Throughout March to June 2014 we have been working in the Woodberry Down area of north London, preparing the way for the first in a series of four community mapping projects exploring how busy roads impact on the daily lives of residents. The Woodberry Down Estate is dissected by the busy Seven Sisters Road, and the area is being transformed by a substantial private – public regeneration scheme that will include new blocks of privately and social housing units.
We are working in collaboration with a team of researchers from Transport and Sustainable Development, Epidemiology and Public Health, and The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies at UCL on the Street Mobility Project. The research seeks to explore the strategies people adopt if they have to negotiate busy roads when going about their daily activities, especially those with limiting health or mobility difficulties. If people go out less and have smaller social networks this can impact negatively on their physical and mental health. People are inclined to walk less and avoid using the streets as social places. They may become more isolated and this can affect community well-being.
We have now held our first two workshops at the Tuesday Lunch Club and the Age UK Coffee Morning where we worked with residents to create their individual journey maps, showing the routes and places they go to access services, where they go to shop, visit friends and family and for recreation and entertainment. They told us about the journeys they make every day, where there are barriers and “nuisance hot spots” as well as the places that they enjoy going to for leisure, effectively mapping their mobility, well-being and health. Individual maps will be collated and the resulting community map will contribute towards the development of tools to help service providers and planners better assess the potential social, environmental and economic impacts of community severance on individuals and communities.
Woodberry Down Mapping Workshops:
Saturday 7th June – 1.00 – 5.00 Family Fun Day – Rowley Gardens, Woodberry Down
Saturday 14th June 13.00 – 16.00 Community Mapping Workshop (with free refreshments) at the Redmond Community Centre, Kayani Avenue, N4 2HF
