How Walkable is Your Community?

I’m here in Fort Collins, CO. to research this as a retirement location. One of our criteria for location (see February post: Retirement Location: Your Criteria) is good transit and a walkable community. Well, I’ve been walking my behind off in Fort Collins! And, while my behind doesn’t actually seem to be getting any smaller, it doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger either. I guess the walking is a good counter balance to all this sitting at my computer. But, seriously, Fort Collins is a very walkable community, especially when combined with transit. I went to look at houses for sale in Old Town West one day and walked 6.5 miles – a 10K! It didn’t seem that far, but when I got back home and plotted my route on www.gmap-pedometer.com, that’s how far I’d gone. I did encounter some uneven sidewalks along the way that may have tripped me up if my vision was bad or if it had been dark. I believe the city is responsible for the repair of sidewalks here in Fort Collins. In the city of Atlanta, however, property owners are responsible and the sidewalks are in terrible shape. That’s not the case in FC.

A walkable community, whether you walk only or combine it with transit, is important as we grow older. It’s essential as we grow old, however. Already, at age 56, I don’t do too much driving at night, especially in the rain and to an unfamiliar destination. And while I drive on Atlanta’s freeways, I know many people my age who prefer not to. When you get to the point where you start fearing driving in the dark, driving on the freeway, driving on mountain roads, it may be time to assess your driving. For me, I don’t drive at night in the rain unless I absolutely have to. At some point as we age, we’re likely to give up or greatly reduce driving, voluntarily or not. The last place I want to be when I can’t drive is in a community where you must have a car to get anywhere. So, when considering YOUR retirement location, consider the walkability of the community and transit, as well.

If you want to find out how walkable your community is, go to www.walkscore.com and look up your state and city for an average score. Fort Collins, CO. scores 50 on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being the most walkable. This makes FC “somewhat walkable.” However, when I type in the address of the place I’m renting, I get a score of 88 – very walkable. My address in Georgia scores 29 – car dependent. So, when you’re considering buying a house, you might want to check the walk score of the address.