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The walkability of Morgantown sidewalks has not be assessed in more than 10 years, but the Pedestrian Safety Board would like to see it happen again.
More than 10 years ago, the Local Technical Assistance Program had a national authority on walking assess Morgantown, said Ron Eck, professor emeritus of civil engineering at West Virginia University and senior advisor of LTAP.
The two-day workshop worked to "point out the good and bad points in Morgantown," Eck said.
"Generally, there are parts of Morgantown that are very walkable, and then there are parts that are not that walkable," Eck said. "A lot of times, it’s just the little details."
Details like uneven or cracked sidewalks or crosswalks that need more attention to their placement affect walkability, Eck said.
About two to four years ago, Eck did a walkabout on WVU’s campus with University administrators, he said.
Eck made suggestions to increase walkabilty at WVU, one of which was to install a sign to alert drivers on the Evansdale Campus that a crosswalk was ahead on a blind hill.
The need for a citywide sidewalk audit was brought up at the Pedestrian Safety Forum, said Christiaan Abildso, chair of the Pedestrian Safety Board.
However, the volunteer board does not have the manpower for such a "massive undertaking," Abildso said.
It is estimated that there are 200 miles of streets in Morgantown and therefore about 200 miles of sidewalks, he said.
To formulate the Pedestrian Safety Plan, though, they used two point systems to evaluate the sidewalks in the city, Abildso said.
The first was an objective scoring system based on traffic speed and volume, the surrounding institutions and pedestrian volume, among other things, he said.
The second was a subjective scoring system based on the feasibility of the projects.
Every project was then ranked based on overall city need and neighborhood need so sidewalks downtown and in the Suncrest area would not take preference over all neighborhood sidewalks, Abildso said.
The resulting projects will increase walkability in Morgantown once completed, Abildso said.
A study conducted by the Pedestrian Safety Board found 40 percent of the people living within a half mile of the Rail Trail didn’t walk to the trail, Abildso said.
People cited three main reasons: lack of sidewalks, lack of adequate lighting and that they didn’t see others walking, Abildso said.
In 2000, it was estimated that 17 percent of Morgantown residents used walking as their main form of transportation, he said.
"For the majority of people, (walkability) is pretty poor," Abildso said. "We’d like to make it safer for everyone to walk."
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