12 inventive ideas to assist honor, defend, and prioritize pedestrian (on foot and on a wheelchair) mobility on native, on a regular basis streets with Jonathon Stalls of Pedestrian Dignity and Annika Lundkvist of Pedestrian Area. 

*This piece was initially printed by Annika Lundkvist of Pedestrian Area and Jonathan Stalls of Pedestrian Dignity on Pedestrian Area.

1. Start The place You Are

• Your streets, your intersections, your bus stops
• Sensible entry to your sensible locations
• Don’t want to attend till a “excellent” second of walkability. 
• Doc limitations in addition to greatest practices you see

For this tip, Jonathon @PedestrianDignity emphasised the significance of starting with sensible native perspectives- your streets, your intersections, your bus stops, and associated pathways and entry factors. Give attention to the sensible features of entry to your locations and the way pedestrian mobility is accommodated (or not) alongside the best way.

For this tip, Annika @pedestrianspace emphasised merely starting the place you might be within the sense of not ready till a “excellent” second of walkability arises. Advocacy exists as a consequence of want! Start now documenting limitations in addition to greatest practices that you just see.

2. Analysis The place You Are

Jonathon notes:

• Who manages the streets or intersections close to your private home, college, or office?
  • Study every metropolis or city division that influences choices, budgets, planning, and upkeep (public works, planning workplace, public well being, transit company, metropolis council, city board, and many others).
  • Be taught who, from these departments, manages particular choices impacting and sustaining the streets, intersections, and bus routes close to you.

3. Civic Engagement & Reporting

🗣Jonathon notes:

• ➡️ Get on e-mail lists for metropolis departments, state departments, transit businesses, native council members/state representatives, native enterprise enchancment districts, and any particular departments engaged on planning/infrastructure.
• ➡️ Comply with their socials. Are they onerous to trace or comply with? Inform them and push them to make it simpler to interact as public stakeholders.
• ➡️ Observe native elections and maintain candidates accountable for pedestrian/accessibility points.
• ➡️ Get acquainted with find out how to greatest REPORT varied entry/security limitations on sidewalks, intersections, bus stops, and alerts to the precise people or entities. Be taught as you go! Launch perfection. In the event you attain the flawed individual or division, they’ll greater than probably ship you to the precise one. This could possibly be varieties, cellphone numbers, or e-mail addresses in your metropolis, city, state, and council member web sites. ✨Have photographs, particular places, and any detailed info with you to share within the e-mail or report submission kind. ✨. 

4. Join With Different Advocates & Advocacy Teams

Jonathon notes “Seek for them. Comply with them. Tag them. Invite your folks to comply with them. Be part of their subsequent assembly or gathering.”

In getting ready this checklist, we requested Michael McGinn, Govt Director at America Walks for a tip and he famous to: “Be part of a neighborhood advocacy group that features walkability as a precedence.” https://americawalks.org/local-walking-organizations/

I (Annika) notably love this tip as engagement with different people and teams generally is a actual supply of solidarity, inspiration in addition to instructive to your personal advocacy, whether or not you’re a novice or seasoned advocate.

5. Be taught The right way to Have interaction Regionally

Jonathon shares these sensible, public assembly ideas:

• Be taught when public conferences are being held associated to transportation budgets, neighborhood plans, and choices impacting your public streets and transit routes.
• Invite different residents/friends to hitch you and be taught forward of time if there’s a course of for making public feedback as generally you could do that effectively earlier than the assembly. Make your voice heard!
• Take into account turning into a member of an advisory committee or planning board!
• Report (e-mail, on-line, cellphone) your particular security issues to each town/company and to your native planning/neighborhood committees, boards, and hearings. Ship photographs with precise location. Be persistent! Typically it takes a number of makes an attempt.
• Ask questions on standing, plans/future initiatives, and priorities for pedestrian-related security/challenges.
• Share imaginative and prescient and demand dignity and prioritization of accessible pedestrian infrastructure

6. Begin With One – One Intersection, One Avenue, One Bus Cease

Annika needed to share a private story associated to the tip of studying to interact regionally:

“In Summer season of 2020 I snapped the above photograph of the sidewalk throughout our first few weeks dwelling at an condominium we had moved to. I additionally recorded a number of movies exhibiting how the blockage compelled folks onto the road and into the intersection, one of many busiest within the internal metropolis, with no crosswalks, speedbumps, or stoplights. The scene was usually very chaotic (in a metropolis the place pedestrian mobility was normally very secure and prioritized).  Navigating this case with younger youngsters and a stroller was harrowing like I used to be risking my life each time I simply tried to stroll the block.  I think about that many individuals (notably disabled or with diminished mobility) prevented this block solely as a result of it was such a large number when it comes to entry and security.

