Page 6 - WILMAPCO Transporter - Winter 2022
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Middletown Community Members Become Planners
in Walkable Community Workshop
O and WILMAPCO staff walked around
Middletown to uncover ways to make the town a more walkable community. The group was participating in a Walkable Community Workshop (WCW).
WCWs are interactive events that bring together residents, elected officials, and planners to focus attention on how to make walking around the community safer, more accessible, and more comfortable. They begin with a presentation, reviewing topics such as sidewalk design, crosswalks, traffic calming, and other tools communities need to create a walkable environment. This helps spark ideas during the walking audit, which gives participants a chance to survey the area and identify challenges and opportunities to improve walking. After the walk, the group shares their ideas for improving walkability during a workshops, community members become the planners, as they are and can help come up with the best possible ideas for improvement.
The Middletown WCW began at the Town Hall, then took a loop around downtown Middletown via Broad Street, Lake Street, group then returned to the Town and discussed ideas for improving a network of walking and biking paths, which would be fully
and connect several destinations throughout downtown Middletown and beyond.
On Lake Street, in particular,
repurposed for a path and greenery.
make it more comfortable to share between people walking, biking, and driving. The group noted several locations where sidewalks and crosswalks could be improved, as well as places that could be
repurposed as public open space. Additional ideas were shared for Main Street to improve the walking downtown businesses.
These ideas will be covered in more detail in the Middletown WCW report, which is available on our website.
For more information on WCWs, past WCW reports, and how your community could participate in this program, visit www.wilmapco.org/walkable.
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