WalkTogether

71% women of all ages in the UK have reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment in a public space. This number rises to 86% among 18-24-year-olds (Open Access Government, 2021; UN Women UK, 2021). The 2021 UN Women UK YouGov survey clearly shows that sexual harassment in public places continues to be highly prevalent and concerning. Women and other people in marginalised groups have the fundamental right to feel safe in public places.

Walking is essentially a blind process where the pedestrian has very little information about what they would encounter on different parts of their routes. The proposed project aims to provide its users real-time, crowd-sourced information about the different parts of the route, including a history of incidents, as well as information about which route provided a more positive experience overall. More importantly, it will also enable female pedestrians to connect with other verified users around them to form physical groups for all or a part of their journey and avoid walking alone. The control of these connections will always be with the women. At its core, the objective of this project is to build walking communities that will look after each other.