On April 26, students enrolled in WCSU’s Public Anthropology and Sociology class led a 1.5-mile walk audit in the area surrounding the Danbury MetroNorth station. A walk audit is intended to bring together local stakeholders to observe and collect data on the walkability and streetscape of the community.
The students collaborated on this project with the local non-profit organization Desegregate-CT. This Connecticut-based organization is dedicated to building “Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) in the state. TOC (or Transit-Oriented Development, TOD) is a well-established planning concept that calls for the increased density of mixed-use development with diverse housing options within walking distance of a fixed transit station. Desegregate-CT already had a toolkit in place for planning and implementing walk audits. We had hands-on guidance throughout the process, from planning to implementation, from legislative director Tucker Salls and organizer Sydney Elkhay.
The students worked in teams: One team was charged with doing background research on the demographics of the downtown area, traffic, and pedestrian injury rates to get a sense of safety issues in the area, MetroNorth and Harttransit ridership data, and so forth. Another team was our outreach team, working closely with the communications team to identify and reach out to local stakeholders – elected officials, city officials in the planning department, local organizations concerned with housing or public transit, and the intersection of these aspects of urban planning with equity issues, etc. Another team developed the data collection tool that participants used during the walk to make note of things along the route – broken or missing sidewalks, dangerous crosswalks, missing signage, conditions at the train station itself, and many other things. Our day-of logistics team made sure the walk ran smoothly and safely.
The students learned a lot about how to collaborate, how to communicate with different kinds of stakeholders, how to complete important tasks on a deadline, and how to engage community members in research that matters.
“The WestConn students organized the roughly 1.5-mile walk last Wednesday afternoon to study walkability and transit-oriented development in the vicinity of the Metro-North train station on Patriot Drive. More than 40 people participated in the walk, which was organized with support from pro-home advocacy group Degreregate Connecticut”, and the Anthropology department from WCSU. This event was spearheaded by Dr. Hegel-Cantarella. “It was eye-opening,” Hegel said.
From the data collected during the walk audit we hope that we can encourage residents of Danbury to advocate for increasing the walkability and accessibility of sidewalks and public transportation. In the future we would like to work on implementing more walk audits, to reassess areas and expand the areas that we bring attention to in Danbury.