Walk Score

Private company that provides walkability service

Walk Score

Type of site

| Walkability services
Available in| English
Headquarters| Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Owner| Redfin
Founder(s)|

* Mike Mathieu
* Jesse Kocher
* Matt Lerner
* Josh Herst

URL| www.walkscore.com
Commercial| Yes
Registration| Optional
Launched| July 2007; 18 years ago (2007-07)
Current status| Active

Walk Score, a subsidiary of Redfin, provides walkability analysis and apartment search tools. Its flagship product is a large-scale, public access walkability index that assigns a numerical walkability score to any address in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Walk Score is a type of automated efficiency model focused on location efficiency. A Walk Score, as well as a Bike Score and a Transit Score, may be assigned to a particular address or an entire region, and the company maintains a ranking of the most walkable cities in the United States. Products for computer programmers include Travel Time API. Higher walk scores have been correlated with higher property values[1] and lower mortgage default risk.[2]

The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

## History

[edit]

Walk Score was founded in July 2007 by Mike Mathieu [3][4] and aided by Matt Lerner, Jesse Kocher, and Josh Herst, formerly of Madrona Venture Group.

In August 2010, the company launched Transit Score to help users understand the proximity of public transport to an address.[5]

In 2011, Walk Score unveiled an apartment search tool that locates available housing based on commute time to a given location. The tool calculates commute times for various modes of transport including walking, cycling, driving, and public transit.[6]

In January 2012, the company raised $2 million from angel investors, including Geoff Entress, Shel Kaphan, former chief technology officer of Amazon.com, and Rudy Gadre, former general counsel of Facebook.[7][8][9]

In May 2012, the company launched Bike Score, a quantitative measure of bikeability to/from an address based on the availability of bike lanes, hilliness, road connectivity, nearby amenities, and the percentage of people in that area who bike to work.[10][11]

In April 2013, the company launched Travel Time API.[12]

In September 2014, the company launched crime maps.[13]

In October 2014, Redfin acquired the company.[14][15]

## Criticism

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Walk Score has been criticized for the limits of its accuracy and relevancy in methodology and results. Specifically, Walk Score doesn't calculate whether there are sidewalks, how many lanes of traffic one must cross, how much crime occurs in the area, or what the weather is typically like. It also doesn't differentiate between types of amenities, for example, a supermarket grocery store versus a small food mart selling mostly chips and liquor.[16][17][18]

## See also

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* Walkability
* Bicycle-friendly
* New Urbanism
* Permeability (spatial and transport planning)

## References

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1. ^ Goldstein, Daniel (August 11, 2016). "How a high 'walk score' boosts your home's value". MarketWatch.
2. ^ Pivo, Gary (June 18, 2020). "Walk Score: The Significance of 8 and 80 for Mortgage Default Risk in Multifamily Properties". Journal of Sustainable Real Estate. 6: 187–210\. doi:10.1080/10835547.2014.12091859.
3. ^ Roosevelt, Max (August 10, 2008). "How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood?". The New York Times.
4. ^ Hom, Kathleen (August 7, 2007). "Web Site Takes a Pedestrian View". The Washington Post.
5. ^ "Walk Score® Launches Transit Score™ and Commute Reports" (Press release). PR Newswire. August 16, 2010.
6. ^ Coldewey, Devin (September 26, 2011). "Walk Score Takes Wraps Off Slick New Apartment-Locating Tool". TechCrunch.
7. ^ "Seattle-based Walk Score gets $2 million from investors". The Seattle Times. January 20, 2012.
8. ^ COOK, JOHN (January 13, 2012). "Walk Score propels forward with $2 million, promises commutes that 'don't suck'". GeekWire.
9. ^ Greene, Aislyn (February 21, 2012). "Startup of the Week: Walk Score". American City Business Journals.
10. ^ Szczepanski, Carolyn (May 16, 2012). "WALK SCORE LAUNCHES BIKE SCORE". League of American Bicyclists.
11. ^ Goodyear, Sarah (May 14, 2012). "Walk Score Launches Bike Score". Bloomberg News.
12. ^ SOPER, TAYLOR (April 11, 2013). "Walk Score tool measures neighborhood access for restaurants, schools, coffee". GeekWire.
13. ^ Hughes, Sarah Anne (September 9, 2014). "Walk Score Launches Crime Map". WAMU. Archived from the original on September 24, 2022.
14. ^ "Redfin Acquires Walk Score" (Press release). Business Wire. October 22, 2014.
15. ^ COOK, JOHN (October 22, 2014). "Redfin buys Walk Score, marking first acquisition in company history". GeekWire.
16. ^ Goodyear, Sarah (September 20, 2011). "'Walk Score' Is Great, But it Still Doesn't Capture 'Walk Appeal'". Bloomberg News.
17. ^ Vanderbilt, Tom (April 12, 2012). "Walking in America: How Walk Score puts a number on walkability". Slate.
18. ^ STEUTEVILLE, ROBERT (September 19, 2016). "The value of walkability and Walk Score inaccuracies". Congress for the New Urbanism.

## Further reading

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* Stephanie Y. Rauterkus, Grant I. Thrall, and Eric Hangen, 2010. "Location Efficiency and Mortgage Default" Journal of Sustainable Real Estate (JOSRE), Volume 2, No. 1.
* Brewster, Mark, David Hurtado, Sara Olson, and Jessica Yen. 2009. "Walkscore.com: A New Methodology to Explore Associations between Neighborhood Resources, Race and Health." Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard School of Public Health.
* Carr, Lucas J., Shira I. Dunsiger, and Bess H. Marcus. 2010. "Validation of Walk Score for estimating access to walkable amenities". British Journal of Sports Medicine.

## External links

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* Official website