One of my pet peeves is the alarming trend for housing developments and even entire suburbs to be built to maximize the use of automobiles and make necessities as far from homes as possible.

Walk Score is a great website that shows how close any property is to essential services, such as grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, movie theaters, parks, and gyms. The score is based on how far you would have to walk (or in many cases drive) to make it through the week.

While I love driving while on vacation or just to get away and see something new, I hate living where you must use the car to grab a snack or rent a video, so I've always tried to live places with facilities in walking distance. My quaint suburban neighborhood doesn't do a great job of that, with a score of 34 out of 100, compared with major cities that have neighborhoods that score in the 80s and 90s.

Where I grew up in Philadelphia (I didn't drive until I was 23) has a respectable 72, but my brother's new ritzy suburban enclave scores a miserable 12. People like the security of "gated" neighborhoods, but if a retail establishment (like a restaurant or dry cleaner) is in the middle of $750K homes, you're not really going to have to worry about the clientele. A check cashing place would not be welcomed there, but mixed use neighborhoods can be wonderful.

Walk-able neighbors reduce traffic, encourage community and local development, and encourages exercise since things are close at hand. Builders and urban planers should do as in Whitby Ontario and plan to make working, living, and shopping in one place as comfortable and sustainable as possible.

Hat tip to The Oil Drum