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Walk Score®, Transit Score®, and Walking in MESA

Did you know there’s a tool that quickly tells how good your neighborhood is for walking and public transit? Walk Score® and Transit Score® can be easily found at www.walkscore.com. They give neighborhoods a score from 0-100 for how well they support walking ("walkability") and access to transit. This paper looks at whether Walk Score and Transit Score are related to the amount of walking a person does each week. This includes walking both to get from one place to another and for fun or exercise. We got Walk Scores® and Transit Scores® for all MESA exam 5 neighborhoods. eople who live in places with higher Walk Scores® and Transit Scores® were more likely to walk. When they did walk, they did so for longer periods of time. This shows the importance of walkability and transit access for individual physical activity. It also helps build the evidence to use the Walk Score® and Transit Score® measures in research, community action, planning, and policy.

Hirsch JA, Moore KA, Evenson KR, Rodriguez DA, Diez Roux AV. Walk score(®) and transit score(®) and walking in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Am J Prev Med. 2013 Aug;45(2):158-66.