Walk Score is a private company that provides walkability services and
apartment search tools through a website and mobile applications. Its flagship
product is a large-scale, public access walkability index that assigns a
numerical walkability score to any address in the United States, Canada,
and Australia. The company is headquartered in Seattle,
Washington. Company
Walk Score was founded in July 2007. The company's mission is "to promote
walkable neighborhoods" with the belief that such neighborhoods are "one of the
simplest and best solutions for the environment, our health, and our
economy." In January 2012, the company announced that it had recently raised $2
million from investors. Consumer products
= Walk Score = The company's flagship product is the
Walk Score, a walkability index and the namesake of the company. The company
serves more than four million scores per day to over ten thousand participating
websites. A Walk Score may be assigned to a particular address or an entire
region, and the company maintains a ranking of the most walkable cities in
the United States. Josh Herst, CEO of Walk Score, has
stated that he wants Walk Score to be a part of every real-estate listing in the
future. He envisions the Walk Score of a home to be as important as how many
bedrooms or bathrooms the property has. According to the site's creators, "The
Walk Score algorithm awards points based on the distance to the closest amenity
in each category. If the closest amenity in a category is within .25 miles, we
assign the maximum number of points. The number of points declines as the
distance approaches 1 mile—no points are awarded for amenities farther than 1
mile. Each category is weighted equally and the points are summed and normalized
to yield a score from 0–100. The number of nearby amenities is the leading
predictor of whether people walk." Relevant amenities include "businesses,
parks, theaters, schools and other common destinations."
= Other features = Similar to the Walk Score, the company
also assigns a Bike Score and Transit Score to points on the map. Walk Score
can generate a commute report that shows the time required to travel between two
points, providing a visual representation of the changes in
elevation during the trip. Commuting options include walking, bicycling,
driving, or taking public transport. In 2011, Walk Score unveiled an apartment
search tool that locates available housing based on commute time to a given
location. The tool calculates commute times for various modes of transport
including walking, cycling, driving, and public transit. Walk Score has developed
a variety of tools for real estate professionals, such as neighborhood maps
and APIs. Multiple independent studies have demonstrated that above-average
walkability correlates to increased housing values: in the metropolitan
areas studied, higher Walk Score typically added US$4,000–$34,000 per
home. The company also provides data to leading research institutions,
academics, and city planners including: Walk Score and Transit Score for all
U.S. and some international addresses Road metrics such as intersection
density and block length Heat maps for potentially walkable
locations This data is available for download or
accessible through an API. = Criticism =
Walk Score has received some criticism in the media, particularly from urban
planning professionals, for the limits of its accuracy and relevancy in
methodology and results. Specifically, Walk Score doesn't calculate whether
there are sidewalks, how many lanes of traffic one must cross, how much crime
occurs in the area, or what the weather is typically like. It also doesn't
differentiate between types of amenities, for example a supermarket
grocery store versus a small food mart selling mostly chips and liquor.
Walk Score does not accurately score areas adjacent to international borders.
The algorithm prioritizes locations across the border which leads to low and
inaccurate scores. Professional products
= Travel Time API = Walk Score's Travel Time API provides a
programming interface to get travel times between an origin and a set of
destinations. Travel Time API can sort multiple destinations based on walking
time, taking a public transit, driving time, or biking. Suggested applications
are ranking points of interest nearest to multiple destinations, such as hotels
near multiple meetings or attractions; ranking multiple destinations nearest to
a specific location, such as sorting of local deals; and for maps and
visualizations. = Public Transit API =
An API access to Transit Score and nearby public transit stops and routes.
= Walk Score API = An API access to the Walk Score
walkability index. See also
Walkability Bicycle-friendly
New Urbanism Permeability
References Further reading
Stephanie Y. Rauterkus, Grant I. Thrall, and Eric Hangen, 2010. "Location
Efficiency and Mortgage Default" Journal of Sustainable Real Estate, Volume 2,
No. 1. Brewster, Mark, David Hurtado, Sara
Olson, and Jessica Yen. 2009. "Walkscore.com: A New Methodology to
Explore Associations between Neighborhood Resources, Race and
Health." Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School
of Public Health. Carr, Lucas J., Shira I. Dunsiger, and
Bess H. Marcus. 2010. "Validation of Walk Score for estimating access to
walkable amenities". British Journal of Sports Medicine.
External links Official website