Care to take a walk?

My wife and I just returned from a trip overseas, where we walked … everywhere.  We’d take the train between towns, but over the course of a two week period we covered a lot of ground just walking.  It was nice to put down some miles by foot, and it’s no wonder so many Europeans are in great shape.

But it reminded me that walking isn’t just important in other countries.  More and more I’m having clients stress the importance that their new home be close enough to walk to points of interest.  That’s why I recently started adding Walk Score statistics to every single property website I do – if it’s important to buyers I work with, it’s probably important to other buyers, as well.  Now, when you visit a property I have listed, you’ll see the Walk Score for that particular home; the New River Valley isn’t terribly walkable – the average score in Blacksburg is 52 out of 100, and in Christiansburg it’s only 39 out of 100 – but nevertheless it’s important to know whether things like grocery stores, restaurants and local parks are within walking distance.

Each website will have, in the Description, a map showing where the home is located, and how close it is to convenient places.  This house, for instance, has a Walk Score of 34.

It’d be great to see neighborhoods begin to include walking paths and connections to existing trails in their future plans, or even for local governments beginning to require things like sidewalks in their zoning requirements.  There are health benefits, sure, but what about the social aspects of community that are fostered by neighbors just meeting on the street?  The Italians have a word for that – passeggiata – and they participate in it every single night.

Walk Scores aren’t important to everyone, I know, but I suspect we’ll see that continue to change over the next several years.  And who knows – personal flying machines were supposed to be the future, but maybe we’ll get back to a good, well-designed boot.

Mine were made for walking.