Walkably: an address-level walkability score for 31 European countries, with every validation result reported

Walkably gives the streets of 31 European countries a walkability score from 0 to 100, on hexagonal cells about 95 m across. Reach, 60% of the score, measures walking minutes on the street network to eight daily needs. Street quality, 40%, measures traffic, busy roads, slope, summer shade and, where loaded, noise. A city or district score is the score where its typical resident lives, a median weighted by population. Places come from OpenStreetMap. Every pass mark was written down before any result was seen. Against the share of people who walk to work in census neighbourhoods, the score passes in all five places tested: France 0.73, Northern Ireland 0.70, Ireland 0.69, England and Wales 0.62 and Scotland 0.46 (median rank correlation per area; pass mark 0.35). It agrees with a 15-minute walking index for Amsterdam (0.74), with walking trips in the Madrid travel survey (0.44) and with official Dutch distances to supermarkets (0.86). Outside Europe, in the 10 largest US cities, it passes narrowly (0.36). It fails eight checks. Between towns, it passes in Czechia (0.44) but fails in Portugal (0.13) and Italy (−0.03). Across larger areas, it does not match walking to work city by city (0.00; a second version, walking or public transport, passes at 0.60), the share who walk by country and type of area (0.18) or satisfaction with public spaces in cities (0.10). Its street part fails against summer shade and a street audit in Barcelona. A plain count of places within 800 m also ranks neighbourhoods slightly better. Section 4 reports every check. The scores are free to reuse under the Open Database License.