Walkscore: The next phase Google of mapping? New heat maps showing how walkable suburbs are
I stumbled upon this one afternoon and I have to say, I'm seriously considering investment possibilities - It has 'Google Buyout' written all over it.
In the interests of decreasing our dependance on cars (for environmental, health and social reasons) WalkScore has come up with a simple little way to evaluate the walkability of a neighborhood. Those looking to move to, work near, holiday in... can determine how they'll fair with only their two feet to rely on.
So how does it work? You can get a 'walkability' score (out of 100) for an area based on an algorithm that computes proximity of amenities and thereforehow easy it would be for you to live a car-lite lifestyle. Check out our offices - we have no excuse but to get off out butts out at lunch an explore the area. We have a plethora of cafes/restaurants/sandwich stops to choose from.
Everything is overlaid on a Google Map and for over 2,500 cities in the US they've calculated Heat maps. Apparently they've been working with reps in Australia - here's hoping our heat maps aren't too far behind.
Keep in mind that this is a simple but effective tool. And what's deemed to make a neighbourhood walkable is:
- A centre
- People
- Mixed income, mixed use
- Parks and public space
- Pedestrian design
- Schools and workplaces
- Complete streets
- Route required to get to amenities (i.e. if there is a freeway in the way, you can't just cross it)
- Intersection density
- Block length
I can't help but think how useful this would be as a feature of any real estate site in particular.
