Walk Friendly Community Designation

In 2017, we spent months analyzing data and policies of the City of Hartford to put together an application for the city to be designated a Walk Friendly Community. The City was already a designated Bike Friendly City (bronze), and we knew Hartford had an exemplary walking culture. Because of the tremendous work and numerous city agencies and advocacy groups like iQuilt, Hartford is designated as a Silver Level Walk Friendly Community in early 2018. Hartford is the first designated city in Connecticut, and joins the ranks of cities such as Santa Monica, Austin, Asheville, and Philadelphia. Upon receiving the designation, Hartford was provided with a “score card” highlighting best practices from around the country on how to make our walking landscape even better, which we continue to use as a guide in our advocacy for walkability in Hartford.

The Walk Friendly Communities program is administered by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, and is sponsored by Fedex and the US Department of Transportation. You can find more information about the program and best practices at walkfriendly.org. Their website also highlights the role of iQuilt specifically as a model for walking advocacy; you can read the article here.