Your Neighborhood - Finding The Barriers

What's Your Goal? | Finding The Barriers

To begin removing barriers – and to avoid allowing new ones to be
built – we need to learn to "see" our transportation environment with a different set of eyes. You've got to start by asking, "How walking- and bicycle-friendly is my neighborhood or community?" You might have a sense that the walking and bicycling conditions need improving, but until you take a look and gather some information, you'll probably have difficulty gauging the extent of the problem. One very helpful exercise is to involve some of your neighbors and community leaders is a "walkabout." Download the ALRC Fact Sheet below to learn more.

The first step in fixing something that is broken is to identify the problem. And a good way to discover what people experience while walking or bicycling, and what might be preventing them from doing so, is to conduct an informal inventory or "audit" of existing conditions throughout your community.

Not by car, but by foot (or wheelchair) and bicycle. The immediate physical environment has a profound effect on the level of comfort pedestrians and bicyclists experience.

Many of the problems you will discover may seem subtle, and might not be discernible from a motor vehicle. But they can have a big effect on pedestrians and cyclists.

For a quick test audit, try a route that has a purpose within your neighborhood. Walk or bicycle from your home to the nearest school, shopping center, office building, or local park. Gather the information using one of the tools published on this page. As time allows, expand your audits to include downtown areas, parks, residential subdivisions, and other places where people are likely to walk and bicycle. Review and assess as many of the streets and highways in your community as possible to identify where there are barriers to walking or bicycling.