Inman

Walk Score expands ‘bikeability’ ratings to 25 US cities

Seattle-based real estate technology developer Walk Score — widely known as a provider of ratings for addresses based on their "walkability" and ease of commute — has expanded its Bike Score ratings to 25 U.S. and 11 Canadian cities today.

Bike Scores launched in May, providing "bikeability" ratings (a score above 70 out of 100 is considered good) based on bike lanes, road connectivity, hills, and concentration of bikers for any address in 20 large cities, 10 in the U.S. and 10 in Canada, including New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal.

As a result of a May 14-31 poll where users voted for the 10 U.S. cities they most wanted to see Bike Scores in next, Walk Score has added (listed in order of most votes) bikeability ratings in:

  • Cincinnati (Bike Score: 37)
  • Austin, Texas (45)
  • Pittsburgh (39)
  • Philadelphia (68)
  • Miami (57)
  • Oakland, Calif. (57)
  • Houston (49)
  • Los Angeles (54)
  • Eugene, Ore. (75)
  • San Diego (48)

Walk Score has also added Bike Scores in five additional U.S. cities: Ann Arbor, Mich.; Boulder, Colo.; Fort Collins, Colo.; Tempe, Ariz.; and Tyler, Texas.

In any of these cities, users, in addition to seeing Bike Scores for specific addresses, can access a heat map that shows overall ease of biking throughout the city based on five filters: Bike Score, bike lanes, hills, destinations, and concentration of bikers.


Walk Score’s heat map of Austin, Texas’ "bikeability" based on bike lanes. 

Walk Score says it delivers more than 6 million scores for apartment and home addresses per day across a network of more than 15,000 real estate sites, including Zillow.com, ZipRealty.com, ForRent.com and Windermere Real Estate.

In September, Walk Score launched a neighborhood info service based on photos and descriptions from Walk Score users that aims to give homebuyers and renters a feel for a neighborhood while searching for a place to live online.

Walk Score announced in January that it had raised $2 million from investors. Chief Technology Officer Matt Lerner said at the time that Walk Score aims "to build another great Seattle real estate company" like Zillow, Redfin and Windermere Real Estate.