Waterloo resident launches walking route planner

Visitors to www.walkit.com can generate a walking route between any two points (using a postcode or street name) in central London.

As well as producing a route map the site calculates the journey time (according to a slow/medium/fast walking pace) and the distance to be travelled. It even works out the number of calories burnt in walking that distance and the amount of carbon dioxide saved by not travelling by car/taxi/bus/tube.

"Most of us who live or work in central London suspect that we could probably substitute a lot of our tube, car and bus journeys with walking," comments web developer Jamie Wallace. "But we're often not sure how long it will take, and unlike the tube, we find London's complex street pattern difficult to navigate. Walkit.com tackles these issues head on by providing a customised map for each journey you want to take, as well as eye-catching pieces of health and environmental information."

The site shows that it can take as little as 29 minutes to walk from Tate Britain to Tate Modern, burning over 150 calories (over half a Mars bar) along the way.

Planned enhancements include the facility to submit information about additional walking-friendly routes (such as cut-throughs, alleys, footbridges) that the database may not currently include. Over time this will allow people to share their local knowledge with a growing community of walkit.com users.

walkit.com has been developed with support from UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.