Photos from the Walk Audits
Contoocook Village Walk Audits
with generous support from
The Town of Hopkinton was recently awarded a Community Challenge "Capacity-Building Microgrant" to assess and enhance the safety and walkability of Contoocook Village using the Walk Audit Toolkit.
Hopkinton Economic Development and Human Services jointly applied for this grant based on feedback from business owners, residents, and visitors in Contoocook Village who want the area to be more walkable, accessible, and safe to enable improved foot traffic to our shops, restaurants, and services.
INTERESTED? Join us at the upcoming
April 18, 2024 - 5:30pm - Slusser Center
The Walk Audits took place on:
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July 22, 2023, 9am
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August 19, 2023, 9am
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Tuesday, September 12, 2023, 7:30am
More details here... thanks to AARP for the spotlight!
AARP NH made these two videos for us - one before we completed the Walk Audits, and one after.
VOICE OVER: Contoocook Village is a hub of activity! We have restaurants, shops, and services right in downtown, and a beautiful river with a dam and the oldest existing covered railroad bridge in the United States. Within about quarter mile we have an elementary school, our Middle and High School, the Town Library, recreation areas, the Community Center, and the only elderly affordable housing development in town.
But the village is also dominated by cars, trucks, and wide expanses of pavement. Walking and rolling from place to place around Contoocook Village can be challenging and at times dangerous. There are very few crosswalks, and some sidewalks - but they are narrow, uneven, and crumbling, and in some areas blend right into the road. This project will bring attention to the social, economic, and health benefits of walkability, and help prioritize walkability in ongoing planning.
Walk Audits are a wonderful tool to involve residents of all ages across the community to raise awareness of the economic, social, and health benefits of making our village more walkable and how to accomplish that. They will highlight possible solutions and help folks understand how good infrastructure and design can provide safe and accessible walking.
These Walk Audits will provide data to the NH Department of Transportation and build community advocacy to prioritize walkability in NHDOT’s ongoing planning for these intersections.
VOICE OVER: Welcome to the quant, historic, and picturesque Village of Contoocook, in Hopkinton, NH. This is truly the beating heart of our community. This is the retail and commercial hub, and within a short walk, you can reach two of our three school buildings, nearly all of the town’s recreational and sports facilities, the town library, community center, post office, and a growing and popular trail network. The scenic and protected Contoocook River runs directly through the center of the village.
We have lovely shops and restaurants, owned and operated by creative and hard-working people, who are consistently making investments and improving their offerings. We love our little business community here! But one of their top concerns is safety and accessibility for their customers.
The village is dominated by fast-moving cars, heavy trucking, and wide expanses of pavement. There are sidewalks through most of the village, but they are narrow, uneven, and crumbling, and in some areas blend right into the road. There are only a few crosswalks, but they have poor sight lines and hard to see.
AARP’s Community Challenge Microgrant provided the Town of Hopkinton just the catalyst we needed to document the unique challenges to accessibility and walkability in our village.
This summer and fall, Hopkinton’s Economic Development and Human Services groups hosted 4 Walk Audits, examining 4 different well-traveled routes throughout the village. Over 20 community members came out to help with this project. We gathered a lot of information and we are putting it together into a report that we will use to advocate for changes to making this village more walkable, more livable for folks of all ages in our community.