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Walk Score lands in the NYT: Last summer, a trio of Seattle software developers started walkscore.com, which calculates the number of potential destinations within walking distance of any given address and then produces a rating. If your neighborhood scores 90 or above, you can easily live there without a car; if it scores under 25, you’ll be driving to the backyard. More than a million addresses were searched in the...

This fall, the Sightline research shop has been cranking out a bunch of new maps, analyses, and tools on timely Northwest issues—from climate to property rights. To help you keep track, here’s a cheatsheet on what’s new. Share them, use them, tell us what you think. (Quick reminder: All graphics are downloadable in several versions.) Why transportation matters so much in Northwest climate policy: Visual evidence of why transportation emissions...

When my wife and I bought our house, the yard was typical for our neighborhood: a mostly barren plain of lawn so sunbaked that you could bounce a tennis ball off it. So being eco-groovy types, we’ve tried to improve the place: we put in a rain barrel, built a natural drainage system, and added topsoil planting berms. But I’m most proud of the trees we’ve planted: a pair of akebono...

My house gets a 77 out of 100; my office, a 92. Want to know how walkable your neighborhood is? Or the neighborhood you’re thinking of living in? Go to walkscore.com. Three Seattle uber-hackers, Jesse Kocher, Matt Lerner, and Mike Mathieu, built this addicting new website. It maps the closest grocery store, restaurant, and several other businesses you might walk to from any address in the United States or Canada....

A collection of research and solutions–including walkscore.com–for creating walkable communities and why it’s important.

A one-mile walk in this urban neighborhood, Seattle’s Phinney Ridge, takes you through a gridlike street network with a mix of residences and businesses. This walkable design puts stores and services within a short walk of many homes. (The walkability maps and information presented in Cascadia Scorecard 2006 were developed by Dr. Lawrence Frank, Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues Dr. James Sallis...

2007 update: Inspired in part by this post, a Sightline friend/tech whiz created Walk Score, an online tool to explore and score your neighborhood’s walkability. Check your score and comment on it ! Last week, I displayed the wreckage of our 1986 stationwagon; this week, its replacement: our 1996 Burley stroller/bike trailer. (It’s Cascadia-made in Eugene, Oregon.) The kids have long-since outgrown the thing. But since we decided to experiment...