Community members and University faculty conducted a walkability audit Thursday afternoon around the Nicholson and downtown Baton Rouge areas to discuss safety issues and possible solutions for sidewalks and neighborhoods.
A walkability audit is a formal evaluation of an area using tools and notes to suggest improvement, assistant kinesiology professor Birgitta Baker said. The audit conducted by the University was less formal, but it involved participants rating the areas they walked through, discussing why they feel the area deserves that rating and suggesting ideas to better the sidewalks, neighborhoods and transportation.
Members of the University and surrounding communities were concerned about possible redevelopments along the Nicholson Corridor, Baker said.
“We really feel like this is an issue that’s really relevant right now,” Baker said.
A group of participants boarded a bus from Tiger Stadium, making a route that included the corner of Nicholson and Azalea, University Terrace Elementary School and downtown near Third Street. The group was led by national public health, planning and transportation consultant Mark Fenton, who asked the group to think of ratings from zero to 10 for the sidewalks and neighborhoods they walked through.
After walking through the Nicholson area to the elementary school, Fenton asked for responses as to why they ranked the neighborhood as low as a zero. Answers ranged from overgrown grass in the sidewalks to trash cans sitting in the middle of the sidewalk and even missing chunks of concrete. Participants said they felt downtown Baton Rouge was more pedestrian-friendly because of the amount of sidewalks, outdoor seating, green space and slower vehicles.
Baker said she hopes the walk will spark public interest and inspire people to think about solutions, especially University students.
“Students can be a very powerful voice for change,” Baker said.
Fenton spoke in a lecture concerning the lack of physical activity among Americans in the Holliday Forum on Thursday evening. Fenton said only 20 percent of Americans meet the requirement of exercising 30 minutes daily, and this lack of physical activity is supported by a lack of destinations within walking, biking and public transit distances.
He said those who use public transit systems walk at least 19 minutes compared to those who drive to their destinations.
“The 21st century communities that are thriving right now … have transit systems that they are dedicated to,” Fenton said. “The 21st century cities have 21st century transit systems.”
LSU Police Department spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde said there are no predictors as to times of the year when accidents between vehicles and bicycles or pedestrians are likely to occur. He named the Nicholson Extension near Patrick F. Taylor Hall, South Campus Drive near the ceramics shops and the Highland and Dalrymple areas as chief areas where accidents are most likely to occur.
“For 2012, we have worked a total of 105 traffic crashes,” Lalonde said. “Of that 105, four of them were involving pedestrians, and one was involving a bicycle.”
 
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Contact Shannon Roberts at [email protected]