Frequently Asked Questions
+ Why should cities care about walkability?
A walkable community is known to increase health, happiness and economic prosperity of its inhabitants. Nearly 80% of Americans want to live in more walkable places, but cities lack the objective data needed to justify investing in more walkable, livable development. That’s where State of Place comes in!
+ What is State of Place?
State of Place is a predictive analytics software and research company. We help citymakers - government officials, real estate developers, and investors - equitably optimize the value of the built environment. Specifically, we use AI to pull data on 125+ urban design features from street-level imagery, and aggregate that into an Index that measures walkability, bikability, and livability. Data is visualized spatially, city-wide, identifying patterns of spatial inequities and divestments, and graphically, giving you a full inventory of block-level assets and needs. Our evidence-based models then recommend community-scale infrastructure investments most likely to optimize desired social, economic, environmental, and health value. While our Sim-City like scenario tool - designed to be used with communities - quantifies how proposed improvements translate into real-life outcomes, like reductions in collision rates or reduced asthma or increased tax revenues. Finally, our forecasting tools estimate the return on investment of proposed projects to help justify approvals and funding, get community buy-in, and maximize the value of limited resources.
+ How is State of Place different from Walk Score?
Walk Score is a well-known walkability index used by residential realtors and some urban planning researchers as a proxy for amenities. However, it hasn’t been widely adopted as a planning tool, because it is more aptly a proxy for walkability for mostly urban, affluent, and already walkable areas. Also consider that walkability is more than just access to and quality of destinations - it's about the safety, comfort, and pleasurability of the walk as well. The micro-scale nature of the data that we collect allows us to offer a more comprehensive measure of walkability that is more suitable for diagnostic purposes, which is partly what helps position State of Place as an effective data-driven, evidence-based planning, policy, and investment tool.
+ What is the State of Place Index?
The State of Place Index is a walkability, bikeability, and overall quality of place score from 0-100. It is based on 125+ built environment features – like sidewalks, benches, street trees, and land uses – that we collect block by block. It indicates how walkable – convenient, safe, pleasurable, and livable – a block, group of blocks, neighborhood, or city is. Read more here.
+ What is the State of Place Profile?
The State of Place Profile breaks down the State of Place Index into ten urban design “dimensions” empirically known to impact people’s perceptions of walkability and quality of place. It’s also broken up into four sets of urban design features – Urban Fabric, or the nuts and bolts of the neighborhood, its bones; various types of Destinations to walk to; the level of Human Comfort for the pedestrian; and Liveliness and Upkeep. These are organized in terms of their level of resiliency, or how hard it would be to change them once they are in place. For example, it’s much harder to increase density than to complete a sidewalk. Read more here.
+ How does Prioritization work?
Each of the ten urban design dimensions that make up the State of Place Profile have a different “magnitude” of impact on different outcomes. For example, pedestrian amenities may add more value for retail vs. office tenants; traffic safety may add more value than aesthetics for reducing vehicle miles travled or GHGs. Using a technique known as "multi-criterion analysis," our analytics platform sets evidence-based urban design priorities based on what customers goals actually want to achieve. Read more here.
+ How does Scenario Analysis work?
Once we have collected data on your project area and you have set your priorities, you can essentially play "SimCity" - adding benches, trees, widening sidewalks, adding mixed-use development - to a block, set of blocks, neighborhood, etc. - and see how that would impact the State of Place Index and Profile - in real time. In other words, cities can use this to test how their plans would actually improve quality of place - and even use it to objectively evaluate responses to their RFPs! And developers can use it to see how their plans would "measure" up to the State of Place Index of competing properties - and add amenities if their original visions fall short! Read more here.
+ How does Forecasting work?
Over the past decade, State of Place has developed various statistical models that quantify the economic, social, health, and environmental value of the built environment, as measured by the State of Place Index. These models allow us to forecast how proposed plans, developments, and/or investments translate into various outcomes, from real estate values to the likelihood of vehicle collisions, to how much people drive.
For example, one of our first forecasting models was based on a Brookings Institution study, that quantified the relationship between State of Place and real estate value. Specifically, we found that for each additional 20 points on the State of Place Index, there was an increase of about $9/sq.ft. for office rents, $7/sq.ft. for retail rents, an 80% increase in retail revenues, a $300 increase in residential rents, and an $81/sq.ft. increase in for-sale residential values. Based on the Brookings findings, we created a forecasting model to predict how changes in the State of Place Index may impact economic value. So our software can calculate how projected increases to the State of Place Index (based on your proposed plans or investments) would impact real estate premiums, as well as calculate the value capture and ROI of your projects. Read more here.
+ What do the Index and Profile show together?
The State of Place Index & Profile, together, provide a quantitative assessment of existing walkability, bikeability, and over quality of place, which provides an objective assessment of built environment assets and needs, highlights urban design features to be targeted for potential redevelopment/intervention, and (when a whole neighborhood is assessed) indicates which blocks or set of blocks need the most TLC. It lays the groundwork for more data-driven, evidence-based urban design, planning, and development. Read more here.
+ What are the 10 Urban Design Dimensions?
