San Francisco most walkable U.S. city, website says

With gas at $4 a gallon, there's never been a better time to live in a walkable neighborhood.

Walkscore.com ranks 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities to help you find a walkable place to live.

San Francisco, New York and Boston are the United States' most walkable cities, according to new rankings from Walk Score that evaluates how easy it is to live in the nation's cities and neighborhoods without a car.

Walkscore.com, which uses an algorithm to identify those neighborhoods boasting the most amenities per person, published its ranking on Thursday and deemed San Francisco the most walkable city, with a "Walk Score" of 86 out of 100.

The top 17 neighborhoods in San Francisco are Walkers' Paradises. 90% of San Francisco residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above. 99% have a Walk Score of at least 50—and 1% live in Car-Dependent neighborhoods.

The site helps you find a walkable place to live by calculating a Walk Score for any address.

"What we see is someone calling up a broker and saying 'I want three bedrooms, two baths, a walkability score of 85, what've you got?”said Mike Mathieu, founder of the company.

Type an address, and the site generates a map showing the nearby grocery stores, cafes, movie theaters, schools and parks.

New York received a score of 83, Boston a score of 79.

Scores greater than 70 indicate neighborhoods where it's possible to get by without owning a car, while scores greater than 90 qualify communities as a "Walker's Paradise."

油价涨到了每加仑4美元，看来现在去一个适合步行的社区居住是最为明智的选择。

如果你想找一个这样的社区，可以参考Walkscore.com网站日前对美国40个主要城市2508个社区进行的一项排名。

美国Walk Score网站日前对全国各大城市及其居住区无车生活的便利程度进行了一次最新排名。评估结果显示，旧金山、纽约和波士顿是美国最适合步行的三大城市。

在这项于本周四公布的排行榜上，旧金山以86分（总分100分）的“步行指数”被评为“最适合步行的城市”。Walkscore网站使用一种计算法则算出生活设施人均占有率最高的社区。

旧金山最好的17个居住区堪称“步行者的天堂”。旧金山90％居民的“步行指数”达到了70或者更高。99％居民的步行指数至少为50，仅有1％的人居住的社区“离不开车”。

WalkScore网站可以计算出任何一个地址的步行指数，从而帮你找到一个适合步行的居住区。

该网站创始人迈克•马修说：“我们经常看到有人打电话给房产中介，说‘你们有三室两卫、步行指数为85的房子吗？’”

你可以在Walkscore网站任意输入一个地址，然后系统就会为你提交一幅地图，上面会注明附近的商店、咖啡馆、电影院、学校和公园。

纽约的“步行指数”为83，波士顿为79。

如果一个居住区的“步行指数”超过70，那说明这里没有车也可以生活，如果超过90，那就是“步行者的天堂”了。

 Vocabulary: 

walkable: 适合步行的