  Here’s a website that will crunch the numbers for you and give you a “walkability” score based on where you live. (found the site thanks to Kristen’s Raw).  I walk or bike just about everywhere.  In the last year, I’ve put less than 2000 miles on my car.  When I do drive, it’s to go out of town (visiting my parents is a 150 mile round trip, and it’s 100 miles to go see my siblings, and I have several friends who live in other towns around the state).  But the majority of the time, I don’t have to leave our town.  I bike to the gym and the bank, and walk to the library, grocery stores, and post office.  I work at home and at the library, so there’s no car involved for work either.  But the walk score website only gave our neighborhood a 38 out of 100!  According to them, we’re “car dependent.”  Wow.  I don’t ever feel like I’m going out of my way to walk or bike around town.  It’s less than a mile to most of the places I go – the bank and the gym are the farthest, at 4 miles.  So my longest roung-trip bike ride is 8 miles.  I can’t imagine how easy getting around would be if I lived somewhere with a score of 70 or 80!  Check it out and see what score you get – you might be surprised.

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  • http://knittingunderway.blogspot.com Theresa

    I don’t know – this just gave my apt a 60, but it called 7-11 a grocery store. Practically speaking, that’s not really working.

  • http://focusorganic.com Stefanie

    Lol! I put my old address in, where my parents and brother still live, and it was given a 0. It’s pretty inaccessible for comfortable walking, but I wasn’t expecting a 0!

  • Kelsey

    That is awesome thanks!

  • FrugalBabe

    7-11 might be stretching things a bit as far as grocery stores go… ;) It found the closest restaurant for us to be a KFC – I had forgotten that was even there, since we’ve never been there, but I guess it is only about a half mile from the house.
    Stefanie – wow! I bet some of the places I lived when I was a kid would get a zero too.

  • Green Me

    I tried our current address, our former address and my previous address (before marriage). Oddly enough with each move we’ve supposedly been “more walkable” according to their score. However, at the least walkable address I was actually car-less and got around great, whereas at our current address I feel car dependent. A big part of that is the lesser walkable neighborhoods were just a few blocks from fantastic bus routes and or bike paths, so I wasn’t dependent on walking. Now we can walk to a grocery store, cheap clothing (Kohls & JC Penny), a book store, and an ancient movie theater, but we have to drive to the Library, the post office, decent restaurants, and so on. Interesting nonetheless and motivation to perhaps stay closer to home. I may not WANT to shop at JC Penny, but maybe that is what I ought to do?

  • http://www.futureunknown.blogspot.com MP

    Wow -
    My primary condo rates 32 while my rental rates a 31. The interesting aspect is that the primary condo is located in the NW Hills of Portland and has no sidewalks. My rental unit is in a more suberban area with no hills, close to a hospital, schools and shopping centers, complete with sidewalks and walking trails – and it only got a score of 31!

  • http://www.bartonfamilyvalues.com Michelle

    I’ve been seriously questioning whether or not I need a car. The problem for me is that we have very snowy, long and extremely cold winters here in PEI, Canada. During the winter it would be difficult to get around for groceries, etc. with the baby on a bus. Plus, our bus system is sooo limited. You might have to go somewhere an hour before you want to just to be there in time. I think I’ll be car dependent at least until my daughter is old enough to walk and follow instructions -then bus trips with bags of stuff will be less difficult.

  • http://acoupleofcooks.wordpress.com April

    Mine is a 2! Despite this, my husband and I decided to not buy a second car when his was totaled earlier this year. It takes some major planning to share one car (esp. since he’s in sales and HAS to have it during the day). They called the run-down convenience store a few miles away a grocery store! I don’t even buy my gas there, but def. NO groceries. The only fresh things in that place are the beer and cigarettes!

    The country suits us, though. We’re building a completely green house, planning on a huge vegetable garden, and frankly, I’m a homebody anyway!

  • rachel

    I think we’ve reached a consensus that the Walkscore site doesn’t produce reliable results. I typed in my last two addresses in the US. One was rated a 15, but there were lots of sidewalks in that neighborhood and I could walk if I had the time. The other was rated 60, but you’d have to be crazy to walk there. There are no sidewalks and the drivers speed around blind curves. Plus, I don’t recall any grocery stores within walking distance, and the university was even further. In my current neighborhood, my husband and I lived car-free for close to two years. But then baby came along and we discovered how unfriendly this city is to babies. Plus, urban sprawl makes it difficult to visit with friends by foot. Still, our car is parked most of the time. That was part of the agreement… and we both prefer to walk when we can!

  • http://www.grovesfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com/ Kelly

    It gave me a 40, and while the grocery store and a everything else was accurate, and everything is close, we live on the fringe of an area that I don’t feel very safe walking through all the time. Also, there are some pretty major roads that don’t always have sidewalks. I think that is the problem with the suburbs, or at least some of the suburbs of Chicago. It seems that they were designed to be walker unfriendly…no sidewalks or walking paths, etc. That said, I do try to walk if I can…or even better, don’t go out unless absolutely necessary.

  • http://www.remodelingthislife.com Emily

    So long as I have a 4 year old and 1 year old, I am going to need a car. My neighborhood got a 25 but gave places like dunkin donuts the pleasure of being called “restaurants”. Our grocery store isn’t that far away, less than 2 miles, but isn’t on a road I’d ever be comfortable riding my bike. There are drawbacks to moving the couple miles closer to town, like my house would drown in a hurricane. I take the benefits of where I live now when I can :)

  • cindy

    I got a 3. I record mileage a lot for business purposes, and I noticed the mileage to various places is not road miles, it’s as the eagle flies. Good luck cutting cross-sountry!

  • Andrea

    My neighborhood ranked a 58 but it seemed a little misleading. It did rank a gas station/convenience store as a grocery store, many of the places were out of business (transient city), and most of all, it doesn’t factor in weather. Living in Las Vegas where it’s 110 degrees can be a little problematic when walking. Even staying hydrated doesn’t seem to be enough.

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