Walk21 Ireland: experts to descend on Dublin for global walking conference

Bronwen Thornton — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 13:24:56 +0000

Walk21 Ireland, the 22^nd International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities, will be held in Ireland for the first time. The conference is hosted by TU Dublin, in partnership with the Irish Government. Walk21 Ireland will welcome over 60 speakers and around 500 delegates from across the world.

Highlights from the programme include Prof Esther Sternburg, a world expert in the role of place in wellbeing, Skye Duncan of the Global Cities Design Initiative, Prof. Fiona Bull of the World Health Organization, and Angie Schmitt on Pedestrian Safety. Irish contributors include Shane O’Mara, Professor of Experimental Brain Research, Trinity College, Dublin; Dr Úna May, Chief Executive Officer of Sport Ireland, telling the story of the internationally applauded ‘Get Ireland Walking’ programme and Joe Seymour of the National Transport Authority outlining how it is delivering on the Irish Government’s commitment to spend €1m per day on Active Travel.

This year’s event will address the theme, The Decade to Change, and will explore how supporting and encouraging walking can help deliver Sustainable Development Goal commitments.

Dr Lorraine D’Arcy, Sustainability Action Research & Innovation Lead at TU Dublin and Conference Lead for Walk21 Ireland, said:

“The Walk 21 conference series is the leader on walking and walkability in the world and we’re thrilled to announce the speaker programme.

Over five days, practitioners, academics, planners, public health professionals, politicians and citizens from Ireland and the rest of the world, will share case studies and research, facilitate ‘walkshops’ and chair panel discussions.

Uniquely, this year’s conference has both a national and an interdisciplinary focus, bringing government departments together along with a mixture of different professional practitioners and community groups.

Keynote speakers from Ireland include, Ciarán Cuffe, Member of the European Parliament for Dublin with the Green Party and Dr Madeleine Lyes, Chair of the Limerick Pedestrian Network (LPN). International speakers include experts from Scotland, the US, Chile and India.

As well as the conference advancing the international conversation on walking and liveable communities, we want to leverage cross-disciplinary partnerships and collaborative projects both in Ireland and with international partners, to empower local authorities and communities to manage challenges including climate change and the public health burden on lifestyle diseases.”

The packed programme will cover topics including walking infrastructure for leisure or to get from place to place, the built environment and accessibility; explore the links between walking, wellbeing and physical and mental health and discuss relationships between walking and other modes of transport.”

Conference organisers are encouraging delegates and speakers to avail of walking-related social events while visiting Ireland for the conference, including Culture Night, Friday 23 September and National Walking Day, Sunday 25 September.

Bronwen Thornton, CEO of Walk21, commented on who they are hoping to see at this year’s conference:

“This year’s conference theme is The Decade to Change – Steps to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is open to walking and community groups, academics, planners, advocates, politicians and citizens to attend either in person or online.

Since the first Walk21 Conference in London in 2000, the Walk21 International Conference series on Walkable and Liveable Communities has promoted the international profile of walking. We’re thrilled to be bringing the conference to Ireland and look forward to being joined by delegates to celebrate the importance of walking, re-imagine a world that is more walkable and liveable, and ensure a cleaner, safer, healthier future for all.”

For further information and registrations, visit www.walk21ireland.com

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Women start reporting on Dublin’s Walkability

Jim Walker — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:52:34 +0000

Walk21’s new Walkability.App went live on 4th November in Dublin, giving citizens the opportunity to report on their walking experiences, with particular attention on women’s access to the Luas (tram) Line in the City centre.

The Alstom Foundation has kindly supported Walk21 with the ‘Every Step of the Way’ project, in response to concerns that women are choosing to walk less and use private vehicles more in the City, as highlighted in the report commissioned by Transport Infrastructure Ireland ‘Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes’. The Government are keen to ensure Dublin is a safe, inclusive and welcoming place for women to travel and it is hoped that the App will provide a simple way to both know what their concerns are and locate where they can be resolved.

Walkability expert, Dr Lorraine D’Arcy, who teaches sustainable transport planning at TU Dublin, has been advising on the development of the app, which was also been informed by the learnings of the prototype ‘STRIDE tool‘ (supported by GIZ and first used in Lagos, Nigeria in 2018 – resulting in a new sidewalk being built to benefit thousands of school children and hospital visitors on Lagos Island); and the analogue ‘lollipop tool’ (supported by Alstom Foundation and FundaPeaton to help children in Medellin, Colombia – resulting in a transformation of their neighbourhood and reducing road crashes by 22% in the first 6 months).

The technical build of the Walkability App, which is free for any citizen to use, has been co-ordinated by Stefan Steiniger, a sustainable urban mobility expert from CEDEUS in Chile, supported by designer Luis Molina and and coders Monse Fernandez Martinez and Paula Nieto. They have been helped along the way by walkability experts from 21 countries who have kindly been trialing the app and giving feedback on its applicability internationally. Special thanks to Carlos Canas Sanz (Spain), Lucia Brisudova (Czech Republic), Richard Vinc (Indonesia), Monica Olyslagers (IRAP), Zhuangyuan Fan (China), Maja Rynning (Norway), Patricia Mariano (The Philippines) and Paschalin Basil (Kenya).

Next step for the ‘Every Step of the Way’ Dublin project will be coordinating the data collection by engaging, we hope, at least 500 women to share their opinions on local walkability in the project area. (Thanks Lidia and Tristan for helping us get started yesterday in College Green, Dublin). The technical team is also busy building the desk-top site so that the data can be visualised and analysed in the new year.

The Walkability.App is available in the App Store for Android phones and will soon be in the IOS for Apple phones too. Get in touch if you have any feedback on the app, to help us continue to improve it, or if would like to give citizens the opportunity to report on their neighbourhood walkability so that investment decisions return the best measurable benefits.

Dr Loraine D’Arcy (TU Dublin) with Lidia Grisi and Tristan McMichael (Alstom) and Jim Walker (Walk21) in Dublin, Ireland

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Walk21 Ireland: experts to descend on Dublin for global walking conference

Women start reporting on Dublin’s Walkability