Tag: WalkBike Worcester

Disability- and Age-Friendly Walk Audit in Worcester

On Tuesday July 18th, 2023, WalkMassachusetts conducted a walk audit with the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (CMRPC), WalkBike Worcester, and partners from Worcester’s Division of Public Health working under the REACH grant. The walk audit, focused on disability and age-friendly accessibility, took place around the Webster Square Towers in Worcester. This walk audit location and focus in particular was chosen based on crowd feedback during the Walk Audit Academy’s public sharing session in January when participants in the program talked about their walk audits. A large number of older adults with limited mobility live in the Worcester Housing Authority’s Webster Square Towers.

WalkMassachusetts had the pleasure of hearing the insights of a State Representative, a City Counselor, a public school teacher, and multiple local residents, including some using mobility devices. Staff from the Transportation & Mobility Department also joined; they’ve recently launched the Worcester Mobility Action Plan, which is open for comments through August 14th.

Much of the walk audit focused on intersections between Main Street, Mill Street, and Cambridge Street. Participants noted the difficulty of safely crossing these intersections due to short pedestrian signal times, high vehicle speeds, and long crosswalk lengths. As a visually impaired person, Liz noted the difficulty of crossing with minimal auditory signaling and inconstant tactile paving.

The walk audit also looked into sidewalk infrastructure, overgrown greenery, walking conditions, and amenities.

At the end of the Webster Square Towers walk audit, the group gathered together to share their observations. These comments as well as participants’ written notes will inform a report by WalkMassachusetts, outlining key pedestrian safety issues and recommendations. WalkMassachusetts is grateful for the local engagement at this walk audit and will use community feedback to advocate for more walkable areas in Worcester.

Streetsblog MASS: “A Walk Audit of Worcester”

Streetsblog MASS: “A Walk Audit in Worcester”

These photographs were all taken last December, for a virtual “walk audit” for the Indian Lake neighborhood that was hosted by WalkBoston, a statewide pedestrian advocacy organization, and WalkBike Worcester, a local advocacy group.
WalkBoston hosts walk audits all over the Commonwealth. Typically, they bring groups of people together to identify hazards and obstacles to foot traffic in a specific street of neighborhood. Since the pandemic began, WalkBoston has been conducting audits virtually, by sending advocates out to evaluate areas individually, collecting their findings via online forms, and discussing the results in group Zoom meetings.
“Even if what you’re seeing is depressing, the process is a tool to bring people together and build capacity and community assets to produce positive outcomes over the long run,” said LeighAnne Taylor, WalkBoston’s Program Manager and organizer of the Indian Lake event, in a phone conversation with Streetsblog after the walk audit. “Taking an inventory of all the issues is tedious, but it gives people an opportunity to make things happen when grants become available.”

Posted May 5, 2021

New Virtual Walk Audits: Worcester and Framingham

BY LEIGHANNE TAYLOR / WALKBOSTON PROGRAM MANAGER

Walk audits—one of WalkBoston’s most effective tools to change the built environment and build a constituency of walking advocates—face an obvious hurdle during the pandemic: we can’t meet in person. With more people walking than ever before, we could not hit pause and wait until it is safe to gather again. We adapted our walk audit process to be virtual to continue improving walking conditions. We have conducted four virtual walk audits since the pandemic began: in Salem, Springfield, Fitchburg, and Worcester—we wrapped up the latter two in January and discuss them below.

Fitchburg’s Intermodal Center Virtual Walk Audit is the second walk audit in a statewide project examining the connections between social infrastructure and walkability within transportation-oriented development (TOD) areas. Neighborhood data and resident perspectives will be captured in virtual conversations and self-led walk audits in five Gateway Cities in Massachusetts. This project is co-hosted by WalkBoston and MassINC, with support from the Solomon Foundation.

The Worcester Virtual Walk Audit was conducted by WalkBoston, WalkBike Worcester, and the Worcester Department of Public Health Mass in Motion Program. Residents requested the virtual audit, which is serving as a pilot program for Worcester’s upcoming Complete Streets Prioritization process.

How We Made Our Walk Audits Virtual

Session 1: Participants convene on Zoom for a Ped101 workshop to share their walking concerns, learn about walkability basics, and review the self-led walk audit process.
Self-led walk audit: Participants have two weeks to walk the specified route, and document photos and written observations about the walking environment.
Session 2: Post-walk, participants reconvene on Zoom to discuss and set plans for next steps.

We use Google Sites to share recordings of our Zoom meetings so those unable to attend the first session can watch and provide feedback on their neighborhood’s walkability. The recommendations made during the second session are summarized into a PowerPoint report and memo for participants to use and turn into actions.

Virtual walk audits have served as a valuable tool for conducting our community-partnered work in a socially- distanced world. While we look forward to resuming our in-person walk audits, we plan to leverage these digital engagement strategies in the future to hear from those unable to attend in-person. If you’re having success with virtual community engagement, we’d love to trade notes —get in touch!

This article was featured in WalkBoston’s January/February 2021 newsletter.
————————————————————————————————
Join WalkBoston’s Mailing List to keep up to date on advocacy issues.
Like our work? Support WalkBoston – Donate Now!
Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook

Worcester Indian Lake Virtual Walk Audit

On December 1 and December 15, 2020, WalkBoston conducted a virtual walk audit for the Indian Lake Neighborhood of Worcester, MA. WalkBoston, WalkBike Worcester, and Worcester Mass in Motion co-hosted this walk audit process, which was requested by residents who are interested in activating the open spaces of their neighborhood and making it more walkable. The walk audit process was covered in a Streetsblog Mass article on May 7, 2021.

Read the full report here.