walkability audit -...
TRANSCRIPT
Roll Number:
Walkability Audit
21st April 2015
St. Johns National School
Ballisodare
Co Sligo
17838F
A Walkability Audit is a methodical examination of how pedestrian-friendly a route may or may not be.
The word Walkability means the “ability to walk”.
St Johns National School is mixed primary school located within a housing estate in Ballisodare village, Co. Sligo. The school has been awarded 3 green flags for litter and waste, energy and water and started the Green-Schools Travel theme in September 2013. Most pupils travel to school by car - 68% of the pupils surveyed in June 2014. There are 24% of pupils walking to school from the nearby housing estates. As most pupils live close by there is great potential to increase the numbers of walkers and cyclists to school.
Objectives:
Members of the school population identified a possible walking route to school to audit.
1. We wanted to see if the roads to the school are safe to walk
2. We wanted to encourage more people to walk to school
3. We wanted to identify park n’stride locations and/or drop n’hop locations
4. We wanted to identify any issues and propose possible solutions
We used a number of tools on the audit to record our findings:
• Map of the route
• Recording sheets
• Recording devices (timer, trundle wheel, etc.)
• Hi-visibilty vests
• Camera
• Pencils/Clipboards
Description of the route audited: It was decided that the walkability audit would assess
routes from the school to a number of housing estates that the pupils live in – in order to encourage these pupils to walk to school. We walked from the front entrance of the school to Cloondara passing through Stella Maris. We returned along an alternative route which passed the secondary school and Woodbrook Heights. There is a footpath along the route and a pedestrian crossing near the roundabout. A crossing area is also marked at the entrance to the Cloondara estate.
We noted the following findings from our Walkability Audit:
More details and photos of these findings can be viewed in the pages following.
Positive Issues:
1. Footpath along routes
2. School Ahead road signs on both
approaches to the school
3. Parking at Park and Stride locations
4. Pedestrian crossing on N59
Negative Issues:
1. No Pedestrian Crossing or lights at
School
2. Fast moving traffic along N59
3. Footpath narrows and is unfinished
in places
4. Entrances to houses off footpath
5. Vehicles parked on footpath
6. Footpath cracked in places
A summary of our recommendations is below:
1. Walk on footpath at all times
• Wear high visibility jackets
• Walk in single file where footpath is narrow
• Use marked crossings where possible
2. Be careful of traffic moving (especially reversing)
• Entrance to secondary school
• Entrances to houses
• At Park and Stride locations
(Supervalu /roundabout)
4. Be careful when walking around vehicles parked on footpaths
Always walk on footpath Be very careful of vehicles coming out of entrances – especially at secondary school
Crossing N59 at Cloondara painted lines are faded
Crossing at Woodbrook Heights entrance- painted lines are faded
Walk in single file where footpath narrows
Be very careful of traffic when passing entrances to houses along footpath and outside school
Be careful of cracked footpaths and loose gravel and potholes
School Ahead signs on approach to school – no lights
How long will it take to walk?
Roundabout
Distance from school: 580m
Time to walk: 7 minutes
Cloondara
Distance from school: 406m
Time to walk: 6 minutes
Stella Maris
Distance from school: 74m
Time to walk: 1 minute
Woodbrook Heights
Distance from school: 135m
Time to walk: 1minute
Thank you for reading our report. Please contact us with your feedback using the details below.
School Details:
Green-Schools Travel Education Officer
Email:
Phone:
Email:
Phone:
School:
Name:
Lisa McDaniel
087-9406143
071-9167639
St John’s National School
Ballisodare
Freda O’Donnell / David Dillon
Co. Sligo