The day was crisp, sunny and cool — perfect for walking or moving around the city in a wheelchair. Good weather to kick off the National Week Without Driving campaign.

A few of us, residents concerned about walkability/moveability in Northampton, tabled in front of City Hall, asking the many passersby four questions: where did you walk/wheel from; where are you walking/wheeling to; comment on walkability/moveability, i.e. the experience of walking/wheeling for you today, the conditions of the sidewalks and feeling of safety or lack of safety; comments or suggestions for the city of Northampton.

“We made walking so unnatural,” writes Dan Burden of Blue Zones, “that we had to invent a word to describe what we were missing.” That word is walkability.

I’m not “in the field” but as I’ve come to understand it, walkability/moveabilty isn’t solely about safe, well-constructed and maintained sidewalks, crosswalks and sidewalk ramps. It’s a broad term in planning that considers space — especially urban space — through the human-scale lens of pedestrians, people walking/moving in an area consisting of streets, sidewalks, buildings and green space. “Walkable City” author Jeff Specks writes that for walking to be prioritized in this space it must be useful, safe, comfortable and interesting.

With this in mind, we sat throughout the day, listening to people reflect on the state of walkability/moveability downtown and in downtown neighborhoods. Lots of people stopped, suggesting it was a much-needed and welcome public comment/discussion opportunity in a city struggling to revitalize itself. Some 50 people filled out 3x5 cards.

Picture Main Street was on people’s mind. Would it make Main Street safer or more dangerous; improve prospects for businesses and services or sink them? Was it worth the time, money and disruption? But that wasn’t our focus. We were there to talk about walkability/moveability, hoping our presence and comments from passersby will inspire a much greater focus on walkability/moveability from the office of the mayor and city planner, as well as from the many policy-making boards and commissions in the city. Here’s some of what we heard.

A major concern was lack of safety in crosswalks; another was sidewalks. Not so much concern about those on Main Street, but about the treacherous, cracked, deteriorating (and in some places nonexistent) sidewalks people try to navigate from downtown neighborhoods to Main Street. People commented on benches. Some said there aren’t enough, others complained they’re often occupied for (too) long periods of time so that someone needing/wanting to sit can’t easily find an empty bench.

There were comments and concerns about people sitting, panhandling and sleeping, even overnight, on sidewalks. Where are we to go, they asked, something echoed by concerned allies. Shelters, they said, are full and often unsafe, especially for women. The issue of bikes on sidewalks came up.

Bicycling was not our focus, although it obviously figures into the national Week Without Driving campaign. Pedestrians complained/commented about bicyclists on sidewalks even while acknowledging that riders were generally courteous and apologetic. A high school student who bike-commutes daily from a Bridge Street School neighborhood shared her conundrum, writing, “I often feel unsafe because there are not enough bike lanes and the sidewalks are too populated by pedestrians and too bumpy so I have to use the road which is really dangerous!”

American Walks is “a national voice for public spaces that allow people to safely walk and move.” Comments from passer-by at our local event confirmed that there are lots of issues around walking/rolling in Northampton. Lots of people of all ages and capacities want to walk and bicycle rather than drive their cars; some have no choice but to walk.

If we truly want to reduce car travel, we need to address the pressing infrastructure and safety issues brought out in our Walk-In. I think it should be the city’s No. 1 priority; it will improve the environment, improve public health … the positives are too many to list here.

The question for me, at this particular moment in Northampton is: Will Picture Main Street advance walkability/moveability in the city; will it improve the most frequently used streets and sidewalks needed for alternative transportation, throughout the city, make them safer, more inviting for the public to use? If the answer to these questions is no, we should seriously reconsider the plan before it’s too late.

Claudia Lefko lives in Northampton.