Another site visit from Day 2 of the Barcelona meeting was a Demonstration of the walking audit, organised by Mario Alves and Alan Raposo from International Federation of Pedestrians 🚶♀️🚶♂️. We arrived to the area of El Born where we were split into small groups and given a task of carrying out a #WalkingAudit of a few streets. The audit has purposefully been made low-tech - materials needed are simply a few sheets of paper and a pen 🗒️🖊️ - in order to expand the types of demographics who could run a walking audit, considering such factors as age, digital literacy level, willingness to share personal data, etc. While walking down the street, you have to consider its various elements: sidewalks 🚶, crossings 🦓, vehicles 🚗, environment (including noise, smell, shade and safety) 🌳, community 🚸, and security 🚏, and for each element answer questions relating to specific aspects such as use, design or quality with a rating on a scale of 1-5. 🤔 Reflections from one of the groups included different ratings when judging a street in general vs. in relation to other streets in the city (for a newcomer a street may seem fine but a Barcelona-resident may claim it's a bad street for the city standards), different feeling of safety between men and women, and difficulty in assessing certain elements only at one specific time of the day (e.g. pedestrian flow, noise, safety). 🏫 A walking audit can be very useful for local authorities in participatory decision-making processes regarding e.g. funds allocation, #PublicSpace or #StreetReallocation planning and design, as well as for schools and communities as an awerness raising tool towards understanding #accessibility needs of various groups, quality of environment, good public space design, and many more. Thank you, Mario and Alan, for an inspiring and hands-on workshop!
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