Sun Prairians take a stroll in others' shoes with walk audit

Sun Prairie residents joined the city, AARP, and Greater Madison MPO to conduct a ‘Walk and Roll Audit’ of their community's streets and sidewalks on Monday, Oct. 5.

The event encouraged those who attended to imagine what life is like for fellow Sun Prairians who don’t have a motorized form of transportation, as a part of the Week without Driving.

Sun Prairie residents, AARP representatives, and Greater Madison Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) participating in Sun Prairie's Walk and Roll Audit.

After gathering at the Sun Prairie Public Library that afternoon, city staff, elected officials and residents began to walk toward Main Street with clipboards in hand.

Those participating were set on evaluating the pedestrian infrastructure they were using while on their stroll. The group took notes on how certain sidewalks might cause trouble for the visually impaired, or how some intersections would make it difficult for the elderly to cross.

“I think the unspoken cost of a lack of pedestrian infrastructure that doesn’t get talked about is the psychological, emotional, and physical trauma,” Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired (WCBVI) Denise Jess said.

Jess, who is blind herself, attended Monday’s audit to advocate for more equitable design of local transportation networks throughout the state. Through her role with the WCBVI, she tries to help spread the word for those who are not visually impaired or are able to drive to imagine life in her shoes.

Jess added that those who are blind, have other disabilities, are older adults, or those who simply cannot afford a car make up “about 35-40% of the Dane County population.”

“When that infrastructure is lacking or non-existent, then our worlds become smaller, not because of who we are as humans, but the world is built for people who can see and can who can drive,” she said. “So the audits, I think, are really helpful for people who don't experience the world that I do.”

Jess said that verbal and tactile crosswalk cues, curb warning fields (or ‘bumps’), proper curb ramp placements, and raised crosswalks are the types of improvements the community she represents are pushing for.

The walk audit work kits that participants were provided with on Monday by AARP encouraged them to look at the positives and negatives of Sun Prairie streets from a pedestrian perspective.

Sun Prairie Transportation Coordinator David Salmon said that the city will be using the feedback they received that day to help identify further improvements when roads are reconstructed.

“If there are specific issues, we're going to work to prioritize that in our capital improvement budget. We typically do include $100,000 every year for pedestrian safety improvements,” he said.

Sun Prairie Transportation Coordinator David Salmon leads the city's walk audit on Monday, Oct. 5

Following the audit, Salmon said that participants noted a lack of benches at bus stops, some poorly-aligned pedestrian crossings, short crossing signal timings, and need for more street trees to provide more shading for walkers.

“What people did say about our walk audit was that there was definitely room for improvement, but overall…. that it was very far from being a poor environment for pedestrians,” he added.

When asked about the communities she noticed were taking the initiative to better plan for pedestrian infrastructure, Jess gave some kudos to Sun Prairie.

“I'm very proud of the work that is happening in Madison, Middleton, Sun Prairie, and Manona; particularly, those are communities that come to mind with looking at that recognition that pedestrians are part of road users,” she said.

AARP Wisconsin State Director Raj Shukla, and many AARP employees, stopped by to help lead the audit along with city staff that day.

Shukla encouraged residents to visit and utilize AARP’s online walking resources going forward to further engage with their communities’ leaders.

“The other thing that I hope people walk away with is an understanding that you have some agency here,” he said. “You can notice things and give information to your city leaders that they can then act on.”