A Walk Audit is a diagnostic tool used to assess the walking environment of a street, school environment, or neighborhood.  The audit is usually conducted by a pedestrian design expert, who leads residents, traffic engineers, and others on a walk and points out deficiencies such as missing sidewalks or curb ramps, obstacles, and dangerous street crossings.  Participants often use a Walkability Checklist to help them identify deficiencies.

Walk audits are a simple but powerful tool, especially for traffic engineers, planners, and other decision-makers who make street design decisions without actually experiencing the walking environment on foot.  Pedestrian advocacy groups, such as members of America Walks , frequently use walk audits to generate the understanding among community members that leads to correcting pedestrian deficiencies. 

Common Deficiencies

The most common deficiencies in the pedestrian environment discovered on Walk Audits are:

• Crumbling sidewalks
• Missing sidewalks or sidewalk gaps
• Illegally steep cross-slopes at driveways or curb ramps
• Missing curb ramps
• Sign posts, utility poles, fire hydrants, bus stop benches, and other obstacles permanently anchored in the sidewalk
• Temporary obstacles such as overhanging or encroaching vegetation, temporary A-frame signs put out by merchants, sidewalks illegally blocked by construction crewsd
• Lack of safe street crossing opportunities
• Missing pedestrian  crossing facilities at intersections, such as marked crosswalks, crossing activation buttons, pedestrian signals
• Signal timing that provides inadequate crossing phases
• Front doors to businesses that are mandated by codes, but blocked or locked by the owner.  In such cases, access is usually by the side or rear parking lot only.
• Buildings with blank walls, providing no sense of pedestrian interest or vigilance.
• Building windows or doors with tinted glass or closed shutters, eliminating transparency and creating the same effect as blank walls.
• Indefensible spaces that leave pedestrians feeling vulnerable to surprise attack.
• Cars parked on sidewalks.
• Speeding traffic
  

ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK

• STREETFILMS: Melbourne: A Pedstrian Paradise
  

• STREETSBLOG: Why Americans Bike and Walk - Or Don't
  

REFERENCES

Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

PICTURE REFERENCES

Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Photo by Andy Hamilton via WalkSanDiego
[2] Photo by Andy Hamilton via WalkSanDiego 

FURTHER READING

• Photo-illustrated Walkability Checklist: www.walksandiego.org  (bottom of home page)
• Dan Burden, How Can I Find and Build a Walkable Community 
• Walk21 paper on PERS Walk Audits
• PERS 3 Walk Audit Tool Film

   

KEYWORDS

Walkability, Pedestrians, Crosswalks, Sidewalks, Intersections