I started emailing my issues to town, to see who was chargeable for the stalled development and discount of entry.  I lastly discovered that it was actually the proprietor and rental firm of the constructing we lived in who was chargeable for the development zone on the sidewalk.  I wrote my issues to them and shared a few of my visible documentation that confirmed how unsafe the block had develop into for pedestrian mobility. I despatched a couple of e-mail and my tone remained well mannered however all the time conveyed urgency as a result of full lack of security for pedestrian mobility.

Not lengthy after, development resumed. I didn’t calm down just because development resumed however continued to examine in with the corporate in regards to the estimated time that they might be completed and sidewalk entry could be restored so our sidewalks could be secure and accessible once more.”

*Be aware: The tradition of native public conferences didn’t exist on this metropolis, in any other case this may be an ideal instance of a state of affairs to convey to a gathering. On this specific case (and this specific tradition), the first and maybe simplest plan of action was to speak immediately with the corporate chargeable for the blocked sidewalk. Had they been non-responsive or troublesome, I’d have escalated complaints to the municipality. 

7. Educate Via Encouragement and Inspiration

Maybe the very best factor for understanding and appreciating walkability/rollability as a dwelling idea with a number of dimensions and advantages is to actually simply expertise it. 

Nevertheless, the digital realm provides an unimaginable alternative to attach, mutually encourage and educate each other about prospects, focus on what we envision our cities being and turning into, vent about what we observe our communities missing in addition to present real-life examples of what we aspire in direction of. 

Jonathon notes:

How will we advocate from the realm of inspiring ‘what could possibly be’ in addition to being inspired by what others have carried out?

• Showcase nice examples of walkability/rollability from your individual neighborhood or travels
• Affirm, amplify, and reshare the nice examples you see others sharing- there can by no means be a scarcity of optimistic examples of walkable communities!
• Encourage change brokers, resolution makers and different inhabitants in your neighborhood with the inspiring examples you might be seeing in different communities
• Analysis the various advantages (social, bodily, environmental, psychological, communal) of strolling or rolling extra for connection and transportation – share them alongside your advocacy efforts as a approach to encourage different residents, leaders, and businesses into motion

8. Educate Via Tales and Lived Expertise

Jonathon notes:

After we honor and hearken to the tales of others our hearts increase and we extra simply empathize with what one goes by means of every single day attempting to get to work and not using a automobile. After we ourselves expertise these on a regular basis transportation environments by foot, on a wheelchair, or by bus, we actually really feel what it’s prefer to be sprayed by slush on a slim, hooked up rollover curb or protected and buffered by timber on a indifferent, broad walkway/rollway. 

Story-based, body-based studying is required greater than ever in a time when decision-making, budgeting, public hearings, and academic studying get additional and additional into zoom screens, e-mail, and social media. We’d like extra residents to be supported, skilled, and cared for associated to sharing what they undergo to get to the bus, grocery retailer, and to high school. We’d like extra of the driving inhabitants (esp. planners, engineers, and public officers/representatives) to interchange automotive journeys with strolling, rolling, and transit to allow them to learn by what it truly FEELS like to attend at a bus cease with no shelter within the rain.

A few tricks to convey extra storytelling and lived expertise into your advocacy work:

