What is Walkshed?
Walkshed is a web application that uses an advanced methodology to calculate and map walkability.
Who made Walkshed?
Walkshed is the personal research project of Aaron Ogle, a software developer at Azavea in Philadelphia, PA. You can follow Aaron on Twitter (@atogle).
Special thanks also go to Jeff Adams and Josh Marcus for work on the DecisionTree calculation engine and API, Robert Cheetham for help with map algebra, Brian Jacobs for web site design, Dana Bauer for assembling many of the data layers, Andrew Jennings for systems administration, Jeremy Heffner for performance enhancements, and several others for help with assembling data sets and testing. These people are all rock stars.
How does Walkshed work?
Walkshed works by combining actual walking distances with ample decision factors and your preferences. You can read all of the details here.
How is Walkshed different from Walk Score?
Walkshed and Walk Score do very similar things but ultimately have different goals. Walk Score is trying to provide a basic walkability metric to as many people as possible to aid in the home-buying process. Walkshed, on the other hand, seeks to be the gold-standard walkability calculation engine by combining accurate walking paths with numerous data sets and customizable priorities.
Can I search for a location without an address?
Yes! Hold the ALT key and click on the map within the city limits to see the walkability for that location.
This is really awesome! Can I help?
Absolutely! You can start by sharing Walkshed with your friends and family. Use Twitter or Facebook? Do you Digg? Give us a shout out! Found a bug? Send it along so we can fix it right away! Have something else in mind? Contact us and send us your thoughts.
How did you decide on your default priority set?
We decided to start with only a few priorities that we thought would be popular with most people. We’re under no illusions that it is a perfect set of priorities, but it seems like a good starting place. As Walkshed grows, we hope to gather enough data to see if any common priority trends emerge.
Where did you get your data?
Our data comes from a number of sources including city governments, the New York Data Mine, InfoUSA, Bing, and information from agency web sites.
Is Walkshed coming to my city?
We hope so! Walkshed is a very young application and we’re trying to gauge how much interest there is in this technology and its potential impact in a number of markets. But please contact us and let us know how we might expand and improve Walkshed. You can also read ideas about what the next steps for an application like Walkshed could be here: Want to Go Further
Which browsers are supported?
We only officially support IE7, IE8, Firefox 3.5, Chrome 3, and Safari 4 though you may have luck in other browsers. There are known bugs in IE6 and Opera.
I found a bug. Who do I tell?
Go to the Contact Us page and send us an email. We’ll get right on it!
Why are the amenities in my neighborhood missing or categorized incorrectly?
Unfortunately good data is really hard to come by, although municipalities working to make data more readily accessible. We understand that there are a number of errors in the data sources and are working to correct them. Thank you for your patience.
Why doesn’t Walkshed include decision factor X?
The decision factors included in Walkshed are ones that 1) we have access to the data and 2) are those we thought most impacted walkability. Have a specific factor in mind? Send it along.
How do the weights affect my walkability?
Weights affect walkability by ranking different amenities relative to one another. Do you really value proximity to rail stops but are less concerned with bars? Start by giving rail stops a +5 and bars a +2. This essentially says that rail stops are 2.5 times as important than bars. Keep this relativity in mind as you weight your factors.
Why don’t I see all of the amenities around my address?
By default, we only place markers on the map for the factors that you select to prevent the map from getting too cluttered. You can turn on any amenities you wish by clicking the checkbox beside the amenity title.
You said that you use actual walking distances in your calculations, but the distances in the amenities list are obviously “as a crow flies”. What gives?
Yes, we do use actual walking distances in calculating walkability but that data is stored in a format that is difficult to render as points. So in order to give some context to your walkability score, we draw a circle around your address and return the ten closest amenities in each category along with their approximate, straight-line distance.
Why doesn’t the walkshed layer change after I update the weights?
The walkshed layer will only update after you click the Calculate Walkshed button under the Adjust Priorities tab.
Can I turn off the walkshed layer?
Yes. You can either calculate a walkshed with zeros for every decision factor or adjust the opacity slider to 0%.
Can I change the base map layer?
Yes. Click on the Map Layers menu button and select the base map you prefer.
Can I adjust the opacity of the walkshed layer?
Yes. Click on the Map Layers menu button and adjust the opacity slider.
Can I print my walkshed?
No, we do not have a print page at this time.