{"id":43096,"date":"2013-04-16T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=43096"},"modified":"2013-04-16T11:41:50","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T15:41:50","slug":"walkonomics-walking-app-comes-to-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/04\/16\/walkonomics-walking-app-comes-to-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Walkonomics walking app comes to Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Walkonomics, a British-based company, is launching their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walkonomics.com\/w\/\" target=\"_blank\">walkability app<\/a> in Toronto. It&#8217;s a concept pioneered by American company Walkscore, whose frequent citation in real estate ads is a sign of the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.myreinspace.com\/2013\/03\/the-impact-of-walkability-on-real-estate-prices\/\" target=\"_blank\">increasing appeal of walkability in cities<\/a>. Walkscore has also been criticized, though, as a crude and sometimes misleading tool, and Walkonomics claims to bring additional refinements to the task of measuring walking appeal. From their <a href=\"http:\/\/walkonomics.com\/blog\/walkonomics-rates-the-pedestrian-friendliness-of-every-street-in-toronto\/\" target=\"_blank\">press release<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>While other walkability apps only measure how many destinations are within walking distance of a particular location, Walkonomics maps and rates each and every street for eight key walkability factors:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Road safety;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Easy to cross;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Pavement\/Sidewalk;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Hilliness;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Navigation;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Fear of crime;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Smart &amp; beautiful;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Fun &amp; relaxing.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>With the help of the City of Toronto, Walkonomics has mapped and rated over 42,000 street segments in Toronto for their pedestrian-friendliness. \u00a0We have been able to do this by analysing a large amount of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/open\" target=\"_blank\">Open Data<\/a>\u00a0from the city including:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Traffic levels;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Pedestrian accident locations;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Crime statistics;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Number of trees on each street;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Slope of streets and;<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Locations of pedestrian crossings.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>The Walkonomics app also allows local residents and communities to add their own ratings, reviews and ideas for improvement for each street.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<p>From the &#8220;high&#8221; rated streets <a href=\"http:\/\/walkonomics.com\/blog\/walkonomics-rates-the-pedestrian-friendliness-of-every-street-in-toronto\/\" target=\"_blank\">cited in the press release<\/a> and a quick review of a few locations, the app seems to biased towards residential streets and against\u00a0 shopping streets &#8212; for example, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walkonomics.com\/w\/index.php\/component\/jreviews\/search-results\/query:all\/jr_street:kensington+and+augusta%2C+toronto\/jr_radius:5\/jr_latitude:43.6543466\/jr_longitude:-79.40193699999998\/order:distance?Itemid=\" target=\"_blank\">Kensington Market<\/a> gets a low rating, and the popular section of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walkonomics.com\/w\/index.php\/component\/jreviews\/search-results\/query:all\/jr_street:Bloor+and+major\/jr_radius:5\/jr_latitude:43.66615040000001\/jr_longitude:-79.4062702\/order:distance?Itemid=\" target=\"_blank\">Bloor Street West\u00a0 in the Annex<\/a> gets a low rating while the leafy Annex residential streets nearby get high ratings.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the new app is a welcome addition to developing the concept of walkability. It will be interesting to see how this app evolves and competes with Walkscore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walkonomics, a British-based company, is launching their walkability app in Toronto. It&#8217;s a concept pioneered by American company Walkscore, whose frequent citation in real estate ads is a sign of the increasing appeal of walkability in cities. Walkscore has also been criticized, though, as a crude and sometimes misleading tool, and Walkonomics claims to bring<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/04\/16\/walkonomics-walking-app-comes-to-toronto\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Walkonomics walking app comes to Toronto&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":43098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[170,15,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maps","category-media","category-walking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Walkonomics walking app comes to Toronto - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/04\/16\/walkonomics-walking-app-comes-to-toronto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walkonomics walking app comes to Toronto - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Walkonomics, a British-based company, is launching their walkability app in Toronto. It&#8217;s a concept pioneered by American company Walkscore, whose frequent citation in real estate ads is a sign of the increasing appeal of walkability in cities. 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