Less than one week after we launched transit on Walk Score, 3 new transit agencies have opened their data and are now live on Walk Score:

• Cleveland, OH Regional Transit Authority
• Kansas City, MO KCATA
• San Diego, CA North County Transit District

Kudos to these forward-looking transit agencies!

But get this… Over 400+ transit agencies have made their public transit feeds available to Google—but only 40+ have made that data available to the public!

Sign our petition to open up transit data.

Transit in Cleveland, OH

The Local Market Explorer plugin from Zillow is a simple way to add data from Walk Score, Education.com, and Zillow to your blog—and it just got better.

Zillow just released version 2 of the Local Market Explorer.  Improvements include support for neighborhoods and ZIPs, video embedding, and easier customization.

Download version 2 of the Local Market Explorer plugin here or read more on the Zillow blog.

Check out these sample pages on the Geek Estate Blog:

• Pearl District, Portland, OR
• Upper Eastside, New York, NY
• Los Angeles, CA

Enjoy!

ZipRealty, LPS Real Estate Group (formerly FNRES and Cyberhomes), Windermere, San Francisco Chronicle, and hundreds of other real estate sites that use the Walk Score Real Estate Tile are now showing nearby public transit powered by Walk Score.

Read the press release.

And—you guessed it—we also added transit to WalkScore.com:

How does it work?

• Walk Score gets data from transit agencies that publish a public Google Transit Feed.
• Currently, there are about 40 public transit feeds and we’ll automatically add new ones as they’re published.
• We show you the nearest rail stops followed by bus, ferries, funiculars, cable cars… you get the idea.

Not only is transit a key component of the car-lite lifestyle, but homes near transit may be better investments.

In Denver, homes within 1/2 mile of light rail appreciated more than 17% while the overall Denver housing market fell more than 7%.  Colorado residents can see transit powered by Walk Score on ColoProperty and REcolorado.

Does nearby transit affect your Walk Score? We’re working on it!  Visit WalkScore.Org to join the discussion. 

Does your city provide a public transit feed? Transit on Walk Score is a great example of the value of open government data.  If you live in a city that publishes a public transit feed, send your transit agency flowers and a thank you note.

If you live in a city that doesn’t publish a public transit feed, ask them to make public transit data public.

Public transit on Walk Score is funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

With Halloween fast approaching, it’s important for trick-or-treaters young and old to know where to score the best candy. Walk Score is proud to be one of four criteria Zillow used to put together a handy list of the 5 best Trick-or-Treat neighborhoods in Seattle. The other equally weighted factors are Zillow’s home value index, population density and local crime data.

So which neighborhoods rank highest? Wallingford (90), Queen Anne (81),  Magnolia (61), University District (94) and Capitol Hill (87).

Check out the Walk Scores for all 77 Seattle neighborhoods.

We’re very excited to announce that Windermere Real Estate is now showing Walk Score on all their website listings.

Windermere is a great Seattle success story and is ranked as the largest independent real estate company in the West, with more than 300 offices and 8,000 associates serving communities in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Washington and British Columbia.  Windermere’s website attracts nearly 1 1/2 million visitors each month to view detailed home listings.  Windermere.com is displaying the Walk Score Tile on all listings, such as this beautiful Wallingford neighborhood home in Seattle.  Thanks to the online team at Windermere for their online leadership and use of Walk Score!

Big news!  We’re thrilled to announce that the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Front Seat (makers of Walk Score) to enhance Walk Score.

We’re using the grant to add public transit, transportation cost, and greenhouse gas emission data to Walk Score.   We’re also going to make Walk Score open source!

Today we are launching WalkScore.org where we’ll make the Walk Score source code publicly available.  We’ll also host forums there for discussing walkability and other improvements to Walk Score. Visit WalkScore.org to sign up for updates.

So what does this mean for you?

• You’ll see public transit stops on the Walk Score map
• Public transit accessibility will be factored into your Walk Score
• You’ll see your predicted transportation cost and greenhouse gas emissions provided by The Center for Neighborhood Technology

We are grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for their generosity, vision, and support!

Read the press release.

Thank you John D. Rockefeller!

One of the most common home search criteria is, “How long does it take me to get to work?’

So why don’t real estate sites ask for your work address and then display your commute time?  We were psyched to discover this feature on ZipRealty:

Once you set up My Places, ZipRealty shows the distance from each property to work.  This helps people reduce the time they spend commuting—which means more time with friends and family and less stress.

ZipRealty is also one of the few sites that shows transit near homes:

The simplest way to reduce your carbon footprint is to live in a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood near where you work.  With a couple of additional search features, ZipRealty could make these homes simple to find.  And this makes me wonder, is ZipRealty the greenest real estate website?

We didn’t realize that Walk Score helps people learn English! These videos produced by Mike Marzio of Real-English.com feature our own Mike Mathieu talking about the benefits of walkable neighborhoods.

We had no idea the outtakes from Mike’s CNN interview would end up as ESL instructional videos!

It’s also great that they are teaching people English by talking about walkability. It really shows that it’s an important global issue!

If your Walk Score is 70, is that good or bad?

We just added a “Compare Your Score” feature to Walk Score that shows how your score compares to other people in your city. Look up any address on Walk Score and you’ll see the new Compare Your Score box just under the map.

Well, I thought I was sitting pretty with a Walk Score of 95 in Seattle—but it turns out 14% of Seattlites have a higher Walk Score!

How about where I grew up in Kansas?  That house has a Walk Score of 60 and 29% of Topekans have a higher score.

Don’t tell my boss, but I just spent the last hour looking up every place I’ve lived!

Findwell is the 2nd website we know of that offers Walk Score + transit search.

Let’s pretend you’re buying a home and in addition to liking your health and the environment, you think buying a walkable house near the new Seattle light rail is a solid investment.

Simply go to findwell and search for Walk Score 90+ homes within 1/4 mile of the light rail.

Voilà!

Findwell real estate is powered by Estately real estate search.  Can you real estate platform do this?   If not, talk to Galen Ward at Estately.