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Features & Articles : Three Perfect Days in Silicon Valley
What
Are Walking Audits?
page 4
A walking audit
is a tool to enable people in a community to identify barriers to
more and safer walking. Typically four hours long, the audit is
an evolution of the Pedestrian
Roadshow pioneered by the Federal Highway Administration
and National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They quickly and
effectively raise awareness of the political, technical, and practical
issues that combine to make a street or neighborhood walkable, and
they begin to identify potential solutions. Although every walking
audit is a little different, they usually include the following
key elements:
a) a visual introduction to walkability drawing on national and
local examples
b) a local presenter who describes particular local problem or situation
c) a walk in the community to identify good and bad conditions
d) a discussion of people's observations on the walk, and
e) agreement on possible action items and/or proposed improvements
Depending on the
community hosting the workshop, the session may focus on general walkability
issues, specific problems within a community, or a single site or
roadway with particular problems such as a school, main street, or
major intersection.
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