Walk the Data: Mapping User Experience (UX) Mobility on NYC Streets

Join this hands-on walking workshop that turns NYC streets into a living lab! Together, we will test a custom, data-enabled pedestrian routing system built from publicly available layers such as sidewalks, pedestrian ramps, traffic volumes, thermal comfort, tree canopy, and other walkability indicators. The goal is to see what these datasets capture about moving through the city and what they miss. This approach, called UX Mobility routing, was developed and tested in Milan and is now being applied to a selected NYC area to spark new insights on inclusive, experience-aware mobility.

Led by moderators from Systematica and Transform Transport, participants will follow the predefined route in small groups and use a simple guided toolkit to document the sensory, cognitive, emotional, and physical side of the walk. We will consider factors like noise, crowding, comfort, clarity, and perceived safety, then compare lived experience with what the mapped layers suggest. The session concludes with a collective data–experience gap map and a set of takeaways on how NYC Open Data could better reflect real walkability through new layers, combinations of data, or proxy indicators such as using traffic patterns to estimate noise. Open to everyone, with no technical background needed, all mobility levels welcome, and materials provided.

The meeting point for this event will be in front of 5 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn.