New App Plots the Most Beautiful, Walkable Route

"Those interested in finding the most beautiful, walkable route to their destination can now try Walkonomics," reports Liz Camuti. " The app, created by United Kingdom programmer Adam Davies, allows users to find more beautiful paths through seven cities across the globe using both open and crowd-sourced city data."

The app is available for Android and iOS, and works in Central London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Buenos Aires, and Glasgow. To help users chose the most pedestrian-friendly and beautiful routes, "[t]he app provides star rankings for eight different categories of pedestrian-friendliness: road safety; easy to cross; pavement/sidewalk; hilliness; navigation; fear of crime; 'smart & beautiful;' and 'fun & relaxing.'"

Camuti also explains more about how the app works: "These ratings are generated from open data including street widths, traffic levels, crime statistics, pedestrian accidents, and even how many trees are on each street. Visitors and  residents can provide additional ratings for each of these criteria as they walk down streets in their neighborhood, as well as geo-referenced photos." Camuti also provides a review of the app's user experience.