Project Mentor: Prof. Jong Shin, Community and Population Health
Continuing Fellow:
Joseph Capuno '28
2026 Impact Fellows:
Tesu Beavers '29
Andrew Boyle '29
Anna Daniele '28
Giancarlo Apolito '28
Project Description:
Walking is one of the most accessible forms of physical activity and transportation, yet conventional measures of walkability often overlook the barriers faced by people with different mobility needs. Building on our ongoing work in South Bethlehem, this project will develop and apply an inclusive, community-informed approach to evaluating pedestrian environments across selected communities and corridors in the Lehigh Valley. Students will combine field audits, GIS, 360° street-level imagery, and community input to identify physical barriers and supportive features related to sidewalks, crossings, curb access, terrain, connectivity, and other dimensions of everyday mobility. South Bethlehem will remain an important testbed for validating and refining the methodology while the project expands selectively to other Lehigh Valley contexts.
Over the next three years, the team will refine a reproducible accessibility assessment framework, develop scalable approaches for analyzing street-level environments, and translate findings into maps, reports, and decision-support resources that can be used by community partners and local stakeholders. Students will contribute to data collection and quality assurance, geospatial analysis, 360° image review, accessibility-tool development, community engagement, and dissemination. Anticipated outputs include validated assessment protocols and datasets, interactive and accessible mapping products, community-facing reports, peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and preliminary evidence for larger externally funded research on equitable mobility and healthy communities.
