Streets that are safe and convenient for walking are key to sustainable, healthy, equitable suburbs, towns and cities. Our team are passionate about improving the walking experience for children, older people, people travelling to the bus stop, those taking the dog for a walk, people with disability or who use a mobility aid to get around ... in short, everyone!

How do you know if your streets and paths are walkable and accessible? How can you improve them to make them available to everyone who wants to use them?

Our experienced staff conduct audits to assess the suitability of streets and suburbs for use by everyone. We provide recommendations to improve compliance with relevant standards and guidelines as well as make it easier and more convenient for people to walk. Simple, low-cost improvements like connecting footpaths, making it easier to cross the road, or installing kerb ramps can significantly improve walkability. Remember, a walking path is only as good as its worst point.

Victoria Walks can create bespoke audit tools for specific sites or conditions.

Victoria Walks have conducted audits as part of many projects, including:

• Planning and conducting safe walking and mobility scooter access audits of various activity centres across Banyule City Council. This project was completed in collaboration with Safe System Solutions, who provided cycling access audits. Following the successful completion of this work within timeframe and budget, the team were engaged twice more to audit eight further sites.
• Creating an electronic audit form for use in the field and using it to audit walking access to 70 bus stops across Melbourne and regional Victoria as part of our work for BusVic.
• As a partner in the 20 minute neighbourhood pilot program for the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. Victoria Walks developed the Walkability Assessment Methodology Framework to guide the auditing of streets within the three pilot neighbourhoods.
• Preparation of an audit tool for assessing the suitability of walks in outdoor parks for people with disability based on research and experience. The tool will be used to audit 20 walks in conjunction with Scope, one of Australia’s largest disability service providers.
• Developing an audit tool in partnership with Vision Australia for assessing local streets and footpaths for people walking who are blind or have low vision.