10 Responses to “So Much Walkability, So Little Time”

1. Keith Ripley Says:
   November 3rd, 2007 at 11:16 am

   I see that there are 5 votes for “other”. A listing of what else was voted for may encourage more suggestions.

2. Matt Says:
   November 4th, 2007 at 3:59 pm

   Hi Keith, good suggestion! Here are the “other” votes:

   1. A tile for me to use to show businesses near me
   2. Taking terrain into account: 1 mile uphill is farther than 1 mile flat.
   3. rank by neighborhood
   4. quick way to inform you guys of places listed in wron category
   5. Full Programming API

   For the first one, I think the Walk Score tile is what they’re asking for. For the second one, topography is something we’re looking into adding to our algorithm. Rank by neighborhood would be something we’d try to include if we launch Walk Score City Rankings. For places listed in the wrong category, our business listings come directly from Google and as far as we know there isn’t a way to correct them (let me know if there is!). For the last one, we’re looking into providing an API and would do this if got an exciting request from a partner.
   Thanks for the good question!

3. stevehar Says:
   November 5th, 2007 at 6:12 am

   I’ve been using your site to qualify apartments in Washington DC: data from craigs list; zip code data from http://zipskinny.com/; and metro/subway data from the find businesses function on google maps.
   Here is my request
   -add 2 or three user defined fields so a user can add a resource from another service. Example:
   –type service name google, use current address, add business search for
   –same idea for zip code data

   thanks Stevehar

4. Matt Says:
   November 6th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

   Awesome ideas. We’ll look into adding these. Thanks, Steve!

5. Chris Says:
   November 14th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

   I don’t see a way of adding the amenities that are actually in distance that
   you currently lack in the lists that would affect walk scores.
   just for my address I there are at least 4 parks not listed with .75 miles
   Otherwise I love this.

   Chris

6. Levi Cook Says:
   November 19th, 2007 at 11:37 am

   Just found your site; excellent work! One item I haven’t seen scored is
   “Medical Services”; and/or “Emergency Services”.

7. crispm Says:
   November 19th, 2007 at 11:43 am

   For cities like San Francisco, altitude/slope is a major factor affecting walkability.
   Does your algorithm take that into account? If not, that’s a major element to add.

8. Ed Says:
   November 19th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

   My “other” vote is like #4 above, but more so — I’d like a way to add info that Walk Score, at present, misses. For instance, my house is 3 blocks away from a park that is, I admit, pretty tiny. But tiny as it is, it has a decent playground for little kids, plus a basketball court, plus some open grassy area for plain old running around. But it doesn’t show up in Walk Score. Similarly, not far away from my house is a “rail trail” — an old RR right-of-way that was converted to a walk-and-bike path about 15 years ago. The walk/bike path is a major asset (of the town and the area, not just my house ), but again, there’s no sign of it here.

   I could go on, and that’s the point: I’d love to be able to add in the missing stuff.

9. Matt Says:
   November 19th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

   Thanks for the comments!

   • We’ve heard a number of people say, "Hey, there’s something missing near my house!" We get all of our data from the Google Local Search API. One promising development on this front is Google Community Maps, which lets people submit their own map data. AFAIK, Google does not have an API for this data so we are currently unable to show it on Walk Score. Hopefully we’ll be able to integrate this data soon. In the meantime, Google does allow you to update business listings here.
   • We are investigating letting people customize their categories, so you could add "Emergency Services" as a custom category.
   • We are also looking into adding topography to our algorithm. Right now, we don’t take hills into account. Having lived in San Francisco, this was more of a biking issue for me than a walking issue Thanks for the suggestion!
10. phastphill Says:
    November 21st, 2007 at 5:35 pm

    I love your site and the idea of it!

    My suggestions:

    I don’t know how much this affects the overall walkability score, but the definition of “grocery store” is pretty broad. A corner store with candy bars and a few frozen dinners scores as much as a full-fledged grocery. In dense cities this can make a big difference. This is almost certainly not your fault, it’s categorized as such in the YP and google.

    Also, I wonder if your algorithm could include the speed limit on streets. Higher speed limit == less walkable. The data must be out there; google uses it to calculate drive times.

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