If you love to walk there are some great places to live in Michigan. There are various ways to measure the “walkability” of an area, town or city. These usually involve some evaluation of what is within easy walking distance – basically what you can get to or what you can get done within some walkable radius. Other factors include the ease with which you can walk, i.e. are their sidewalks and what amenities might exist to support or welcome walkers, such as benches, signage in crosswalks giving pedestrians the right of way, and such.
I wondered about how walkable the cities in Michigan are and found a ranking of them online. The most walkable city in Michigan turned out to be Hamtramck, with a walk score of 82. The top ten cities, in order and with their score were:
City Walk Score
Hamtramck 82
Ferndale 67
Ypsilanti 62
Lincoln Park 60
Wyandotte 60
Birmingham 60
Dearborn 58
Royal Oak 57
Eastpointe 57
Madison Heights 57
I was kind of surprised that Ann Arbor didn’t make the top 10, but it did come in at #14 with a walk score of 52.
This list can be found at https://www.walkscore.com/MI/#:~:text=The%20best%20cities%20in%20Michigan,%2C%20Norton%20Shores%2C%20and%20Romulus
It is a list made up only of cities in the state, so my little Village of Milford isn’t in that list. One can find out the walk Score for your own are by gong to https://www.walkscore.com/score/
When I did that and put in the Village of Milford, I was not surprised that is came back as a very walkable place to live with a walk score of 74. I live within three blocks and can easily walk to a micro-brewery, 10 restaurants, 2 barber shops, over 25 cute retail stores, several hairdressers, three skin care businesses, chiropractors, tattoo parlors, accountants, lawyers’ offices, and more. There’s even a major brand grocery store and a well-known drug store within easy walking distance.
I moved to the Village of Milford from a typical bedroom suburban community in which you had to get in your car and drive to get to almost anything, so this was all new and different for me. Now it just seems natural to say, “I’ll walk down and pick up my prescription” or let’s walk downtown for dinner.
See how the area that you live in scores on walkability at the site referenced above and if you are planning to buy a new house, check out the area it is in to see how walkable it might be. For many that will be a big factor in their move decision.
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