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.