Timed Walking Maps
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Designing for Better Health competition.
WalkBoston has developed walking maps with timed walk segments which demonstrate how easy walking can be – especially through highlighting community destinations linked via 5 minute increments.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
45 School St
Project City
Boston
Project Province/State
MA
Project Postal/Zip Code
02108
Project Country
United States
Your idea
Year organization founded:
1990
Year initiative began:
1995
Service/activity focus:
Other
If Service/activity focus is "other" please define in 1-2 words below:
Exercise and transportation
YouTube Upload
Project URL
Name Your Project
Timed Walking Maps
Describe Your Idea
WalkBoston has developed walking maps with timed walk segments which demonstrate how easy walking can be – especially through highlighting community destinations linked via 5 minute increments.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
WalkBoston has developed walking maps with timed walk segments which demonstrate how easy walking can be – especially through highlighting community destinations linked via 5 minute increments.
Describe what makes your idea unique--different from all others in the field.
The addition of walking times on our maps adds a unique element that is not currently used on most walking maps. This added element adds another layer of information that gives the reader a better understanding of their environment. We often think of distance in terms of travel time, yet, most maps don't provide this information. By showing what a five minute walk looks like, we are better able to convey the walkability of an area, in terms more easily understood by the reader, making our maps more effective in encouraging people to walk.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
Almost all of our maps are either sponsored by or made in partnership with institutions and organizations in the Boston area. We often approach a potential partner and “sell” them on the idea that a walking map would be a terrific resource for their residents, employees, clients or visitors.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) , Private sector , Public sector (government) , Academic sector (universities).
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
By including time and distance into our maps, people are encouraged to walk as part of their everyday activities and walkers can see how easy it is to choose a variety of interesting, fun and useful routes. The big picture benefits of walking are adding physical activity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and car trips, and creating more vibrant communities.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
Increased walking benefits the health of individual walkers, the health of the community through street activation, and the health of the environment, by reducing auto emissions from car trips.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Yes – many of the partners we work with become engaged in pedestrian advocacy via their initial interest in walking maps. Likewise, walkers who find us by using our maps, are also more likely to become engaged in local pedestrian advocacy.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
Maps are distributed by sponsoring organizations to their respective audiences, such as a hospital distributing thousands of maps to new employees or patients. We also post all of our maps on our website, for free downloading, and also provide them to others for their websites (for example the City of Boston has our downtown “CityRoutes” map on the City website). The maps benefit anyone interested in walking, sightseeing, or just getting around Boston.
What is the key decision that you are trying to influence through your innovation/design?
We are motivating people to walk by demonstrating how fast and convenient walking can be.
What have you learned about how people respond to your innovation/design?
Responses indicate that our 5-minute-increments and timed routes provide unexpected information about how easy it is to walk. People are surprised to learn how quickly they can walk among their destinations. Planning and environmental leaders have circulated our maps, and encourage us to continue creating them. The maps literally “connect the dots” of communities in the Boston area (we are also working on four suburban communities). Revealing the easy walking proximity of destinations encourages people to walk, which can often be quicker than driving, or even taking public transit.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Most maps are sponsored by a specific organization, and the remainder are factored into our annual budget.
Financing source
Annual budget
$10,000 - $25,000 depending on the number of maps and the number of prints.
Annual revenue generated
Revenue simply covers costs - no additional revenue is generated.
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
Three part time staff, approximately 60 - 100 hours/map.
What are the main financial barriers, and how do you plan to address them?
The initial design and printing of the maps are the costly part of the process. Once designed, these maps are available for free online. Continued partnerships with other organizations, and donations, grants and membership in our organizations will be critical to continue this program.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and scale the initiative?
As we continue to create maps in Boston, the buzz from their popularity increases demand for them. The idea of timed walking maps is one that can be used by anyone, and we talk about this innovation in many of our public lectures, with the intent that other organizations can use this feature in their own maps. Other organizations also post our maps on their websites, which we hope will continue with future maps.
The Story
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell the story.
WalkBoston has been developing walking maps since 1995. In 2006, when a section of the Mass Turnpike closed, after a tunnel ceiling collapsed and killed a passenger in a car, the City’s roadway network was seriously disrupted. WalkBoston asked ourselves how we could be helpful during this traumatic episode and decided to create a map to show how easy it is to get around downtown Boston on foot. The map showed easy timed walking routes among transit stations and key attractions in Boston. Bob Sloane, a senior planner at WalkBoston, thinking of the hectic schedules and lifestyles of those in downtown Boston, realized that time was a key factor in choosing to walk, and thought if walking times were posted on the map, people would better understand how convenient it is to walk in the city – thus encouraging people to leave their cars at home. When the map was printed and posted on line, we received many wonderful unsolicited compliments on it such as: “VERY nicely done. This deserves a "Thank You" from the Mayor, and a Globe editorial, and a grant from the Convention Center to print ten thousand for convention visitors;” and “What a wonderful map! I have forwarded your website to my son and his fiancée for their wedding guests.”
Please name and provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
Bob Sloane, Senior Project Planner
Bob Sloane participated in the founding of WalkBoston and initiated its program of guided walks. He currently manages WalkBoston’s walks program by producing walks with illustrative maps. Recently, his efforts include a successful walk series led by state legislators. Mr. Sloane is also responsible for review of public and private development projects for WalkBoston. He edited and wrote portions of the book, WalkBoston, A Guide to Walking Tours in Boston’s Unique Neighborhoods.
At what stage is this initiative?
Implemented with replication and scale-up.
What resources would you need to take your initiative to the next stage?
We need more interested clients and communities.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (Confidential)
We heard about the contest through the Robert Wood Johnson e-newsletter.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| CityRoutesmap.pdf | 370.45 KB |
- Login to post new content in this forum.
Comments
These maps will be a great "nudge" to get anyone in the Boston area walking. The Downtown map at http://www.walkboston.org/resources/images/cityroutesAHA.pdf gives precise times indicating how long it takes to get between vital locations. These routes will increase community members' health by making it easier than ever to see how time-efficient and easy walking can be-- I can think of dozens of situations, as a pedestrian, in which these maps will be helpful to me personally. The innovation of having times listed on the map is terrific.
On May 11, 2009, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Designing for Better Health” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators who are seeking solutions that help people make better choices regarding their health and the health of others. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“Great entry! Simple, yet so useful. The possibilitiesfor including this information in many different formats is endless. You could layer competitions, timed orienteering activities, walk rally, etc. Making walking an exciting adventure (rather than exercise) is incredible! However, to make larger scale in other towns and cities would require many improvements in walking path infrastructure. Most maps don’t demonstrate sense of scale, so it would be great if a walker had a sense of how far away everything was!”
“This is a workable business model and it seems like there are lots of possible extensions to this idea that are definitely scalable as well. It sounds like the group already has maps, so it would be better use of the grant money to develop a plan for getting more maps into the right Boston communities.”
- Changemakers “Designing for Better Health” Judges: Doutores da Alegria, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Cornell Food and Brand Lab: Cornell University, Innovations in Health @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Pediatrics: University of California San Francisco.
Post new comment