Sidewalking

Year: 2023-2024

How do young people experience their independent travel in the city, and what infrastructural and programmatic improvements could support safer, more socially vital youth mobility futures? 

The Sidewalking project builds on the Pathways to Autonomy (2022-2023) project and centers the experiences of late elementary, middle, and early high school students as they travel independently from school to after-school activities in Westlake: a dense, underserved, and largely immigrant neighborhood with little access to green space and a high incidence of traffic-related injuries and fatalities.

Through participatory youth engagement principles, strategies, and tools, the Sidewalking project positions young pedestrians as experts and advocates for their own public space and mobility needs. Along a sidewalk segment where significant impediments to mobility had been identified, we designed and installed a series of temporary, tactical urban interventions that brought youth participants' ideas to life. 

This research built upon a longstanding research collaboration with Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a community-based organization that has strong connections to the youth of Westlake. HOLA provides thousands of underserved youth, aged 6-19, with free after-school programming in academics, visual and performing arts, and athletics.