How walkable is your neighborhood? How does its walkability compare to other areas? If you live in one of Savannah’s historic neighborhoods, would you consider it to be more walkable than, say, an apartment complex on the Southside’s busiest traffic artery?

The results provided by the Web site Walk Score, might surprise you. Essentially a Google Maps mash-up, Walk Score assigns a walkability value to an area by plotting the proximity of grocery stores, coffee shops, schools, parks and other amenities, including bars (which some folks might not consider neighborhood assets). To determine the walkability of an individual property, simply enter a street address and zip code and watch as the score is returned.

I keyed in the address of my house, which is located on the eastern side of the Chatham Crescent neighborhood. My walk score is 34, landing me in the “Not Walkable” category, which Walk Score describes this way: “Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.” And in fact, my Walk Score is artificially inflated due to bad information used in the calculation. For example, the now-defunct Caledonian is identified as the closest bar and Hari’s, a Waters Avenue scratch-off ticket dispensary and neighborhood eyesore, is identified as a grocery store. Smith Brothers IGA, which relocated to Skidaway Island years ago, also makes the list. I think my score is further propped up by the abundance of parks and schools nearby. Walk Score’s “How it doesn’t work” page acknowledges that the accuracy of the score depends on the quality of the data in the Google Maps API, which clearly isn’t always up to date.

For comparison, I ran the Walk Score of English Oaks Apartments, located on Abercorn Street south of Montgomery Crossroad. It received a 58, placing it in the “Some Walkable Locations” with “some stores and amenities are within walking distance,” although “many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.”

How can that be? Surely walking alongside six lanes of speeding cars isn’t preferable to strolling beneath the live oak canopy of the Washington Avenue. The difference in scores points out another limitation of the Walk Score formula, which is disclosed fully on the site:

There are a number of factors that contribute to walkability that are not part of our algorithm:

Street width and block length: Narrow streets slow down traffic. Short blocks make it easier to navigate the grid.

Safety: How much crime is in the neighborhood? How many traffic accidents are there? Are crosswalks well marked and streets well lit?

Pedestrian-friendly design: Are there walking paths? Are buildings close to the sidewalk with parking in back? Are sidewalks shaded by trees?

Topography: Hills can make walking difficult, especially if you’re carrying groceries.

Public transit: Good public transit is important for walkable neighborhoods.

Freeways and bodies of water: Freeways can divide neighborhoods. Swimming is harder than walking.

Weather: In some places it’s just too hot or cold to walk regularly.

Despite these limitations, I found that Walk Score is useful in taking broader surveys of neighborhood walkability. I entered the address of a Jones Street apartment I rented in the late 1990s. The 94 out of 100 score is not a surprise and indeed living on Jones Street is probably as close as you can get in Savannah to living in a “Walkers’ Paradise” where “most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.”

By contrast, I tried the addresses of a dozen or so houses for sale in “master planned” and “premier lifestyle” developments in west Chatham County. Six was the highest Walk Score I could get for any of these properties and most received a score of zero, making them “Driving Only” areas where “virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!” So when one development’s Web site enthuses that shops, restaurants and amenities are “just minutes way” it’s certain that those minutes will be spent behind the wheel.

Walk Score is a good place to get an aerial view of how mixed use development can make neighborhoods more sustainable and less car-dependent. For those who really want to delve into the details of neighborhood walkability, there are more sophisticated instruments available from organizations such as the Pedestrian and Bicycle information Center and Walkable Communities.

Despite my neighborhood’s low score, I’m heartened by the fact that by simply introducing a bicycle into the equation, I can dramatically increase the number of the destinations I can reach without using a motorized vehicle. That naturally started me thinking about a Bike Score site. Looks like someone else was thinking the same thing.