Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 1

Transcription

1 Grant agreement no. IEE/08/566/S ACTIVE ACCESS Photo courtesy of Harry Schiffer, FGM AMOR GUIDANCE ON CONDUCTING WALKING AUDITS Start date of the action: 01/08/2009 Duration: 36 months End date of the action: 31/07/2012 Author: Bronwen Thornton, Walk21 Project website: Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 1

2 Legal disclaimer: The sole responsibility for the content of this report lies with the authors. It does not represent the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 2

3 FOREWARD The IEE funded Active Access project aims to encourage walking and cycling, to improve health, energy consumption and the local economy through the implementation of a variety of measures by 11 project partners across 10 EU countries. Across Europe there is wide variation in the quality and availability of infrastructure to support walking and cycling as well as different attitudes of politicians and the public to the use of active modes and sustainable transport in general. It is therefore very important to be aware of these differences when beginning projects such as Active Access and to prepare the ground in that regards. It was decided that a simple, impressive and cost effective way of preparing the ground for Active Access activities in implementation cities and areas was to conduct one or more walking audits with key stakeholders in every Active Access location. The main purpose of these walking audits was to engage local politicians, senior managers and other professional staff and to highlight both the importance of walking and cycling and the objectives and activities of the Active Access project. Walking audit is an introduction, the starting phase of the awareness raising activities to build acceptance of walking and cycling as a transport mode and encourage their use. For those cities/areas which are more advanced in terms of an active travel culture it was used both to maintain awareness of the importance of walking and cycling networks and to identify additional improvements which can be made. In order to assist implementation partners in conducting walking audits, project partner Walk21 prepared a guidance document based on their extensive experience and expertise. Originally produced as an internal document, it was decided that this guidance would benefit others wishing to use walking audits as a way of raising the profile of active travel in their local areas. For the full report on the results of the walking audits conducted as part of the Active Access project, to which this guide is an Annex, and more information on the project itself, please visit Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 3

4 GUIDANCE ON WALKING AUDITS For Active Access, the purpose of the walking audit is predominantly to engage local politicians, senior managers and other professional staff with both the importance of walking and the objectives and outcomes of the project. It is important to ensure that the time spent on street maximises the opportunity you have with your audience and helps them to develop street eyes that can see walking in a more holistic and beneficial way. In this guidance you will find: 1. How to prepare and deliver your Walking Audit in 6 easy steps - all the issues and questions you need to consider 2. Notes on some of the walking audit tools that are available 3. More information about the different principles of the International Charter for Walking and what that means on street 4. Some examples of how people have translated walking audits into action. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 4

5 1. Preparing for your Walking Audit / Walkabout Steps and Questions Notes Step 1: Define your purpose What is the goal of this walkabout? How will it inform people about your project? How you will use information gathered during the walk? Will it be the only one or the first of many? Other Notes Step2: Identify your Audience List stakeholders to invite and identify key people For each stakeholder: What is their current attitude to walking: support/oppose/haven t thought about it? What do they need to know to support your project? Who might help you to engage them? Other notes Step 3: Select your Location Where do you want to walk? Select the area outside the centre. What issues do you want to highlight during the walk? What destinations do you want to include? Is it an area with a supportive local politician? Other notes Step 4: Design the Walk How long will it be? Remember allow lots of time to stop and talk Select start and finishing points. Is there somewhere to gather? Walk the route are there any serious risks to leading a walk here? Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 5

6 Steps and Questions Notes Will there be unnecessary distractions or places of low interest? Other notes Step 5: Materials for the walk Prepare a map of the walking route Make a list of issues and highlights against points on the map Capture the experience with a digital camera Bring images of potential solutions to illustrate the opportunities Other notes Step 6: Debrief after the walk Ask participants to suggest the 3 best things for walking they saw Ask participants to suggest the 3 worst things for walking on the route Highlight on a wall map the nicest places to walk and the worst places Ask participants what they can do for walking in your town Invite participants to be involved in your project and identify how they will be committed. Thank everyone for coming and promise feedback and next steps Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 6

