I'm a firm believer in walkability, too, although I am NOT a firm believer in automatic "walk score" calculators.
This town lacks sidewalks. I can't bring myself to call it a city when it's impossible to walk to get places. It was easier to walk in Tempe, and even then, it wasn't especially pleasant to walk. Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. rank high on my list in that regard. Even bicycling becomes inconvenient at points in such cities.
It seems to me that a lot of Texas has been engineered to discourage practical exercise. Lawns are so large that riding lawnmowers are preferred. Things are spread out in such a way that it is challenging to use alternate transportation. The bus system leaves a LOT to be desired. Even Austin, a longtime poster child of bike-friendliness, isn't really a compact city anymore, and most of the people who say they live in Austin actually live in suburbs and clog highways with increasingly longer car commutes.
It is so, so much easier to get exercise when it's built into a daily routine than when it has to be scheduled in. I really feel like children NEED to walk or bike to school.
Re: Opinion question
I'm a firm believer in walkability, too, although I am NOT a firm believer in automatic "walk score" calculators.
This town lacks sidewalks. I can't bring myself to call it a city when it's impossible to walk to get places. It was easier to walk in Tempe, and even then, it wasn't especially pleasant to walk. Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. rank high on my list in that regard. Even bicycling becomes inconvenient at points in such cities.
It seems to me that a lot of Texas has been engineered to discourage practical exercise. Lawns are so large that riding lawnmowers are preferred. Things are spread out in such a way that it is challenging to use alternate transportation. The bus system leaves a LOT to be desired. Even Austin, a longtime poster child of bike-friendliness, isn't really a compact city anymore, and most of the people who say they live in Austin actually live in suburbs and clog highways with increasingly longer car commutes.
It is so, so much easier to get exercise when it's built into a daily routine than when it has to be scheduled in. I really feel like children NEED to walk or bike to school.