• Invite these in your life who you understand rely upon strolling, rolling, or transit to get round to share extra of their story associated to what it’s like for them getting from level A to level B. Funds prematurely to assist and worth their time with a stipend or reward card.
• Make it simple for folks to share or submit their tales with you and/or your advocacy efforts. Discover significant methods to honor and thank them for providing their voices. Ask them if they might be prepared to be photographed or recorded. Once more, price range prematurely to assist them with a stipend or reward card for his or her time.
• Use a number of instruments for sharing the tales you’ve gotten collected (social media, printed posters/flyers, small playing cards that may be simply handed out linked to advocacy marketing campaign, dwell digital gatherings, bodily strolling/rolling occasions the place tales are shared)
• In the event you or anybody in your organizing neighborhood doesn’t personally expertise this, decide to changing all or a part of your automotive journeys with strolling, rolling, or transit so you possibly can first-hand really feel what it’s like (timing, planning, accessibility, helps like a public restroom, climate, general security, publicity/isolation, and many others.)
• Make all or a few of your conferences whereas shifting on a sensible, on a regular basis route. Strolling/rolling conferences may be such nice methods to brainstorm, get linked, and actively expertise an atmosphere . Invite decision-makers, neighborhood leaders, and residents with you as a approach to get them linked to your workforce and to the marketing campaign.

9. Share, Assist, and Make Pedestrian Artwork: Photographing Walkability

Pedestrian advocacy can take many varieties together with the humanities! Not solely will we love sharing ART supporting artwork round pedestrian themes, we’re additionally artists ourselves!

Photographing walkability, for me (Annika), is an artwork of capturing the each day- that “sidewalk ballet” as Jane Jacobs famously refers to, and the various wealthy layers of metropolis, humanity, motion, and life.

It’s also about speaking, through this visible media, the connectivity, vibrance, and high quality of life that high quality pedestrian mobility permits.

9. Share, Assist, and Make Pedestrian Artwork: Artist Jonathon at https://www.intrinsicpaths.com/

Jonathon @pedestriandignity is an artist whose work you possibly can discover and revel in at @intrinsicpaths. This graphic options a component of his lovely work entitled “Honor My Motion”.  

He’s additionally a author with a guide due out later this 12 months and whose poetry “Empire Traces”  is part of the Constructing Denver exhibit at Historical past Colorado.  

He shares these insights about weaving artwork and advocacy collectively: 

• Provide, showcase, and share artwork (bodily prints or photos of artwork on-line) resembling dignity, security, or inspiration of walkable/accessible streets and areas with leaders, decision-makers, and native planners
• Invite and financially assist a spoken phrase artists or avenue artwork muralists to carry out/paint at public hearings and committee conferences
• Search and assist artists who paint, {photograph}, draw, and use artwork to specific magnificence and limitations within the constructed atmosphere

10. Host Strolling and Rolling Experiences with Choice-Makers

Too usually now we have choices being made associated to the constructed atmosphere (security, entry, funding, land use, neighborhood engagement, and many others) from within partitions and behind screens. Along with this, decision-makers themselves are greater than usually coming from a private driving-centric perspective. All of this impacts the hostile nature of pedestrian networks. Merely put: we’d like all individuals who affect infrastructure, planning, zoning, transit, and transportation techniques to be experiencing what individuals who stroll, roll and take the bus undergo.

I (Jonathon at Pedestrian Dignity) have hosted numerous walks/rolls with decision-makers and it’s all the time extraordinarily optimistic and eye-opening. After each expertise I really feel the guts increase with empathy and new sparks of company towards private and systemic change.

A few ideas for internet hosting your individual walks/rolls with decision-makers:

1. Invite others to co-host with you, particularly individuals who use mobility gadgets, rely upon transit, and many others.  Having resident/neighborhood voices with you is extremely vital.
2. Scout your route from an entry/security lens and a sensible journey lens. Know the place the gaps are (sidewalk areas, ramps, intersections, bus stops) so you possibly can simply level them out. Know who makes use of these environments so you possibly can information folks into sensible use and conduct.
3. Analysis who lives close to or makes use of any given intersection (employees, residents, residences, college students/households)
4. Invite a number of departments to hitch you to allow them to collaborate on-the-spot round what it might take to make change as so many streets and intersections want a number of businesses working collectively (state transportation, metropolis planners, metropolis engineers, metropolis public works, metropolis council, and many others)
5. Encourage (and financially assist if you’re ready!) residents to share their tales as you host your stroll/roll expertise. I additionally extremely encourage utilizing transit throughout your occasion in the event you can as too many resolution makers don’t use or rely upon the native transit system.
6. Invite the press and take photographs/movies to storytell publicly later to extend accountability and native advocacy consciousness.
7. Have at the very least 2-3 tangible asks of YOUR public businesses as you circle up and shut your expertise so it doesn’t simply finish with a pleasant stroll/roll. Co-create tangible follow-ups whilst you have everybody current and with you.
8. Be persistent. It could take quite a few walks/rolls with varied departments!