7 2. Walking Audit Tools There is a vast array of audit tools available, which all serve different purposes and provide different styles of information about the walking environment. Walking audit tools fall roughly into two categories: 1. Technical Audits designed to identify deficiencies in the physical environment and generate a list of works. This process generally consists of undertaking a technical analysis of the environment against an agreed standard or set of guidelines, for example road safety audits. 2. People-centred Audits: designed to engage with people about the walking environment and garner support as well as ideas and input to potential works or activities. This process generally consists of doing walkabouts with local stakeholders, gathering opinions, feelings and ideas, sharing aspirations and identifying opportunities for change. Very often a combination of these two methods provides the most comprehensive audit of the local walking environment. As walking is not just a technical exercise, but an important facet of community life, seeking local input and experience of a particular street or location can provide essential information about how people use and enjoy (or not) a street or space. Some audit methods offer a blend of the above two approaches, combining a technical analysis with community engagement. For example, the Community Street Audit model developed and delivered by Living Streets in the United Kingdom enables local people to have input about their local walking environment, while the professional auditor undertakes a trained analysis of the street as well. It is not usually possible to lead an audit that engages with local stakeholders and completes a comprehensive technical analysis at the same time. People can be very distracting and demanding and require concentration and conversation! It is therefore, usually necessary for the technical audit to be undertaken either before or after the people-centred audit. It will help to know what points or issues are most likely to capture your stakeholders attention and imagination and to ensure your audit addresses these, whether it is the feeling and quality of space or the detail of pavement widths and crossing times. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 7

8 Walking Checklists One of the most readily available tools to help people audit/assess their local walking environments is the Walking Checklist. These are available from many different places and reflect the different priorities of the people who have developed them and who will use them. Checklists provide questions about or guidance on the dimensions of a walking environment, so that people can either score, make notes, or answer questions about these dimensions as they undertake the walkabout. Walking Checklists tend to work with a people-centred approach to the audit, asking people to score their own environment and their experience of it. However, most technical audits will also use a checklist, asking the auditor to score the environment against an agreed standard or level of service. To support the checklist, people can also carry a map of the area or street to be audited and mark highlights, issues, ideas on it. Depending on the extent of the area to be considered, it can be helpful to mark up the maps to reflect the walking experience in colours, so that places that are good for walking get coloured in green, bad in red and average in yellow (traffic lights). This is a quick and easy but effective way to capture and communicate about walking in the neighbourhood. Here is a range of checklists that are available in English from a variety of places. While they may not be directly relevant for you to use, they can provide ideas for some questions you would particularly like to focus on. From the United States of America Kansas City Missouri Designed to get local people engaged with walking and invite them to participate in the strategic planning process for the City Walkability Plan. Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Centre This checklist is designed to support people to be proactive about seeking improvements to their neighbourhoods. It is child-centred and in addition to providing questions to answer during the walk, also provides ideas and resources for making changes and improving the walking experience. An online interactive tool which people can printout to take on their walkabout and then enter the result online to obtain feedback on results and recommendations. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 8

9 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention USA This workplace walkability audit could be very helpful, as it comes in a range of languages including Spanish, French and German and focuses on the workplace. The website also contains directions for documenting the audit. It is a more complex auditing tool but may be useful for specific projects. Canada This short checklist is part of a comprehensive campaign to encourage more people to walk and to want walkable communities. It is brief, but engaging and while not as comprehensive as some lists, does cover the essentials without overwhelming first time users. This is an online tool which is completed after a walk and is submitted to the icanwalk campaign group, to the officers responsible for the area where the participant walked. It is an easy way for people to engage with the campaign as they can complete the form about a walk they do every day without having to make an extra trip. This is a list of issues to think about when doing school site walkabouts. It includes points about how the school operates, as well as facilities and the impact of traffic. You could use this list to build your own set of questions for a school audit tool. Australia This is a comprehensive audit tool for local communities to use. It has a particularly good system for helping people to judge the walking environment and potential problems from the perspective of different users. It also explains issues, provides ideas and even indicative costings for potential remedial works. United Kingdom Living Streets Community Street Audits Community Street Audits are designed as a starting point for local people to undertake their own audit or the framework for professional audits. When conducted by trained professionals, the auditor does not use a checklist, but facilitates a conversation so that participants can talk freely about the issues that they want to raise. The auditor will ensure the necessary range of issues is addressed and will undertake separate technical analysis of the street to supplement the information gathered from local participants. Technical Audit Tools Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 9

