Walk Score, the website that helps rate walkable communities in 40 U.S. cities, has added a transit tool. After users enter a street address, Transit Score ranks their neighborhood from 0 to 100 (“Rider’s Paradise”), based on the availability of transit service. The site also lists local transit routes, displays the nearest stops, and has a feature to show commuting options (based on home and work address) with a link to Google Transit for door-to-door directions. The easy-to-use site is a welcome addition, but it is only as good as the underlying data and a quick test run showed the value of local knowledge. A Boston-based neighborhood well-known to this editor received a Walk Score of 66 (“somewhat walkable”) and a Transit Score of 50 (“good transit”), both of which were probably realistic. But the list of available bus routes included a couple that may exist in the MBTA’s database but don’t provide local service, and plugging in a commute to Boston City Hall turned up some unexpected transit choices (although Google Transit got it right). The Walk Score Blog provides more details on the Transit Score project.
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