‘I wanted that self-reliance back’ – disabled hikers forge a new path:
A growing movement of disabled people are taking steps to enable independent access to the natural world, writes Amanda Morris for the NY Times.
The pandemic has brought a rise in outdoor recreation, with growing visitation numbers for national parks, however not all are equipped for accessibility. Disabled people are taking initiatives to improve independent access, including “publishing trail guides, establishing nonprofits to empower others through equipment, advocacy and training, and testifying before congress,” says Morris.
In the United States in April 2021, “disability activists testified at a hearing on Capitol Hill, in front of members of the House National Resources Committee, which oversees the Park Service, to push for greater accessibility in outdoor spaces and call attention to barriers in public parks.”
Many of the country’s national parks are now collaborating with disability organisations to improve accessibility – “increasing the width of a trail or removing obstructions or steps,” for example.
Some disabled people are writing guides with detailed accessibility information for other hikers, including “trail width, steepness, surface material, landmarks, obstacles like roots or boulders, places to rest, accessible bathrooms, cell phone reception and water sources,” says Syren Nagakyrie, who has completed close to 200 trail guides.
Access to resources such as outdoor mobility equipment and training can also be great barriers or sources of empowerment for disabled people in accessing the outdoors independently. A blind outdoors enthusiast and founder of the Team FarSight Foundation to empower visually impaired people to get outdoors, Trevor Thomas, “trained himself to make detailed maps, trace sign letters with his fingers and use trekking poles to hike the Appalachian trail alone.”
“While many outdoor enthusiasts have a mindset of conquering the outdoors by doing increasingly challenging hikes on ever higher peaks, some disabled hikers often take time to just appreciate the outdoors,” said Morris.
Undersupply of footpaths – allocating equitable street use in Melbourne:
“The way people use our streets influences the liveability, equity, social interaction, environment and economy in our cities,” say RMIT and Monash University researchers in an article for Cities People Love.
The group’s recent working paper, ‘Street space allocation and use in Melbourne’s activity centres’ looked at the allocation and use by each transport mode in the city’s major activity centres, to identify where more equitable street space allocation could help different types of users.
Equitable street space allocation, they say, can support pedestrians, help increase uptake of alternative forms of transport, enable outdoor dining by converting street parking to ‘parklets,’ and contribute to “efforts to achieve broader health and environmental objectives associated with increasing active travel and reducing dependency on the private car.”
The researchers conducted a survey to look at how many people passed through various activity centres, and what form of transport they were using, as well as what portion of street space was allocated to each mode of transport.
The survey found that insufficient space was allocated to footpaths, compared to the quantity of pedestrians, while car parking, bus lanes, and bike lanes were oversupplied. The report suggests increasing footpath space in many activity centres, as well as offering greater protection for cyclists by installing Copenhagen style bicycle lanes to encourage more people to cycle.
This research emphasises that the context of individual centres is essential, as is developing a site-specific approach to address the street allocation needs of the local community. They emphasise that reallocation of street space should be research-informed to ensure a base of evidence and contribute to broader goals.
The Street Furniture Australia factory, in Regents Park, Western Sydney, is both a manufacturing hub and R&D studio for our Australian-designed and made street furniture products. We run fun and informative group events for customers throughout the year, to share how products are designed, tested and built, and the latest products and projects. Director of Tract Julie Lee said: “It was a great opportunity for our team to look behind the scenes and understand the innovation, research and climate positive outcomes Street Furniture Australia is focusing on. Thank you for having us!” Place Design Group Associate, Liam Isaksen, said: “The factory tour is a fun experience to learn about the design and manufacturing process of public furniture we use in landscape architecture design. Seeing the work behind the scenes and …
Did you catch these most-read case studies, furnishing tips, new product announcements and special industry events in your StreetChat updates in 2023? Each month our StreetChat enewsletter publishes new projects, products and trends from the public domain; subscribe to receive it in your inbox. 10. Which design firm can see Longhorn Cattle from their office window? 2 countries. 9 cities. 300 landscape architects. Street Furniture Australia and USA partner Spruce & Gander visited offices in Australia and Texas. There were key similarities and some notable standouts. 9. Jazz at The Mint: Product and Book Launch Sydney landscape architects gathered at the iconic Mint Courtyard to launch a design book by our founding directors Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison, and expansions to the Linea collection. 8. 2023 Good Cause Giveaway goes to …
Street Furniture Australia has designed and built prototype charging stands as part of a Transport for NSW program to deliver free phone chargers at 15 Sydney train stations. Developed by Street Furniture Australia’s inhouse industrial designers in collaboration with Transport for NSW, the prototypes offer wireless, USB-A and USB-C charging, and can power 7 devices at once. They were built at the Street Furniture Australia factory in Western Sydney. Two Power Spots are now installed at Liverpool and Campbelltown stations. The $1 million Power Spots Project rollout to 15 transport hubs including Bankstown, Hurstville, Lidcombe, Penrith, Wynyard, Central, Town Hall and Bondi Junction will be completed by late 2024. NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Power Spots provide peace of mind: “In the modern world, our phones are our …
Street trees and addressing liveability inequity: Street trees have the capacity to impact the liveability of suburbs, should community members be included in the design and planning of urban greening, say Melanie Davern, Dave Kendal and Camilo Ordonez Barona in an article for Cities People Love. The RMIT, University of Tasmania and University of Toronto researchers write that “street trees and urban forestry provide a great example of a ‘nature-based solution’ to building environmentally sustainable liveable cities that provide multiple benefits.” Although the benefits of urban greening are well known, there is inequity in the distribution of street trees. “Disadvantaged communities in cities characterised by a lower level of income and education, and, in some cases, higher percentages of minority populations, tend to have less street tree cover and less …
Paris has plans to make the Seine swimmable by 2024: by Feargus O’Sullivan The City of Paris is undertaking a new project, ‘Projet Life Adsorb,’ which may soon make Paris’s river Seine clean enough to swim in. Various attempts have been made to make the Seine swimmable, the first in 1988. Most recently, in 2017, swimming pools opened along Canal Saint Martin, a more sheltered waterway in the city’s east. Unfortunately high bacteria levels regularly force swimmers out of the pools. The new plan, which is being designed and implemented by a team of experts overseen by the City of Paris, “might be able to curb pollution more permanently, making it swimmable – and usable as a competition venue – in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics,” writes Bloomberg’s Feargus …
Design For Forest: by Zaš Brezar In Europe, landscape architects are using simple interventions to manipulate the use of forests while prioritising their essential environmental function, writes Zaš Brezar for Landezine. Landscape architects, Zaš writes, can “bring forests closer to people in a meaningful and careful way. Empowering bonds between landscapes and people is one of the most important tasks of our profession. We maintain what we appreciate.” Strengthening the existing, and designing by maintenance rather than from scratch, is central to designing forests with conservation and care in mind, they say. In Strandskogen Arninge Ullna, a park in Sweden, landscape architects maintained “existing ambiences” by choreographing visitors’ movement through the dense riparian forest on elevated walkways. “This way, they have minimised the impact of people staying in the woods …
