We’re very happy to say that the Walkonomics app for iPhone and Android is getting an upgrade and makeover today!  We have just launched version 2 of our free mobile app and not only does the app look and perform better, we’ve added some great new features.  The most exciting of which are its new WalkHood maps.

What is a WalkHood?

But what, we can hear you say, is a WalkHood?  Apart from being a made-up word, a WalkHood is the neighbourhood around your home that you can walk to within a certain amount of time (in this instance we have used 5 minutes).  Some people call this a WalkShed, others call it a WalkTime, we like to call it the WalkHood.  But instead of just drawing a 400 metre radius around each location, the Walkonomics app uses the street and footpath network to create a much more realistic WalkHood area.

To do this we have built a global walkable street network of every street and footpath in the world, that’s over 150 million street and footpath segments from OpenStreetMap.  This means that your WalkHood area will not cross physical barriers, like rivers, railways or motorways that are un-walkable.  Also unlike other Walkability apps that can only draw WalkSheds for a few major cities, Walkonomics can show WalkHood maps for any location in the world (as long as it has some streets or footpaths nearby).

This new WalkHood functionality means that Walkonomics not only measures the walkability of each street, but now also shows a wider measure of how walkable your local neighbourhood is.

What else is new?

In addition to WalkHood maps, the new Walkonomics app has several other new features including:

• Login using your Facebook, Twitter or Email address and use your profile to add street reviews;
• Add your own photos of streets as you rate them and view other peoples photos;
• See the Google Streetview of each street.

All these new features are added to the existing functionality of the app that enables you to check the walkability of nearby streets, view results on a map with colour-coded markers and add your own ratings.  So if you haven’t already got the app on iPhone or Android, then download it now and start exploring the walkability of your local streets and neighbourhood.