One of the big reasons why we moved here was so that we would be able to walk more, and we definitely can walk more than we did in Irving. Seattle is a pretty walkable place overall, and today a list of Seattle's Most Walkable Neighborhoods was released. Here's a snippet from the article in the Seattle Times:

A new Web site, walkscore.com, today is releasing its first ranking of 77 Seattle neighborhoods, according to how close residents are to stores, restaurants, schools and other destinations.

Not surprisingly, more densely developed neighborhoods rank higher than less dense ones, with seven of the top 10 most walkable Seattle neighborhoods in or near downtown.

"Freedom is not having to get into the car," said Mike Mathieu, founder of Front Seat Management, a Seattle company that developed the software program, Walk Score.

According to that list, our neighborhood was the 7th most walkable (out of 77) in Seattle, which is pretty good. I was originally interested in moving to one of the neighborhoods ranked 2nd, 3rd, or 4th on the list, but I'm happy here for now. If you go to the Seattle's Most Walkable Neighborhoods page, there is a very cool interactive map that shows how walkable different neighborhoods are.

The company that provided this list of walkable neighborhoods in Seattle also lets you type in your address at WalkScore.com and it will tell you how easily you can get by without a car, considering the number of restaurants, stores, and other establishments within walking distance. So far, Seattle is the only city that has neighborhood-by-neighborhood analysis of walkability, but it would be neat if they did one of D/FW someday.