Circulate San Diego is a local nonprofit organization working to create excellent mobility choices and vibrant, healthy neighborhoods. As part of this mission, Circulate’s planning team often visits schools and community groups across San Diego County to lead walking field trips for people of all ages. Participants travel around the school or neighborhood on foot using a map-based data collection tool to identify safety concerns, gaps, and strengths in pedestrian and bicycle networks.

In this breakout session, Circulate will provide a quick course on how to use free and accessible online resources to plan and execute your very own walking field trip, with everything from how to choose a route and build a data collection tool to which elements of street design to look out for when determining safety. Walking field trips are a fun and engaging way to get students and neighbors involved in a variety of topics, including urban planning, transportation engineering, data collection and communication, journalism, community advocacy, and local government.

Learning Objectives

1. Ways to advocate for street enhancement at the neighborhood level
2. How to organize a walking field trip/audit
3. Understand free tools available for map-making and data gathering