Hamptons towns by walk score

The East End doesn’t have too many people whose main form of transportation is walking. In order to get by in the Hamptons easily, you would need a car or some reliable form of transportation at your disposal. Yes, some people bike places, especially in the summer, but for the most part, the Hamptons is a very car-dependent place to live.

It’s interesting, however, to see how each town ranks by walk score. WalkScore.com is a website that lets you check out how easy it would be to live somewhere when your main form of transportation is walking. For some cities, they even have bike scores.

You plug in a town, or address, and it gives you a score based on the proximity of grocery stores, schools, restaurants, and even parks.

Let’s see how towns in the Hamptons did.

The low-scoring towns

Sagaponack - 14

Sagaponack came in dead last on the East End with an awfully low 14. On WalkScore, anything below a 24 is ranked as car-dependent, meaning that almost everything that you need to do living here will require a car.

This isn’t too surprising for Sagaponack, considering the town doesn’t have much of a village the way that Southampton or East Hampton does.

Water Mill - 32

Again, this isn’t too surprising. Water Mill’s town is essentially one strip of shops, and there’s almost no where to pick up groceries.

According to WalkScore, a town ranked between 25 and 49 still gets a “car-dependent” rating, the difference being that most errands need a car, but not “almost all errands,” the way that a score below 24 does.

Montauk - 34

Montauk’s walk score seems low given the amount of people that are walking around in town during the summer—however, the score is based on proximity and accessibility, so it does make sense.

The high-scoring towns

Sag Harbor - 72

The Hamptons town with the highest ranking on WalkScore was Sag Harbor with a whopping 72 points. Keep in mind, not a single Hamptons town received above a 90, which is considered “walker’s paradise,” meaning that you could live in that place and not need a car for day-to-day errands. For example, East Village, New York has a score of 98.

However, Sag Harbor is the only town that received a score considered “very walkable,” which means that most errands in town can be accomplished by walking. So that’s not too shabby.

Southampton - 64

Southampton came in second place, with a score that puts it at “somewhat walkable,” meaning that you could get around and do some of your errands by walking.

Close-by towns

While the highest scoring town on the South Fork was a 72 from Sag Harbor, it’s worth noting that there are some nearby towns with similar walk scores. Riverhead scored a 78, and Greenport scored a 74. So, if you’re looking to live out on the East End but love a place that you can get by on foot, perhaps one of those towns would be of interest.

• Walk Score Methodology [WalkScore.com]