New App Maps and Rates the Pedestrian-friendliness of Every Street in Glasgow

Glasgow has joined the likes of San Francisco and Toronto with the launch of a new free app highlighting the city’s most pedestrian-friendly streets.

The new Glasgow Walkonomics app has been developed using data from Future City Glasgow’s open data portal http://open.glasgow.gov.uk/

The free app for iPhone, Android and the web, maps and rates city streets and neighbourhoods for key walkability factors including gradient (hilliness), the amenities available (shops etc) and whether the surroundings are beautiful, fun or relaxing.

Working with Future City Glasgow, Walkonomics has mapped and rated over 20,000 street segments in Glasgow for their pedestrian-friendliness. We have been able to do this by analysing a large amount of the cities Open Data, provided by Open Glasgow, including:

Over 20,000 street and footpath segments (over 1,300 miles in total);
Over 87,000 street trees;
Over 17,000 pavement widths;
Over 2,500 pedestrian accident locations;
Over 800 pedestrian crossings;
Crime statistics;
Complaints about litter and dog fouling;
Locations of shops, amenities and parks;
Slope of streets.

The Walkonomics app also allows local residents and communities to add their own ratings, reviews and ideas for improvement for each street. So Glaswegians who actually walk these streets every day, can give their own opinions on whether a street is pedestrian-friendly or not. Once a street has received over 10 reviews the information is sent to Glasgow City Council.

The app also provides a ‘WalkHood’ map for any location in Glasgow, which shows which parts of your local neighbourhood you can walk to in 5 minutes.

Most pedestrian-friendly streets in Glasgow

Unsurprisingly many of Glasgow’s footpaths and park paths gained the highest ratings of over 4 stars, including a footpath through Garrowhill Park. Other streets that were rated as very walkable include:

Walkable streets and neighbourhoods bring many benefits to cities and urban areas including improving health: a recent study found that cities that are walkable have 42% lower levels of diabetes and 33% lower levels of obesity than car-dependant cities. Walkable streets also help to boost the economy, increasing retail sales by up to 80% and adding up to £30,000 to the value of a home. With the new Walkonomics app, residents and visitors to Glasgow can find, rate and help improve the cities walkability.

Download the apps here:

For more details contact: hello@walkonomics.com or phone +44(0)7817937729

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