WalkScore Launches Commute Comparisons Feature

Commuting is expensive and nobody likes to be stuck in traffic. Most of us want to live close to the people and places we love.

So today we're launching a feature that lets you compare commute and travel times for any property. Let's say you're looking for an apartment where you can drive to school and your roommate can take public transit downtown. Just add those commutes to your Favorites and you'll see something like this:

Or let's say you're looking at homes for sale on any of the 30,000 real estate sites that use Walk Score. You can click on the score to visit Walk Score and start comparing the homes you're considering.

To get started comparing commutes, click here. You can compare travel times with and without rush hour traffic, by public transit, walking and biking.

How much does your commute matter? Here are some of our favorite commuting facts:

• Commuting by car is expensive. Be sure to consider the cost of your car, gas and parking when deciding where to live. The average American spends over $9,000 per year on their car. That's the second largest expense for most households — and a lot of coin!
• U.S. commuters waste over 4 billion hours per year in traffic. Commuting 10 extra minutes per day adds up to a full day over the course of a year! Imagine spending that time with your friends and family, working on your favorite hobby or volunteering in your community instead.
• There's even evidence that short commutes make you happier.

How do you calculate travel times? Good question! Our rush hour drive times give you an accurate picture of travel times during peak commute hours. Rush hour drive times are based on average traffic in your city. The rush hour times we show give you a 90% probability of arriving on time. In other words, there's a 10% chance you'll have a longer commute due to an accident, snow storm, Super Bowl parade, etc.

We've also collected transit data from over 300 transit agencies to calculate public transit times and we use road network data from Open Street Map to compute walk and bike times. Read more about our Travel Time API.

We look forward to helping you find a better commute!

To view the original article, visit the WalkScore blog.