On March 18th 2014, Kalpana Viswanath from SafetiPin mobile safety app was invited to speak and conduct a safety walk as part of an event organized by UN Habitat called Mobility as Access during the CSW 58 in New York. The event that was attended by over a hundred people was followed by a short safety walk in Manhattan from the UN Building to a nearby Irish pub. The group of almost 40 people split into two and took two separate routes to reach the venue at 42nd and 2nd. It was exciting to see pins coming up in NYC and so many people interested in how SafetiPin works. We couldn't walk too long as it was quite cold at 8 pm in NYC!

The safety audits done showed the area to have good lighting, walk path, public transport close by and a fair amount of crowd in most parts. As expected, New York being a city that never sleeps, appeared to be safe to walk around at 8 pm. The safety audit was followed by a debriefing session at the Irish bar where people spoke about their experience of using SafetiPin to do a safety audit. Everyone reported it to be easy to use and a useful tool to map safety in public spaces. We now look forward to many more pins in the Big Apple!