Victoria Walks launches crowdsourcing campaign: opinions on walking around Melbourne

Victoria Walks launches crowdsourcing campaign: opinions on walking around Melbourne
Alastair TaylorMarch 14, 2017

Victoria Walks, a walking promotion charity supported by VicHeath, is leading a crowdsourcing initiative that is supported by the State Government and 14 councils. The campaign aims to collect and analyse opinions on walking right across the Melbourne metropolitan area.

The authorities are asking people to indicate their walking safety concerns through an interactive online map on CrowdSpot's platform.

"This is the first time the CrowdSpot platform has been used to gather pedestrian perceptions right across a major city" said Anthony Aisenberg, Director of CrowdSpot.

Melburnians can "indicate concerns like a lack of pedestrian crossings, poor street lighting, high traffic speed or footpath problems" reads a media release from Victoria Walks.

Dr Ben Rossiter, the Executive Officer of Victoria Walks, said "our understanding of road safety issues is usually limited to official crash statistics, which only tell part of the story".  

"Crash statistics provide data on serious injury crashes, but they don't tell us about all crashes, what people are worried about and where they do or don't feel safe walking".

In the last 10 years, 444 pedestrians lost their lives on Victorian roads and Dr Rossiter says that business as usual is not an option anymore.

"Road agencies won't be able to fix every problem and action will take time. But the feedback from the community will help them decide what to do and where".

To get involved, see the 'WalkSpot' platform: https://www.walkspot.org.au/

 

 

Alastair Taylor

Alastair Taylor is a co-founder of Urban.com.au. Now a freelance writer, Alastair focuses on the intersection of public transport, public policy and related impacts on medium and high-density development.

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