I first came across Walkscore.com in one of my graduate courses in environmental health. Since then, I've used it to rate my neighborhood and to assess other neighborhoods before I move. It's a fantastic free online tool that provides great information on neighborhood livability, including access to amenities, transportation and recreational activities. For more information, check out the full review Walkscore.com.
Note that the interview was not recorded so the following responses are derived from notes I took and are not direct quotes from Josh.
Interview with Josh Herst, Chief Executive Officer, Walkscore.com
First, thanks Josh for sharing information about Walkscore with our readers. So, can you tell us about Walkscore.com? What is it exactly?Walk Score provides accessible information on the walkability of a street address, which includes closest amenities, ranking neighborhoods with a score of 0 to 100, with a high score indicating a very walkable community.
We launched the site in 2007 with key features such as amenities and transportation access, both of which provide good indicators of your daily life in that area. We also feature a commute report that measures the cost of driving to and from work. This is such an important measure to know since time spent in traffic is lost forever; knowing what your commute looks like gives you a good idea of what neighborhood is best to live in to have the shortest commute time. On the commute tab, there's a housing and transportation cost calculator that looks at how much is being spent on commuting. It's a great feature that will help you decide where to live. And it's not necessarily true, that a closer location to your place of work or school is going to be more expensive, and with this calculator you'll get a true sense of the cost of housing versus commute time.
What was the impetus for creating this kind of tool?
The idea came before me. The team here had been looking at a variety of ideas around how to use software to promote civic engagement. A non-profit organization called Sightline Institute did drawings around walkable communities and that sparked interest for our team to make a simple tool to help people asses their own neighborhoods and to help people, like your readers, decide where is the best place for them to live.
Our readers are moving, often to other parts of the country or world. How best can our readers incorporate this tool into deciding where best to live?
All they need to do is plug in the address and up pops their score. There's also a rating scale that tells you the difference between a good rating and a poor one. Currently, over 6000 real estate sites use Walkscore in their listing. It's a great way to assess property values when purchasing a new home. Rental organizations use Walkscore as well, including ForRent.com and MyNewPLace.com - you can even filter your search by the walk score. It's such an easy tool to use.
What kind of changes have you seen in the way the tool is being used? What role do users have in developing the tool?
Some of the enhancements we've made to the site include providing a way for readers to interact with the the service. For example, if a restaurant closed six months ago, readers can let us know and we'll update their neighborhood information. Or readers can also do it themselves by logging in via Facebook or contacting us directly. We also launched a mobile version of the site and extended our coverage. Last fall we increased our range of the number of cities from 2500 to 6000. We've also provided deeper, broader information for a lot more people.
Are there plans for expansion? If so how?
The three countries we support are the USA, Canada and New Zealand. We hope to expand to other countries and increase the number of cities within the countries we currently serve.
How does Walk Score affect urban planning? Do you see a change in trends over time?
There's a lot of interest from urban planners. They work directly with the data in our system. We also do custom data retrievals for researchers and other professionals who are interested in this kind of work.
Tell us about some of the research that's been conducted using Walk Score and describe some of the key findings.
One of the most important pieces is that CEOs for Cities [an organization that works with "its network partners to develop great cities that excel in the areas most critical to urban success: talent, connections, innovation and distinctiveness."], released a study that found a direct correlation between transportation costs, that is, gas prices and the cost of housing, in that housing in suburban areas, where residents need to commute to work and school, are decreasing as gas prices increase.
Other studies have found that a one point increase in a Walkscore is worth $3000 dollars in some areas. Some research also indicates that a higher walk score neighborhood has had lower foreclosure rates. Those are just some of the examples. You can find out more on our website.
Are there any plans to incorporate other key pieces of information that might be important for people on the move? Where I live, we have great bike/running paths. Whenever I move, I look for how bikeable an area is. Maybe that's getting into a whole other area of urban design, but there are other features related to healthy communities that would be of interest to people on the move.
We've launched, in beta form, a street smart walk score that takes into consideration walking distances to amenities rather than distances based on as the crow flies. This includes actual walking distance and also some metric data, which includes block length, density and the number of intersections - the higher number of intersections, the more walkable the neighborhood is.
What's your vision for the future in terms of how we'll be living within urban areas in the next few decades?
As fuel costs grow, it becomes more important and valuable to understand the total cost of choosing where to live. Living close to where you work, go to school, shop, work out, etc... the more you'll benefit economically, health-wise and the less impact you'll have on the environment. There will be fewer vehicles, less pollution and people will have more time for themselves. It's just a healthier lifestyle.
We're building more partnerships with customers as well as businesses to increase consumer power when they go to buy a home or rent a new apartment. Our site shows over 3 million scores a day over 6000 different sites. That's a lot of information for the consumer to access.
Thanks so much, Josh. I love your tool and highly recommend it to all our About readers.
