Walk Score gets some new street smarts | Grist

Walk Score gets some new street smarts | Grist
BY SARAH GOODYEAR
27 JAN 2011 12:32 PM

Since it was launched nearly four years ago, Walk Score has been gaining popularity as a tool for gauging the walkability of a neighborhood. Real estate companies use it to help market homes. Home-seekers use it to help them figure out whether there are enough supermarkets/cafés/schools/parks within walking distance to make them happy. When you visit a place you don't know, you can use it to see if your hotel has any bars within staggering distance.

The problem has been that up until now, the distances that are figured into a location's scores haven't truly been walking distances -- they've been "as the crow flies" distances. And we're not crows. We can't fly across, say, the East River to get a cup of coffee. And some types of streets are a lot more walkable than others.

Today, Walk Score unveiled a preview version of the solution: Street Smart Walk Score. From the company's blog:

For every Street Smart score, we generate hundreds of walking routes to find the nearest amenities. We also analyze the underlying street data to calculate the number of intersections and average block length.

Street Smart Walk Score gives more weight to amenities that are highly correlated with walking. In addition, multiple amenities in each category count towards your score -- for example, we count 10 restaurants to reflect the depth of choice that walkable neighborhoods offer.

When you look up a Street Smart Walk Score, we give you a report showing exactly how many points each amenity contributed to your score. This makes the algorithm easy to understand and completely transparent.
It also won't send you into Baltimore's Inner Harbor in search of a beer.

Try it out, and let us know if it's a better indicator of your neighborhood's walkability than the original Walk Score.
Sarah Goodyear is Grist’s cities editor. She’s also on Twitter.


related stories

Ten more great walking cities [SLIDESHOW] Washington’s bikeshare is a capital idea 14 The 10 deadliest cities for pedestrians in the United States [SLIDESHOW]
Comments


Tim Kovach
27 JAN 2011 12:55PM

Thanks for the update Sarah. The new beta version made a HUGE difference for my apartment's walk score. I live in Tremont in Cleveland, which is a very lively, multiuse old neighbhorhood just southwest of downtown (we border downtown and have the best views of the skyline in my opinion). But Tremont's walk score has always been crippled by the fact that we are adjacent to the extremely unwalkable industrial flats (lots of steel mills & other heavy industry). My standard walk score is just a 71, despite the fact that there are probably a dozen restaurants, several shops, at least a half dozen bars, coffee shops, etc. within a 5 minute walk. But with the new beta Street Smart Walk Score, the score goes up to a 90! Way to keep improving the site Walk Score guys.