walking is the new driving

If gas prices have you thinking outside that metal box with four doors, you may be getting more places on two wheels or your own two feet these days. Enter Walk Score , a site that measures the most “walkable” neighborhoods in the U.S. and gives directions to places in walking distance of yours.

The top three walking havens:
1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Boston

Here’s a list of the top 40 big cities and over 2,500 smaller pockets of towns in order of walkability. And here’s one revealing 138 of the most convenient neighborhoods studied.

When looking for a new place to hang your hat, you can plug in an address to see if there’s a grocery store, farmers’ market, café or hangout you can shuffle over to. If you’re staying put, you can still see how your neighborhood ranks compared to other areas and possibly find some hidden gems you may have missed buzzing by at high speeds in a car. Check it out here.

Technorati tags: walkscore, walking, neighborhood, car-free

Photo credit: stock.xchng.irum