The 10 Urban Design Dimensions are Form, Density, Connectivity, Proximity (to non-residential locations), Parks & Public Spaces, Recreational Facilities, Pedestrian & Bike Amenities, Traffic Safety, Aesthetics, and Personal Safety. The State of Place Index is composed these ten urban design dimensions, which are empirically known to impact people’s decisions to walk, based on a meta-analysis (study of studies) of the relationship between the built environment and walking/physical activity. Download a handy guide here.
+ Which features do you collect data on?
We collect data on over 125 urban design features – like street trees, sidewalks, benches, curbcuts, etc. – related to walkability, bikeability, and overall quality of place, at the street level. These "micro-scale" built environment features are what impact the "touch, see, and feel" of walkability - the things that actually impact our choice to walk and the experience of that walk. Read more here.
+ How do you collect data and who collects it?
We use AI-based visual machine learning and machine learning models to automatically extract data on 125+ urban design features from street-level images, allowing us to collect very detailed built environment data for an entire city or portfolio!
If you have followed State of Place for a while, you may know that historically, we used to collect this data manually, with trained human raters. Raters used to go through a training process to ensure the integrity and reliability of the data, including a video training and quiz. Data collection used to take about 20-25 minutes per block, and the data was collected using our State of Place app, and could be done virtually via Google Street View. Virtually anyone could be trained to collect this data, including high school students and community members. We will offer data trainings for those wanting to collect this data for their communities.
+ How do you define a block?
A block is the street segment between two intersections and includes both side of the street.
+ Does State of Place have data for my city?
We have collected data on over 50,000 blocks across the U.S. and internationally and are continually growing. Please contact us to inquire about your specific geographical area of interest!
+ How does my Index compare to other cities?
The State of Place Index is composed of ten urban design dimensions and that’s why two neighborhoods with the same Index may have very different Profiles. The highest score is determined by the highest observed score in our database, as you don't need to have all 125+ features to be considered walkable or to have good quality of place. Read more about what a typical block looks like at each “level” of the State of Place Index.
+ Can State of Place be used in a rural community?
Yes! Our algorithm was tested on a sample of neighborhoods that included a mix of urban, suburban, exurban and rural communities with a variety of land-use mixes, densities, and of course, walkability. Read more here.
+ How reliable is the Index?
When we first applied the algorithm, we carefully constructed a sample of neighborhoods - as part of a Brookings Institution study our Founder co-authored with Chris Leinberger - that varied from low to high walkability and everything in between. We started with the "universe" of neighborhoods in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region - 201 neighborhoods to be exact. We placed these neighborhoods along a "continuum" of walkability based on their Walk Scores and divided them into 5 levels of walkability according to the mean (average score) and standard deviation (on average how "far" was each neighborhood away from the average score) and then sampled a random, representative number of neighborhoods from each level (this sampling strategy is called random representative stratified sampling). In total, there were 66 neighborhoods in the sample, that served a "microcosm" of the various types of neighborhoods found in the region (and across typical U.S Metros) and included a mix of urban, suburban, exurban and rural communities with a variety of land-use mixes, densities, and of course, walkability. Since collecting data for 1500+ blocks across the original sample of 66 neighborhoods, we have grown our database to over 50,000 blocks - and the original scores have pretty much held constant. What this means in plain speak is that we did not "a priori" decide what a neighborhood should and should not have to be considered a great place. We simply let the numbers do the talking. In that same vein, we do NOT assign weights to any specific features over others. Read more here.
+ Have you verified the economic predictions of your software?
Not yet. It takes time for projects to actually be constructed, and we need time after that to see the economic effects.
+ Who are your clients?
We have worked with over 45 different "citymakers" worldwide, including the City of Philadephia, WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority), CalTrans, SBB (Swiss Railways) Downtown West Palm Beach, Uptown Houston, the Kilbourne Group, Lionstone Investments, the City of Tigard, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Cit of Irvine, Velocity Group, Asbury Park, Lee Highway Alliance, Downtown Sacramento Partnership, Madison County Council of Governments, the Conservation Law Foundation, and others.
+ Where is your team located?
We are a remote and distributed team! We can be found in Boston, MA; Shanghai, China; Tel Aviv, IS; Las Vegas, NV, and more. Please check out our team page!
+ How much does it cost?
We sell State of Place via a "Data as a Service" and "Software as a Service" model, based on a subscription term. Pricing depends on the the number of blocks you're looking to assess, the number of custom forecasting models needed, and the length of subscription term. Additional advisory services may be available. In general, a basic subscription costs $25K/year, plus the costs of blocks you'd like access to.
+ What can I expect as a State of Place client?
Once you join the State of Place family, we will discuss your current project with you (how many blocks, what is your timeline...), and then we will collect the data on your specified blocks. Once data collection is complete, we will grant you access to the web-based State of Place platform, where you will be free to explore your State of Place Index & Profile for each block or group of blocks, create as many Scenario Analyses as you’d like, and generate Forecasts of your proposed changes. We have an experienced and friendly support team who are always a click or call away! We see all of our clients as family, and most importantly, teammates in this effort to foster more just, thriving communities.