Thursday, June 12, 2008

Walkscore Rates Seattle Neighborhoods

Seattle-based Front Seat, a developer of what it calls "civic" software, published a list of what it called the most walkable neighborhoods in Seattle Thursday, and rolled out a new site, Walkscore.com, which shows how walkable neighborhoods in the area are. Front Seat said that it has assigned each of Seattle's 77 neighborhoods a "Walk Score" which calculates how pedestrian friendly neighborhoods are by identifying local grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and other amenities near addresses. According to the firm, Pioneer Square topped its list, followed by Downtown, First HIll, Belltown, and Roosevelt; each neighborhood is assigned a score between 0 and 100 to evaluate walkability of individual addresses. The firm's founder, Mike Matheieu, said in a statement that the site was developed to help people evaluate the walkability of individual addresses as they search for a great place to live.