Neighborhood Audit Instrument (Research Paper Sample)

Neighborhood Audit Instrument
Group member names
Course
Date
Neighborhood Audit Instrument
Introduction
The neighborhood chosen was Harbor Road Atlantic City New Jersey 08401. The choice was due to the knowledge of the participants of the area of study. The study of walkability was conducted on February 3, 2015, at 1pm. Five volunteers were selected to answer the abbreviated version of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS). Each participant was informed that this was a study for a student project in the subject of Environmental studies and Forestry, and consent was delivered to enable the validation of the survey. Scoring procedures and preliminary psychometrics were used to determine results. The PIN3 Neighborhood Audit Instrument was used to perform an evaluation of the neighborhood. The volunteers were three men of 51, 60 and 65 years old, and 2 women of 66 and 78 years old, all of them residents of this neighborhood.
Audit Administration and Results
The area of study has three residential units;theirtypology varies between single family – detached, multifamily, apartments, duplexes and new construction or renovated ones, with the majority of them in fair condition. Most of the front yards present mixed conditions, with neither trait presentable. Less than half haveporches and fences or shrubs, neither decoration. No visible security warning signs are present; however, the units don’t show signs of being abandoned. Concerning nonresidential land use, there is the presence of restaurants and cafes; the service sector is quite available. On the opposite side, there’s absence of agricultural and industrial land use. The majority of buildings are in fair condition, without any signs of abandoned units (Guthold, Ono, Strong, Chatterji, & Morabia, 2008).
The public spaces in general present good condition, used by the community and attractive for the practice of physical activities, since church parks and playgrounds with good conditions are available. No dogs are visible, neither the presence of big amounts of litter and graffiti. Regarding walking and bicycle amenities, the sidewalk is in both sides of street for the whole segment, adjacent to the street with some bumps, cracks and holes; however, there is no footpath along the road. The public lightning is orientated for both road and pedestrian. There are also bus stops without benches or shelters. The road as a maximum number of two lanes is paved only to cross, without the presence of a shoulder or a bike lane. The highest speed limit is 25 mph.
On-street parking is allowed without restrictions. The available traffic control devices consist mainly in stop signs, pavement markings, and yields to pedestrian paddles. The study was done in 3rd of February of 2015 at 1pm, and the source of information was collected via web ().
Scale Administration and Results
Concerning the Scale Administration survey, Frank, 65 years old, living in the neighborhood for 12 years, considered that the majority of the residences in the neighborhood are detached for single-families. Townhouses, apartments or condos are scarce. Dennis, 60 years old and Joe, 51 years old, share the same opinion in terms of the residence type. Maddy, 78 years old, also has the same opinion in terms of residence typology. Nancy, 66 years old, has a different opinion in the residence typology, she considers that while detached single-family are the most common, townhouses and apartments or condos of 1-3 stories are also representative in the neighborhood(Brownson et al., 2008).
For Frank, the access to services is considered to be in a difficult distance for walking, however, walking to other places is easy, as well as parking in local shopping areas and walking to a transit stop from the residence. The neighborhood is easy to walk in and there are no major barriers in the local area that become obstacles for walking from place to place. Dennis shares the same opinion, although he considers the access to services to be in an easy distance for walking. Joe, Maddy,and Nancy have the same perspectives of Frank is this part of the survey.
The streets do not have dead ends, the distance between intersections is short and there are many alternatives to get from place to place. The majority of streets have sidewalks, separated by a grass/dirt strip and that separates from the road by parked cars. Dennis and Joe sharethe same opinion, while Maddy and Nancy have the same opinion as Frank.
Trees are along the streets, and there are several attractions while walking, some of them, natural sights, however, the building are not attractive at all, in Frank’s opinion. Dennis considers that there are not trees along the streets in the neighborhood and that there are not interesting things to look at.Joe has a similar perspective of the one presented by Frank, however, he considered that there are attractive buildings in the neighborhood. Maddy considers that there are trees along the streets in the neighborhood, however, there are not interesting things to see, neither natural sights, but the buildings are attractive in her opinion. Nancy considers that the neighborhood does not have trees along the streets, nor interesting things to see, nor natural sights, nor attractive buildings.
The neighborhood does not have much traffic, with a maximum speed below 30 mph, where the majority of drivers do not exceed the speed limits. Safety is essential, since the streets are well lit at night, and walkers and bikers are easily seen by people in their homes. The crime rate is very low. Dennis has the same opinion, with the exceptions of the speed limits, which he considers that are not respected and that there is a lack of crosswalks and pedestrian signs.Joe has the same opinion of Frank in all of the points. Maddy shares the same opinions of Dennis; however, she considers that there is much traffic in the neighborhood.
Nancy disagrees that there is much traffic nearby the streets, but most drivers exceed the speed limits, even if the same is below 30 mph. The neighborhood streets are well lit at night, making it possible to see walkers and bikers, but there are no crosswalks and pedestrian signals to help walkers cross streets. Finally, Nancy considers that in her neighborhood the crime rate is high at night, making it impossible for walks at this time.
Table 1 - Time to walk from home to these facilities (in min)

Time to walk from home to these facilities (in min)


Frank

Dennis

Joe

Maddy

Nancy

Age

65

60

51

78

66

Convenience/smallgrocerystore

1-5

11-20

6-10

6-10

11-20

Supermarket

6-10

30+

11-20

20-30

30+

Hardwarestore

6-10

30+

11-20

30+

30+

Fruit/Vegetablemarket

1-5

11-20

6-10

6-10

11-20

Laundry/drycleaners

1-5

20-30

6-10

6-10

20-30

Clothingstore

11-20

30+

don'tknow

30+

30+

Postoffice

6-10

30+

30+

20-30

20-30

Library

20-30

6-10

30+

6-10

don'tknow

Elementaryschool

1-5

6-10

6-10

6-10

6-10

Otherschools

don'tknow

30+

don'tknow

30+

don'tknow

BookStore

30+

don'tknow

don'tknow

30+

don'tknow

Fastfoodrestaurant

6-10

6-10

don'tknow

6-10

11-20

Coffeeplace

11-20

30+

11-20

6-10

don'tknow

Bank/creditunion

11-20

30+

30+

20-30

30+

non-fastfoodrestaurant

don'tknow

don'tknow

11-20

30+

6-10

Videostore

don'tknow

don'tknow

don'tknow

don'tknow

don'tknow

Pharmacy/drugstore

6-10

20-30

30+

11-20

20-30

Salon/barbershop

11-20

30+

30+

20-30

30+

Job orschool

notapplicable

30+

11-20

notapplicable

30+

Bus ortrain stop

1-5

1-5

1-5

1-5

1-5

Park

11-20

20-30

30+

20-30

30+

Recreationcenter

20-30

don'tknow

don'tknow

don'tknow

30+

gymor fitness facility
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