This Interactive Heat Map Will Show You the Most Walkable Areas
When choosing where to stay next on your trip or what area to move to, you’ll probably want to know how long it will take you to get to the amenities you need. Close is an interactive heat map that shows travel times to places like supermarkets, schools, parks, libraries and restaurants by walking, biking and/or public transport.
The Close feature can be especially useful if you’re traveling to an unfamiliar city and want to book an Airbnb or other short-term rental in the area, and even more so if you don’t have access to a vehicle. You can check the listing’s walkability information and nearby amenities against the Close map to determine what’s actually nearby.
How to Use Close to Find Walkable Neighborhoods
Open the map Close and enter the city or county you are interested in in the search bar in the upper left corner. You can edit the types of amenities you want to show on the map in the Destinations box in the bottom left corner (click Add Destination ) and choose whether you want to see times based on walking, biking, or walking + transit. You can also turn specific entertainment spots on or off – if they’re on, you can click on points on the map to see the name and address of a supermarket, restaurant, school, etc.
As you add or remove destinations, the block-by-block heat map will change to show the travel time (from less than five minutes to more than 30 minutes) to reach the furthest of those locations using your selected transportation methods. You can also select a specific block to see a breakdown of travel times.
Close also has a breakdown of amenities classifications , such as the difference between supermarkets and convenience stores. Note that the tool is currently in public beta, so expect it to evolve a bit over time.