They are conducting a survey involving questions asking how often people walk downtown, how much they walk and how much money they spend at Chapel Hill businesses.
Molly De Marco, a research fellow at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, initiated the survey.
De Marco said she and Seth Lajeunesse, a researcher at The University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, are conducting the survey, and the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership is offering gifts as incentives to participants to complete the survey.
The survey is being sent to people on the Partnership’s listserv. De Marco said she hopes to get 200 participants for the survey, which will close in a month.
The results of this survey might be published in an academic journal, De Marco said. Surveyors hope to observe residents’ walking behaviors.
She said the Partnership is planning to install signs showing how much time it takes for walkers to get to different places across town. She said the Partnership hopes the signs will encourage people to walk more.
Lajeunesse said the signs will probably be installed in mid-September. He said after the signs are installed, another round of surveys will be conducted.
“We are gonna follow up with the same individuals again after the signs are installed to see if anything has changed,” he said.
