LADOT Stress Free Connections

Throughout 2021, we worked with LADOT and Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative on the community engagement for LADOT’s Stress Free Connections, a program that identifies ways to connect neighborhood streets, to make them safer and more comfortable for walking and biking. 

Although the team had originally planned a series of in-person community events, workshops, and bike rides, we pivoted to a more hybrid style of community engagement during the pandemic. Online surveys replaced some in-person data collection, and illustrated posters placed at sites for potential safety improvements helped collect feedback, as residents waited to cross streets or to catch the bus.

We used the visual language of a board game or video game, giving participants the prompt to “Connect the Green”, with the idea that these small neighborhood improvements could “connect” areas on the map that already felt safe.