10 PERS Pedestrian Environment Review System ssess_and_improve_walking_provision_using_pers.htm From: Transport Research Laboratory, (TRL) United Kingdom PERS is a tool that practitioners can use to audit the walking environment and analyse the results, providing good graphical presentation, quick win lists and clear mapping of issues and required works. Training to use the tool and a reference manual is provided on purchase from TRL or you can contract TRL to undertake the audit work directly. PERS does not directly engage the local community in the audit process. The audit is usually undertaken by a practitioner who has received training in the technology and how to judge the walking environment. PERS records a set of scores and notes about the streets and places auditted. While it does not prescribe the Level of Service to be met, this can be adjusted to suit the priorities of the Local Authority or agency using the technology. It is a comprehensive tool, but still relies on the judgement of the individual using it. For greatest consistency in managing the walking environment it is recommended that officers receive training about walking environments and form a core team of auditors. For example, for Transport for London, PERS auditors must have undertaken training to understand the dimensions of a walking environment as well as learning how to use the tool. PERS is a very useful tool for a Local Authority who wants to establish a clear Level of Service for walking and then measure it for regular works and maintenance schedules. Road Safety Audits A road safety audit is a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent audit team. It considers safety hazards for all road users and identifies options for addressing them. There is usually specific training for road safety audit officers to ensure they learn not only how to apply established safety standards but also the range of options to address the issues identified. Road Safety Audits are generally conducted by highways agencies and contractors and have traditionally sat within a motor vehicle, road oriented context. This can result in recommendations for people walking that remove them altogether or segregate them from traffic, rather than reducing the danger vehicles present to people by lowering speeds or reducing motor traffic. Safety Audits aimed at supporting more walking need to ensure recommendations for addressing identified safety hazards, do not detract from the pedestrian experience or priority, but seek to provide a more comfortable, pleasant environment for walking. For example, putting up barriers to prevent people from walking along a clear desire line will reduce the level of service for people walking, while potentially increasing the hazard as people choose to jump over it or walk in the road to go around it. The following examples illustrate how pedestrian movement is compromised or not properly provided for when traffic managers address situations considered unsafe from the view of vehicle movement only. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 10

11 Has the fence/barrier improved safety or made it more dangerous? While it is easy to say, he shouldn t be there, the more important question is why does he want to cross the road here and where are the crossing points? If they are too far apart or not on the pedestrian desire line, people do take these type of risks. If we are working from a position of encouraging people to walk, then we need to make sure we are providing for how people want to move around their neighbourhoods. When it was observed that people were crossing here to reach their local library, but that the busy road was dangerous, the council put up this sign. Instead of prohibiting pedestrians, this crossing point should be made safe for people to cross to their local library. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 11

12 3. Images and ideas against the principles of the International Charter for Walking and what this means on the street 1. Inclusive mobility How does it feel to be in this space? To walk along the street, to cross the road? Does everyone feel comfortable walking and being here? 2. Well designed and managed spaces and places for people Is there enough space for people walking and cycling? Whether space is shared or segregated, there needs to be enough room for the volumes of people walking and cycling to move comfortably along the street. Observations of people choosing to walk in the road, will invariably indicate a sidewalk that is too narrow, even if it meets the standard. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 12

13 Are pavements wide enough for people walking? Sidewalks should be ideally at least 1.8m wide, to enable 2 people in wheelchairs, with pushchairs or mobility devices to pass. This is clear width. Pavements are often filled with clutter, temporary signs, rubbish and misplaced street furniture. Narrow sidewalks can put pedestrians into dangerous situations, by forcing them into the road. The imbalance in space provision can be easily addressed, by simply adding more pavement, as this example from Bath, England illustrates. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 13

14 This comfortable sidewalk has plenty of space for a clear movement zone, marked by the dark edging to assist blind people to navigate, a clutter zone for street trees and furniture and space in front of the shops for advertising and lingering. Buffer zones between footpaths and roads can give parents confidence when walking with children and to allow them to walk alone, for example to school. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 14

15 Street furniture Clutter Zones create tidy streetscapes, with clear movement zones and comfortable spaces to linger. They can also create buffer zones between pedestrians and traffic. Locate rubbish bins, traffic lights and street lights on the one pole to minimise street clutter. People need somewhere to sit and seating invites people to linger and enjoy public space. Especially for seniors, seating every 200m can mean the difference between making a journey and staying home. Seating can be informal and creative street furniture, as well as regular benches. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 15

16 Vehicles should never be allowed to occupy footpath space. This is not only intrusive and hazardous for people walking but damages the footpath which isn t built for carrying vehicle weights. Are the surfaces of good quality? Uneven surfaces can be hazardous for many walkers, whether broken by motor vehicles or from changes in materials. A clear even surface and building edge makes moving and navigating easier for older people and blind people. Street cleaning making the most of what you ve got! Sweeping streets and dressing up items like these utility boxes creates a more positive space that people will enjoy being in for very little money. Decorating utility boxes can be a community art project or sponsored by local businesses. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 16

17 3. Improved integration of networks Do road crossings break the footpath or does the footpath get priority? In this first image cars have priority at this side street while in the second picture cars clearly have to slow down and pedestrians have priority across the intersection. Continuing the footpath, at level, across side streets, provides not only a continuous quality experience for people walking, but also manages vehicle speeds through the intersection. Are there clear signs and maps to help people on their journey or invite them to explore? Area maps with directional signage, walking times and landmarks highlighted. On-site signage is one of the best returns on investment (results from stated preference surveys), giving people the confidence to choose to walk. Maps and signage not only provide information but also promote walking and how close places actually are. Highlighting what is within 5 minutes walking can help people orientate and navigate more readily. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 17

