My partner and I were in a similar situation several years ago. Escaped from NYC and moved to the greater Boston area. We initially looked at places like Arling

My partner and I were in a similar situation several years ago. Escaped from NYC and moved to the greater Boston area. We initially looked at places like Arlington, Waltham, Lexington, Watertown, Newton, and Somerville. I agree that walk scores can be misleading, especially in this area. There are places that are listed as "walkable" because they have a lot of strip malls bunched together even though there are no actual sidewalks. On the flip side, we ended up moving to a small town with an abysmal walk score but good sidewalks, trails, and bike paths and a small but hardy contingent of neighbors who walk or bike to our local school and grocery store all year round. I ended up just walking or biking around prospective neighborhoods during weekdays to get a sense of how many people actually get around in the neighborhood. I also ended up chatting with a couple of coordinators from the MA Safe Routes to Schools program to get a sense of which schools had the most kids walking to school. While they didn't have the numbers I was looking for they were friendly and helpful and I got a better sense of the different priorities in different towns.