Walk England launched www.walk4life.info in September 2010 as the public-facing walking information portal.
Over 600 local and national partners have signed up to the site to provide walking routes and information about led walks on those routes on a postcode-searchable Ordnance Survey mapbase. Walkers now have a new place to find interesting and enjoyable local walks.
Walk4life provides a single, free, simple to use place to find a short walk close to where people live.
The website already has over 3,500 walking routes, and more are being added daily by the public and organisations that support walking. The walks are shown on Ordnance Survey maps and can be printed out to take along on walks.
The walks are generally short enough to fit into everyday life, although there are some longer ones on there too. Some of the walks are special Walk4Life Miles, one mile long walking routes designed to be as accessible as possible. They are waymarked with distinctive Walk4Life Miles markers on the ground. By 2012 there will be 2012 one mile waymarked routes!
The site isn’t just a walk finder though, anyone can add their own walk using the easy to use ‘create your walk’ function, and can add comments to their own and other people’s walks and upload photos.
A key feature of the site is the ability to record activity – every time a walk is completed the website adds the miles to the user’s daily total, enabling them to see a record over the months. There is also the opportunity on some of the Walk4Life Miles to take a walking fitness test so people can see how their fitness compares with other people their age.
The Groups function has recently been launched which allows users to join walking groups, or start their own. Once in a group, you can then search the website for a suitable virtual challenge to keep you all motivated. Why not challenge your group to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall? Every mile you walk is added to your total towards the challenge.
Currently only group members can take challenges but challenges for individuals will be available soon.
