51. That’s what San Jose scored out of 100 on Walk Score’s walkability meter, making it a “somewhat walkable” city. Given how large San Jose is, this was actually a pleasant surprise to us.
A walk score is a numeric ranking that represents the walkability of an address based on pedestrian-friendliness and access to businesses.
Walk Score’s scale of walkability | Screenshot via Walk Score
Points are given based on the distance between residential areas and businesses, including restaurants, retail, and entertainment. Anything outside a 30+ minute walk is given 0 points. A city’s walkability score is found by calculating the average walkability of many residential addresses in a city.
Trading in the walking shoes for wheels? We rank slightly higher for our bicyclists with an overall score of 62. This number has likely gone up in recent years, thanks to big strides in bike infrastructure, like protected bike lanes.
While these numbers aren’t the best, we may soon see some improvements. San Jose is already taking steps towards becoming more pedestrian and commuter-friendly through the city’s new Downtown Transportation Plan, which promises more paseos, bike trails, and a more people-centered downtown. (Psst… The city is still accepting public feedback on their new plans, so let them know what improvements you’d like to see.)
In the meantime, here are San Jose’s top five most walkable + bikeable neighborhoods:
- St. Leo’s | Walk score: 92 | Bike score: 87
- East Virginia | Walk score: 90 | Bike score: 93
- Sunol-Midtown | Walk score: 87 | Bike score: 86
- Goodyear-Mastic | Walk score: 86 | Bike score: 83
- Auzerais-Josefa | Walk score: 85 | Bike score: 89