messaging for walking advocacy

8/13/2019 Messaging for Walking Advocacy

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Messaging for Walking AdvocacyAlliance for Biking & Walking Mutual Aid CallWednesday, November 20, 2013

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Walking advocacy carries its own set o needs around communications and marketing. What works or mes-

saging bike-riendliness may not work or messaging walkability. From touting vibrant main streets to elevat-ing the health benefits o regular exercise, a unique set o messages can be best or effective walking advocacy.On this call, leading walking advocates discussed their hardest-learned lessons about effective messages tocommunicate the urgent need to boost walkability.

Recap: Advice from Lisa Quinn

Executive Director, Feet First

Separate walking and biking or maximum impact. Lumping biking and walking togeth-er hurts both modes. When we can ocus on the different modes, we come out ahead.

Walking has its own nuances and needs. A recent survey asked how much time youspend casually walking and how much time you spend briskly walking. In the US, only35% o people knew how much they briskly walk every day. Many people who bikewould know exactly how long they spend biking, but not walking.

Te idea that every body walks can be harmul, because we can miss why people doand do not walk. Someone walking in an uninviting area may not eel they have a choiceto notwalk. Instead, we should ocus on equal access to walking. We need to identiy aneighborhoods needs and meet people where theyre at.

Feet First identifies types o users and manages messaging around those types. Teresthe environmentalist walking because its good or their health and or the environment,

the parent walking their kids to school, the senior aging in place, the urban college stu-dent.

Understand the distinction between choice walkers and need walkers. Make sureyour messaging incorporates both.

Working to improve saety is a cornerstone o our work, but this has led to an overreli-ance on saety in messaging. Call it the extreme sport effect: ocusing on saety canmake walking seem dangerous. For SRS programs, or example, we dont want to scare

parents. Instead, we highlight simple, cheap solutions to saety problems. At the same time, saety data is one o the ew data sources we have or walking. Six

times more people are killed while walking compared to biking. Tis is not to diminishthe importance o saety or biking, but to underscore the different magnitude. 22% oall traffic atalities in Caliornia are walkers, while 4% are bikers.

When talking to local elected leaders, we shif rom saety concerns to more tangibleasks. We plug the new NACO urban streets design guide, which has an entire sectiondedicated to improving pedestrian saety. Tey have no excuse not to help us shepherdthese solutions orward.

Recap: Advice from Tony Dang

Deputy Director,California Walks
http://www.feetfirst.org/http://californiawalks.org/http://californiawalks.org/http://www.feetfirst.org/


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Broaden your reach by building a coalition o advocacy groups and neighborhoodresidents. o tackle the recent Fix Cambridge Street Overpass campaign, WalkBostonteamed up with a core group o community organizations, including Main Streets oAllston, MassBike, Livable Streets Alliance, and Massachusetts or ransportation.

o control messaging among a variety o voices, use Google Docs. For this campaign,

one person created a draf template, and others plugged in their suggestions. Tis way,the document stayed up to date.

For this campaign, advocates created a petition page with a Google Form. Te pageshared a letter rom all o the groups and collected supporters email addresses. Becauseit was hosted on Google Docs, the contacts were not owned by any one organization.

Reach people when theyre on the move. Advocates handed out fliers during commutinghours to reach people who walk as part o their commute.

Illustrate your issue. Te campaign had a Facebook page where advocates shared apoignant photo o a parent and child walking rom the store over the unaccommodatingbridge, with text overlay come make Cambridge Streets saer or walking.

Dont just tell show. Advocates held a walking audit with public officials who were in-volved in the decision making process. Tis helped illustrate the need or better walkingconditions.

Recap: Advice from Brendan Kearney

Development & Communications Manager, WalkBoston

Put a human ace on the issue. We work very hard to ensure that community mem-bers show up to speak to the data in their own way. In our video voice tool, we put acamera in a residents hand. Tey film the issue thats impacting them and demand thesolution that they want to improve saety conditions. Tis captures what the communitywants as a solution.

Use data rom the National Household ravel Survey. 10 11% o all Caliornia trips aremade on oot. Fully 1/3 o trips under 1 mile are made by oot. Push your state to undan add-on survey with questions about walking or 2015 states can choose to undmore surveys to collect more data.

ake a cue rom the bike advocacy community and make walking more visible withun, encouraging events. Los Angeles Walks organized a series o walks all over LA or

Walktober, each o which ended with a happy hour. o kick it off, members dressed upas superheroes to help people cross the street.
http://walkboston.org/http://walkboston.org/


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Additional Resources

Messaging for Walkability- Caliornia Walks guide to messaging or walk advocacy.

Making the Case for Healthy, Safe, & Walkable Communities Caliornia Walks defi-nitions and talking points or better walking.

Good Walking is Good Business- Tis WalkBoston brochure is a great resource oradvocates hoping to ocus on economic returns.

California Walks on YouTube- Check out Caliornia Walks Video Voice videos.

Fix Cambridge Street- Te website or the initiative that Brendan discussed.

Comments on the Cambridge Street Overpass- Te coalition letter rom the Fix Cam-

bridge Street initiative.
http://californiawalks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Messaging-for-Walkability_Cal-WALKS-Network.pdfhttp://californiawalks.org/resources/making-the-case/http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/images/uploads/Bikerowave_income_and_expenses.pdfhttp://http://walkboston.org/what-we-do/initiatives/businesseshttp://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaWalkshttp://www.fixcambridgestreet.org/http://www.walkboston.org/sites/default/files/Project%20No%20606376%20Cambridge%20St%20overpass%20community%20letter%2011-12-13.pdfhttp://www.walkboston.org/sites/default/files/Project%20No%20606376%20Cambridge%20St%20overpass%20community%20letter%2011-12-13.pdfhttp://www.fixcambridgestreet.org/http://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaWalkshttp://walkboston.org/what-we-do/initiatives/businesseshttp://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/images/uploads/Bikerowave_income_and_expenses.pdfhttp://http://californiawalks.org/resources/making-the-case/http://californiawalks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Messaging-for-Walkability_Cal-WALKS-Network.pdf

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