...there is an upside! No, really! I live and work in St. Paul, which has a great "walk score". If you don't know what this is, you may be hearing more and more about it in the near future, as people look for ways to avoid driving. Click on the link above, and you can see that St. Paul's walk score is 82 out of 100-- a very good score. In comparison, Manhattan gets a walk score of 86, Chicago is 98, and the nearest suburb to my office, Eagan, MN gets a score of 38, or "Car Dependent". There's no question that an urban area is going to tend to have a better walk score than a suburb or very rural area. Walking and biking are going to become more and more important in the future as people choose to avoid driving not only for economic reasons, but also as they adopt more environmentally friendly and active lifestyles.
Yes, paying $4 a gallon for gas hurts, but it may be a new reality for our country, and the upside is that people who live in urban areas have the choice to drive less. We can walk or bike more and encourage our city leaders to continue to pass initiatives that support walking and biking. If you don't live in an urban area, consider it an option the next time you decide to make a move! And of course, if you're moving to the lovely cities of St. Paul or Minneapolis, be sure you drop me a line!
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