Island Home and Springbrook may have low walk scores in this aspect, but they both sure are beautiful and convenient neighborhoods.

Looking at their "how it works" page, it's less about "taking a walk" v. nearby destinations.

Island Home and Springbrook can't be beat for taking a walk. Not so much if you're walking to a grocery store.

Island Home used to be more convenient. There were two groceries two blocks apart on Sevier Ave. right where Island Home starts. And a drug store, and a hardware/dry goods store. (It's a bit of a haul from there to the boulevard, but I walked it a million times as a kid.)

Thank you for posting this... I'd missed it.

It should be our goal to make our communities more human-scaled and pedestrian friendly. A great start would be incorporating sidewalks and greenways into all road projects at every level. The costs of sidewalks and greenways are negligible within these budgets. These are common sense solutions to making Knoxville an even better, more livable community.

This is very interesting. My neighborhood, Lincoln Park, is a 38. My guess is in reality that it's lower because the railroad is between me and some of the places they name. Also, they say Sharp's Ridge is a quarter mile from the house, but that's as the crow flies when to actually get into the park I'd have to go out to Broadway and take the road into the park.

My hometown, Harriman, was rate 42, but I couldn't get my childhood address. And, like Randy, I did a lot of walking as a child from the house to the grocery to the drug store. A bit of a hike, but once I got into elementary school, I was my mama's errand runner.

I agree with Scott that more things should be built in so that walking was safer and would make it feasible to get to some places, which would maybe bring some of them back.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Pam, some of those things you mention and others are listed under "what it doesn't do" such as take into account public transportation, layout of streets, highways that divide neighborhoods (JWP comes to mined), and bodies of water that might require swimming across.

Maybe a good (or better?) purpose for the site is looking at places that already have density of services withing walking distance and focusing efforts on pedestrian-friendly improvements to make them more walkable.

Yeah, I saw the caveats. I like the idea of seeing what goes one with the places that have high ratings and then attempting to replicate those things.

The other thing I'll note that the library closest to me, would require crossing Broadway.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Our address in Fourth and Gill scored a 62. Interesting site. Need to spend a bit more time with it.

According to my walk score (15) map, there is a Captain D's restaurant just south of the Montlake intersection on Alcoa Highway--would be only a .24 mile walk if it actually existed.

Actually... the kudzu is pretty thick through that area, so I suppose it's possible!