Walkable Communities - Walkable Audits

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Walkable Audits

A Walkable Audit is a review of walking conditions along specified streets conducted with several or many community members. Audits can last from one hours to an entire day. Audits can involve 60-minute to half-day walk or bus tours of areas of interest and concern, which are analyzed by Dan and the group. Sometimes Dan conducts walkable audits with a small group of local staff members. He often documents conditions with photographs (both slide and digital images) and video tape.

Downtown areas and adjacent neighborhoods are analyzed for both their positive and negative conditions. Recommendations are made on:

sidewalk width and condition,
street crossings,
connectivity to parking,
on-street and off-street parking,
screening,
tree canopy,
building placement,
restorations,
housing type and mix

Photo By: John Moran, The Gainesville Sun - March 2, 1997

Leading a walkability tour of downtown Gainesville, Florida, Dan Burden, center, pauses in front of the Florida Theater on W. Unviersity Avenue to make a point with, from left, Rugth Steiner, Dick Schneider, Linda Crider and Tom Saunders.

Walks or "windshield audits" of neighborhoods include street design, tree canopy, land use patterns and other elements that make neighborhoods more or less livable. Similar walks in commercial strips and other areas are made. Each community maps the areas it wishes to study and evaluate. It is best to have diverse goup of people on these walks. In downtowns the audit group should include city staff, chamber of commerce leaders, retailers and others. Emergency responders, police, developers and others are often included for neighborhood audits.

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Last Updated: April 22, 2008
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