New Haven Green, Downtown New Haven - Photo by CTVisit.com
What is a Walk Score?
A Walk Score, put simply, rates how pedestrian-friendly a home’s location is based on how many errands can reasonably be accomplished on foot. You may have come across it on popular real estate listing platforms online, and the concept of walkability is only growing in popularity.
Many homeowners are looking to move to walkable neighborhoods for a variety of reasons – health & environmental benefits usually top the list – and they often use a Walk Score to guide their decision.
The Walk Score is an algorithm, made to determine the ease of walking to nearby amenities. It considers all amenities within a 30-minute walking radius as “walkable”, with maximum points given to those within 5 minutes. From there, a score is given to each property based on that calculation.
The concept behind the score makes sense on paper, but how accurate are they in practice? Can you rely on a Walk Score to lead your next move into a neighborhood where everything is genuinely walkable?
The Walk Score, introduced in 2007, aimed to measure location walkability based on proximity to amenities.
How Accurate is the Walk Score for CT Neighborhoods?
Take a second to picture a walkable neighborhood in your mind’s eye. What do you see? Likely, it’s small shops, restaurants spilling onto tree-lined sidewalks, lots of people, and slow-moving traffic. Everything feels within reach. It tends to be a pretty clear picture as we have a pretty good sense of what a pedestrian-friendly area looks like.
Yet, when we look at areas with supposedly high walk scores, this isn’t what we see.
CT’s 'Top' Scored Areas
Hartford County’s ‘most walkable’ census block is in the area known as Bishop’s Corner, a center with access to a diverse selection of amenities, including grocery stores, restaurants, retailers, salons, and even municipal buildings.
It sounds like a place that would be highly walkable... until we take a look at its street view:
Bishop's Corner – West Hartford, CT
Instead of narrow streets lined with shops, we’re faced with vast parking lots fronting enormous big-box stores. Walking to and from them would seem to take an eternity – even without mentioning having to compete with four lanes of fast-moving traffic.
Tolland County’s neighborhood with the highest Walk Score is even more puzzling. The intersection of Hartford Turnpike & Grove Street measures as the county’s most walkable census block, but a look around reveals a surprisingly barren scene.
True – coffee shops, restaurants, and shopping are all within a short distance of the crossroads – but this area doesn’t feel walkable at all.
Hartford Turnpike & Grove Street, Tolland, CT
Where to Find Truly Walkable Neighborhoods in Connecticut
These cases seem to reveal a broader conclusion: the Walk Score can be, and often is, tricked. Simple proximity often paints an incomplete picture, missing more subjective feelings of closeness and ease. So this begs the question – where can we find truly walkable areas in Connecticut, that come closer to our idyllic picture?
The answer might lie on Main Street.
While Walk Scores can provide a helpful starting point in assessing a neighborhood’s walkability, they often overlook elements of the pedestrian experience – safe, inviting streets and a sense of community. The most walkable areas in CT might not have the highest Walk Scores, but they can be found along our state’s main streets, where local shops, slower traffic, and pedestrian-friendly spaces combine.
If you’re searching for a truly walkable neighborhood in CT, these might be the places to look.
