At the request of the community, an audit was conducted in June, 2005 near Concord Elementary School in Seattle’s South Park, a predominately low-income neighborhood. The request was prompted by safety concerns about crossing a busy street where vehicles were exceeding the speed limit. The concern was shared by teachers, students and parents in this predominantly Latino community. The audit was conducted by Feet First, a pedestrian advocacy group based in Seattle that works on walkability issues with low-income communities to address health disparities and social justice issues related to traffic, safety, and community design. The project was enabled by a Steps to a Healthier US grant.
Feet First works to realize five outcomes from its walking audits:
Particular goals for conducting the South Park audit included:
Participants for the audit were recruited through the school and a community organization, with an eye towards reaching neighbors not involved with the school to increase awareness of this effort. Feet First also promoted the event to city officials and the transportation department. A 22- member team of auditors turned out for the event, including the school principal, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), students, parents, residents, a grandmother, members of the public health department, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), and community organizations (including a Spanish interpreter). The group walked the route for an hour and a half, documenting observations with pictures and notes. At the completion of the audit, participants agreed to pursue the improvements identified during the walk. Members of the Neighborhood Health Advocacy Committee of the American Lung Association of Washington and the SDOT expressed interest in working to address the safety concerns raised. SDOT staff implemented some of the recommendations immediately and has a list of longer-term changes that can help prioritize future project work in the neighborhood.
Results
The walkability audit revealed several safety concerns:
The primary concern raised was a lack of safety around intersections. Although a school walk route map shows that children could cross from three directions at a key intersection near the school, there are only two marked crosswalks and two high visibility signs. Other concerns about intersections include large curves and speeding motorists, particularly problematic when hilly roads obstruct sight lines and obscure views of people in the crosswalk. Residents reported poor compliance with crossing signs and markings, which were found to be fading, and were unhappy with the decision by Seattle Police to eliminate crossing guards from the intersections.
Auditors noted inadequate access to sidewalks. Vehicles were found to be blocking crosswalks and parked on sidewalks, forcing children to walk in the street. Some areas used by children walking to school have no sidewalks. It was also noted at a new construction site that sidewalks were not included. Such a situation results from weaknesses in the Seattle construction code, which waives sidewalk requirements for new construction consisting of fewer than six units of housing. Some sidewalks were found to lack curb ramps while others were obstructed by overgrown vegetation and thorns.
Residents cited speeding as a general problem. Some neighbors complained about the impact to their lives of trucks that actually shake their houses because of excessive speed. Accidents, broken fences, and frequent speeding during hours when the school zone 20 mph speed limit is in effect were documented. Feet First finds that these events often escape the public record due to raised reporting minimums and a shortage of traffic enforcement. Traffic noise from a nearby highway was also found to be very bothersome. Whereas more affluent communities successfully lobby for noise buffers next to highways, this community lacked that political power.
A number of ideas were generated to address the concerns raised during the audit:
Lessons Learned
As planned, the project resulted in the community drawing attention to the audit suggestions. The mayor’s commitment to pedestrian issues put the project on the city’s agenda, and as a result, Seattle DOT officials participated in the project, overcame bureaucratic hurdles, and implemented many of the suggestions.
Attempts to solicit community involvement faced obstacles, such as a high crime rate and language barriers in the mostly low-income and multi-cultural community. Because the community is focused on combating crime and dealing with issues such as affordable housing and environmental pollution, it was challenging to get pedestrian issues on the agenda. Walking was not perceived to be safe due to the crime problem. It was also a challenge to encourage the community to advocate for itself by overcoming their sense of intimidation in dealing with bureaucracy.
The lack of sidewalks in some areas continues to be a major barrier to walkability due to the large expense involved in paving new sidewalks along with inadequate redevelopment rules that exempt areas with populations below a certain threshold from having sidewalks. Feet First advised the community to search for grants to finance sidewalk construction, and in the fall of 2005 successfully lobbied for a new sidewalk fund for the City of Seattle. In 2006, the city is pushing a ballot measure to raise significant additional funds to improve pedestrian infrastructure.
Strengths
Innovative Ideas
Implementation
Resources
assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/d18311_communities.pdf
Livable Communities: An Evaluation Guide, prepared for AARP
http://www.feetfirst.info/
Feet First’s web site provides summaries of various audits it has conducted along with a variety of tools that may be used to organize and conduct audit. Feet First was founded in 1996 to promote the rights and interests of pedestrians and to encourage walking in the Puget Sound region and across Washington State. It is a member of the America Walks coalition of local advocacy groups across North America. Visit www.americawalks.org to locate the group nearest you or to learn how to form a group to serve your area.
http://www.walkableamerica.org/checklist-walkability.pdf
http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Pedestrian/web/checklist-popup.htm
PDF and Interactive, online version of the Walkability Checklist
Contacts
Feet First
1402 Third Avenue, Suite 1121
Seattle, WA 98101
Phone: (206) 652-2310
Email: info@feetfirst.info
References
Arizona State University Herberger Center for Design Excellence. (2005). Livable Communities: An Evaluation Guide. [Report prepared for the AARP Public Policy Institute]. Retrieved May 15, 2006 from: http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/d18311_communities.pdf
Feet First. 2005. South Park Walking Audit. [Summary of Walkability Audit Findings]. Seattle, WA: Author.
Feet First. Steps to Organizing a Walking Audit. [Organizing Checklist]. Seattle, WA: Feet First.
Kealey M., et al. (2005, April). Engaging older adults to be more active where they live: audit tool development [abstract]. Preventing Chronic Disease [serial online]. Retrieved May 17, 2006 from: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2005/apr/04_0142q.htm