18 5. Reduced Road Danger Is the traffic mix and speed right for the street? If heavy vehicles are using streets where children walk to school or people shop and spend time, it is important to review the road heirarchy and identify alternative routes so that those places and streets where people spend more time on foot are comfortable and inviting to do so. Is it possible and safe to cross the road? Reducing crossing distance and increasing crossing times, makes it safer and more comfortable for walkers. Road crossings can give priority to pedestrians by being at level with the sidewalk (a raised table for traffic if necessary) and wide enough for the volume of people. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 18

19 6. Less crime and fear of crime Is there good lighting for people to feel safe after dark? Lighting for pedestrians needs to be low level and continuous so you don t get pools of light separated by dark zones. Activity on the street and lights in shop windows also helps make people feel safer. 8. A culture of walking Are the streets alive with activity and people? Gammel Strand Copenhagen, before and after 1991 (Gehl Architects) Local authorities need to actively invite people to enjoy their local streets by enabling them to close the streets to traffic, hold markets, parties and outdoor cafes in the spaces historically (or currently) occupied by vehicles (both moving and parked). Local authorities can remove the right to park, so that the space can be occupied with more interesting and enticing endeavours. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 19

20 Is it possible to celebrate walking here? Open the streets! for people Streets do not need to be permanently closed, but sundays are a great day to stop vehicle traffic and give the space over to communities to enjoy. Many places start doing this in the summer and then find it so popular continue Sunday closures all year and even all week! Local authorities can enable motivated communities to do Sunday closures by providing the necessary barriers to stop vehicles, protection with public liability insurance, promotional space on web pages and in news outlets. Local authorities can also host events to attract people to these liberated spaces in their towns. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 20

21 4. How do we translate the walkabout into change and/or support for our projects specifically and walking in general? Walking audits can inform individual projects, i.e. what changes will we make on this street, in this neighbourhood. They can also provide illustrative experiences of the city/town as a whole to understand how policies and programmes have to change to support widespread walking and cycling. The building blocks of change we have seen work well are: Political engagement Staff networks and relationships Budget commitment Clear objectives and measures of success Below are two examples of how people have used information from a walking audit and translated it into better outcomes for walking. The City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: walking together This example tells how going on a walkabout together helped build an internal network and engage a political champion to build the foundation for making walking a priority. In the City of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada, the Public Health Officers have built relationships with senior engineers in Public Works. The council s commitment (in policy) to active transportation opened the door for Public Health Officers to have input on new public infrastructure and transport planning projects. These officers also connected with a Councillor in their City who supports the agenda for more walking and can bring influence to bear on how the budget is allocated in the next financial year. All the different departments and officers involved were brought together for an inspiring and informative workshop about walking and how their city could make improvements. Individuals started to identify how they were able to provide for walking, to meet other officers who were undertaking projects they could support, to develop a shared vision and to meet an internal network of others who were interested in walking. The walkabouts which were part of the workshop, highlighted to officers involved, just how differently you have to start looking at the street to understand how to make it better for walking. Entrenched positions about the priority of truck routes, traffic speeds and traffic volumes start to ebb away when people not only experience the environment on foot, but understand how traffic impacts on people. People left the workshop feeling less alone and the group continues to meet, undertake walkabouts and identify opportunities for budget allocations in the next round of financial commitments. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 21

22 The London Borough of Hounslow: improving walking in the suburbs This example tells how an audit can identify small but effective changes that can be made within existing budgets for roadworks to improve the walking environment as well. Living Streets were contracted by the Council to undertake audits of several suburban streets and make recommendations for improvements to the walking facilities. The council officers had money in their budget to improve the roads and wanted to include improvements for people walking as well as vehicles. Audits had to be conducted and recommendations reported very quickly to ensure they could be built in to the design and build schedule for the works in the current financial year/budget cycle. Technical walking audits were undertaken during the day and after dark and some very immediate and practical recommendations were made, as well as longer term ideas for the areas. The council then designed these ideas into their road improvements and within 12 months the changes on street had been made. These changes included realigned and improved crossing points that met footpaths where people wanted to walk, replacing old (dirty and cracked) side paving with grass and plants, building out kerblines at intersections where vehicle speeds were unsafe for walkers and installing additional lighting and crossing points to provide safer walking access to a local school. Active Access Walking Audit Guidance 22