11. Youth Engagement

How are your concepts, targets, and work within the realm of pedestrian advocacy partaking, inviting, and rising alongside youthful generations? What instruments are you utilizing and what environments are you exploring that meet youthful folks the place they’re?

Youth engagement, management and involvement are vital to all types of advocacy. Not solely is it direct civic engagement coaching/participation, however everybody concerned is impressed by their imaginative and prescient and held extra accountable in direction of a more healthy and extra linked future. 

A few ideas:

1. Current and share your advocacy marketing campaign or undertaking with close by faculties, particularly if these faculties are immediately impacted by the road, intersection, or techniques you might be organizing round
2. Have interaction social media instruments which are widespread with youthful generations. I (Jonathon) have been experimenting on TikTok through PedestrianDignity since June of 2021. It has been an INCREDIBLE entry level to ask youthful audiences into advocacy and training across the many gaps dealing with all who 👩🏿‍🦽👩🏽‍🦼👩🏽‍🦯🚶🚏
3. Create a summer season program or a smaller weekend/month lengthy program of kinds that’s instructional round your advocacy efforts. Arrange funding to assist youth for his or her time and determine pathways of management for them by means of this system.
4. Search out youth voices and tales for varied occasions, marketing campaign outreach, and public hearings.

12. Analysis the Advantages of Walkability

Our twelfth and ultimate tip is about researching the advantages of walkability! 

Books, media articles, tutorial papers- we love studying to be taught extra about the advantages of walkability and extra broadly its central function in sustainable urbanism and wholesome communities.  Share your findings out of your studying and analysis alongside your advocacy efforts as a approach to encourage different residents, leaders, and businesses into motion.   

This can be a stack of a few of my (Annika) current, present, and close to future reads.  My digital stack of educational papers that discover the myriad advantages (health-wise, psychologically, economically, environmentally, socially…) of walkable communities is continually rising.  There’s a wealth of fabric on the market that I take pleasure in spotlighting right here and can proceed to highlight as sources for pedestrian advocacy. 

I need to additionally point out that Jonathon, my co-host for this sequence, has written a guide ‘WALK: Gradual Down, Wake Up and Join at 1-3 MPH” which is AVAILABLE NOW!

On the coronary heart of advocating for walkability is advocacy for actually liveable, inclusive communities the place we will thrive, transfer with dignity and security in addition to accessibility to actually sustainable modes of mobility. 

Walkability isn’t just about shifting on foot. Advocating for walkable cities additionally means advocating for many who transfer with wheelchairs, with walkers, strollers, and mobility canes.  It means preserving in thoughts the varied wants of various generations and varied demographics. It means advocating for choices for people with diminished mobility and for accessible and inexpensive public transit techniques.  Walkability connects to features of security, infrastructure and constructed atmosphere, native tradition, coverage, public transit, inexperienced house, psychological/bodily/emotional well being, accessibility, inclusivity, and extra.  

Disentangling ourselves, as people and communities, from the car-centric paradigm that has dominated lots of our societies for many years requires lots of work and collective efforts. Our checklist of ideas has been developed to doc our personal types of advocacy with the intention of contributing to those collective efforts.

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‘12 Days of Pedestrian Advocacy Suggestions’ is a collaborative undertaking by Jonathon Stalls of Pedestrian Dignity and Annika Lundkvist at Pedestrian Area.   It has been a beautiful trip for us to hitch forces, put these tricks to paper, and create one thing from the shared ardour now we have for advocating for actually sustainable mobility and wholesome communities.

Jonathon Stalls is a Strolling Artist who spent 242 days strolling throughout america in 2010 and has continued to maneuver alongside 1000’s of individuals for 1000’s of miles. His art work at present strikes within the realms of pen and ink drawing, writing and poetry, storytelling with the Pedestrian Dignity marketing campaign, financial and racial justice organizing, meditative apply, and creating/scouting long-distance strolling routes. He based Based Walk2Connect in 2012 and is the writer of the guide, WALK – Gradual Down, Wake Up & Join at 1-3 Miles per Hour.

Go to Jonathon Stalls on-line at Pedestrian Dignity right here.

Learn USA Correspondent Jonathon’s content material right here.