History
The site launched with coverage of central London in 2006. The cities of Edinburgh and Birmingham were then added within the first year. The service now also covers Aberdeen, Aylesbury, Bolton, Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Glasgow, High Wycombe, Ipswich, Leeds, Lowestoft, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Gateshead, Norwich, Nottingham, Oldham, Portsmouth, Salford, Sheffield, Stockport, Sunderland, Trafford and Wigan, with an ongoing programme of launches in new cities and towns.
walkit.com is independently owned and managed by a team of staff based in Birmingham, London and Norfolk.
Services
The site generates both A to B and circular routes, providing printable written directions and maps. As walkit.com is specifically tailored to pedestrians, it includes data that is omitted from many traditional vehicle-based journey planners, such as routes across parks, beside rivers and canals and along footpaths and alleyways. There is also the option to select a 'less busy' route, which avoids main roads where possible. Some cities also have additional features, such as step-free routes, hill profiles, and air-pollution aware routes.
walkit.com also hosts a blog page, an events page highlighting walking related events in its featured cities, and information pages on walking for health, walking to work, walking to school and going green.
In 2010, personalised walkit accounts were launched in the form of mywalkit (free) and mywalkit+ (£1.50 per month/£15.00 annually). Subscribers to the mywalkit account are able to personalise their walking speed in order to provide more accurate walking statistics. The mywalkit+ account allows subscribers to keep a log of their previous walks, as well as setting three different personalised speeds, and keep a record of their carbon savings.
walkit.com also allows users to create 'link to us' widgets for their own sites, in order to promote walking. Widgets can be specifically created for directions to or from particular destinations, between two specific locations, or for circular walks from a predefined point.
walkit.com has both a Facebook fan page and group and an active Twitter account.
Awards
Walkit.com has been both shortlisted for and received a number of awards since its creation.
These include one of "The Guardian's 100 top sites for 2009" [1], one of "The Telegraph's 101 most useful websites of 2008" [2] and one of "Time Out's 50 Best London Websites" in 2008 [3].
walkit.com was named the winner of the "Most Innovative Transport Project" at the National Transport Awards in 2008 [4], and shortlisted for both the "Ethical Business of the Year" by the Observer Ethical awards 2008 [5], and the "Media Guardian Innovation Awards" in 2008 [6].