Monday, September 8, 2008

Reasons to Be Car Free in DC #9: Walkability

Walk to: movies, haircut, school, groceries, clothes, beer/wine, pizza, pupusas, laundry, coffee, hardware, car share, and more! All his adds up to a high "Walk Score" on walkscore.com for Mount Pleasant. According to the website, we aren't even the most walkable neighborhood in DC. The Mount P score seems to be a bit low at 77/100, but I understand why Dupont is higher: buses galore, Metro, full service groceries, all of Connecticut Ave, et cetera. But Mount Pleasant shows pretty well. The ratings don't always seem on point. For example, all of Southwest gets an 81/100. If you've been, you know its barely drivable, let alone walkable. FYI, Dupont, with a 99/100 rating, is one of the most walkable neighborhoods in the nation. Not surprisingly, the most walkable are in New York City.

Occasionally I get neighborhood envy and venture out to A/M or Columbia Heights for wants and needs, but most of the time I realize that we pretty much have it all here in terms of necessities. As long as you can get tp when your roommate forgets (always the roommate, eh), a bottle of wine for guests on short notice, or a nice meal out when you don't feel like cooking, you should be happy. Well, we have all that and more. Having a car is nice if you need to get somewhere like Georgetown in a hurry (I know, an exreme and unlikey scenario) or buying an HDTV from Best Buy (what, you don't want to walk it down Irving Street?). Car share and cabs are apporpriate for those instances. Otherwise our walkability is reason number 9 to be car free in DC.