Some while ago I wished aloud that the internet has a site that would give walking directions. To my knowledge this has not yet occured, but something along those lines has made an appearance: WalkScore, a site that purports to tell you how walkable your neighbourhood is.
This is both good and misguided. It’s good because it’s the sort of tool that I’d want to investigate a neighbourhood that I’d be moving into, giving as it does a nice summary of the various businesses and services nearby. The walkability rating, I guess, is computed from the density of points of interest.
It’s misguided because proximity is only part of the story. Having things nearby doesn’t make them accessible; when I look up the address of my last apartment, I can see on the map how it’s counting as “near” things that are on the opposite side of an interstate highway. Likewise, it’s not at all uncommon around here for major roads not to have sidewalks of any sort, so the fact there’s a grocery store less than a mile away doesn’t mean it’s in any way walkable (since, in the particular example I have in mind, you have to cross eight lanes of highway to get from apartment to grocer).
Still, it’s a start.