Jane's Walk

Walk
The first step in making improvements is identifying the problems and shortcomings in your walking environment. Use our Walkability checklist and slide show to go on discovery walks in your neighbourhood to take a basic inventory of walking conditions. Don’t forget to note down the things you like and want to see more of.

Talk
Have group discussions to get more people interested in making changes and strategize about the best approach and priorities. Once you’ve got some improvements identified and a big or small group to support them, it’s time to get in touch with your local city councilor and representatives.

Find Your Allies
The chances of getting improvements made in neighbourhoods is greatly increased by gaining widespread support from a range of stakeholders. Build a broad coalition by enlisting the support and understanding of local businesses, malls and retail strips, schools, libraries, crossing-guards, community centres and groups, medical facilities and park users. Seniors, youth and dog-walkers are often heavy users of the walking environment and parks and make excellent allies. If practically everyone wants an upgrade or change in the neighbourhood, it becomes difficult for the local official to oppose it.

Document
Qantitative data is an important part of determining what is working, and not working, in your walking environment. Take pictures of the conditions you seek to change or promote. Photos can be infinitely more persuasive and clear when discussing what’s needed. If somebody has skills with computers, a powerpoint display or website postings (on sites, Facebook or blogs) can also be extremely useful.

Head Counts
It’s a great idea to document who is using the amenities and walking routes you want to address. Count the people walking on shortcuts, crosswalks, mid-block crossings or sidewalks, noting the time of day and location. Get volunteers to sign their counts so they become official and take more pictures.  You can also count the number of people enjoying a walking environment by counting people on benches, chatting in parks, parents and children in play areas interacting. If traffic calming is part of your concern you can also count cars. The city may agree to place a traffic counter on heavily travelled routes - you can ask for this as well.

Contact
Planning and Parks Departments at City Hall are supposed to be open and available to residents. Sometimes it is easy to find the right person to talk to, but often it’s a bit of a hunt. Dig around a bit, be persistent, don’t be discouraged. Your local councillor or representative is also there to help you in your endeavours. Phone calls to their offices are a direct way of getting your voice heard.

In Toronto, The Fixer is a popular and powerful columnist in the Toronto Star that helps highlight small problems in the city and get them fixed. The Fixer definitely gets results locally on smaller things like broken benches, burnt out lights, uneven sidewalks, hazardous signage and so on. You can contact the fixer with a complaint of problem at the Toronto Star Fixer. The Fixer has also provided a handy listing of City Hall contacts for the Greater Toronto Area.

Work with Staff and Councillors
Speaking to city staff and councillors is your most direct route to getting your concerns addressed in most places. Staff certainly influence the decisions on how streets and sidewalks get designed, where street furniture is placed, how public spaces are maintained, but often the decision making authority resides with the local elected official. Decisions in these matters are frequently clouded by private property concerns from landlords or owners - for instance, a walkway may lie on private property which can make these issues very complicated and bogs them down. Don’t despair - persist with your concerns and build support with residents. In Toronto there is an office of Civic Engagement that goes a long way to explaining how city hall works and how people can better navigate the departments and stakeholders. They even have a program called Civics 101 that teaches people how city hall works. A lot of their helpful resources are posted on line here: http://www.toronto.ca/civic-engagement/index.htm

Public Meetings
Encourage residents and local stakeholders to take part in public consultations. Deputations at City Hall are another form of having your say, though they are less common. Advancing the cause of walking in your neighbourhood can be a powerful way of bringing residents together and enhancing their sense of belonging and commitment to the neighbourhood. Jane’s Walks have been the spark for these conversations and improvements in many places.

Phone and Write
Yep, the old fashioned phone and letter writing campaign can still work. City Councillors are sometimes moved to action by small numbers of people getting in touch with them if the issue is particularly urgent or puts people at risk. Be persuasive and clear in your requests - don’t worry about getting overly technical or legalistic. State your case clearly as a concerned resident and request follow up contact.

The Money Angle
Improving local walkability has been found to have many economic benefits including raising real estate values and increasing retail traffic on foot. If you can find any documentation of these trends from homeowners, business owners, or local residents who are doing more of their shopping locally, note it down. This is very persuasive evidence that walking is a community benefit felt by all. The local business improvement association could be very interested in this angle.

Media Attention
Getting articles written about your local conditions might be effective in shedding light on what needs doing. Elected officials do not generally like to read negative stories about their neighbourhoods and this may spur them on to help your community make changes.

We will be adding more advice on How to Make Changes over time. Local conditions vary widely of course, but if you have any tips, please send them along.