City of Columbia Public Space Public Life Survey
February 7, 2018
The City of Columbia is seeking volunteers on March 22nd and March 24th to help conduct our third annual Public Space Public Life Survey throughout downtown Columbia. Tracking how we use our public space can be a fascinating experience, and provides valuable data to City planners and parties interested in promoting a more walkable, bikable, and livable downtown. Surveyors will count pedestrians and cyclists at one location for four hours; training for the counts is brief, and is provided by City staff.
Public space is what connects the people and places in our cities and neighborhoods together. A high quality public realm that supports vibrant public life is critical to making downtown and nearby neighborhoods inviting places to live, work and play. The Central Carolina Community Foundation and the City of Columbia are partnering to lead an ethnographic architectural analysis of selected public spaces. The analysis, which includes the study of people in their natural environments, will be conducted using a Public Space Public Life Survey format developed during the 2015 Gehl Studio study of Columbia’s downtown. The survey will help us better understand who uses the area’s public spaces – streets and sidewalks included – and how they use them. A greater understanding of people’s behavior, as well as new data, will help to influence people-oriented planning and policy that inspires creative, people-first designs in Columbia’s public spaces.
WHAT: City of Columbia Public Space Public Life Survey
WHEN: Thursday, March 22, 2018 from 7:30am – 7:30pm and Saturday, March 24, 2018 from 10:00am – 10:00pm
WHERE: Select locations in downtown Columbia
WHO: Open to the public
To sign up, visit http://gate.columbiasc.gov/Pub licLife . If you have questions regarding the Public Space Public Life Survey, contact Planning and Development Services Department at 803-545-3222. For information on the City’s Public Space Public Life Action Plan, visit http://www.columbiasc.gov/dept s/planning-preservation/docs/ columbia_pspl_final_spreads. pdf.
