Meet the woman on a mission to walk every block in Ardmore
Jane Murray’s found “freedom” in walkable communities. Now, she’s trying to bring attention to pedestrian safety, and is documenting the journey along the way.
Ardmore resident Jane Murray and I are on a walk when she says she has something to show me.
It’s a Tuesday in April, and it’s quiet, save a few morning walkers and cafes preparing for the lunch rush. Murray and I tuck into an unassuming building off of Lancaster Avenue, and she points to the sky. The office building’s modest facade gives way to an open-air courtyard adorned with trees and deep-green houseplants hanging from every corner and sprawling out across the brick floor and wood-paneled deck. As the sun streams in, the courtyard feels like a portal to Southern California, just steps from Ardmore’s busiest thoroughfare. For a moment, reporter and subject are silent.
Murray, 47, is a community organizer and nonprofit worker who has lived in Ardmore for a decade. In her 10 years in Lower Merion, Murray has been a civic association leader, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society tree tender, Democratic committeeperson, Buy Nothing group administrator, Downtown Ardmore District assistant director, parent, neighbor, and friend. She’s an encyclopedia of Ardmore’s hidden gems, open-air office courtyards included.
Now, as we walk, Murray tells me about her latest quest: walking every street in Ardmore, documenting the journey on Instagram, and making her community a safer place for pedestrians along the way.
Finding ‘freedom’ in walking
Murray grew up in a “one-stop-sign town” in rural Pennsylvania, where she says there were no sidewalks and no good places to walk to.
“You could walk for miles and never end up anywhere,” she said. “I found that very isolating.”
After her parents divorced when she was a teenager, her mom moved to Kutztown, a small college town in Berks County. Suddenly, there were places to go on foot, from public parks to libraries.
“It was so liberating to just be able to walk and walk and walk,” Murray said. “There was just so much freedom in that.”
Murray moved to Philadelphia after college, where she and her husband lived for five years, first in Chinatown and later in South Philly. There, she gave up her car like many city residents.
When Murray and her husband decided to move to the suburbs in 2015, they were drawn to Ardmore’s contiguous sidewalk network. Being able to walk to the grocery store, the train, and the library allowed them to retain a bit of the urban ease-of-access they had grown accustomed to in Center City.
Becoming @_JaneWalksArdmore_
In 2023, Murray started an Instagram account, @_JaneWalksArdmore_, as a way to document her community’s idiosyncrasies as viewed from her regular strolls. She captured cheeky Halloween decorations, stretch limousines, winter sunsets, and fog rolling in over Haverford College’s campus. Murray has an affinity for brightly colored doors, pink houses, native plant gardens, and whimsical lawn statues. Her series #DoorsofArdmore features interesting local doorways. @_JaneWalksArdmore_ now has more than 1,000 followers.
At the recommendation of a friend, Murray began tracking her walks on Strava and created a custom Google Map, which allows her to document where she’s walked. In December, she decided to walk every street in Ardmore. She now says she’s “pretty close” to finishing the job.
Murray’s posts have made her a bit of a local celebrity (an honorific that comes with some unease for the natural introvert). People come up to her at parties to talk about her posts and, sometimes, ask to have their doors featured on #DoorsofArdmore (Murray says asking for a feature kind of ruins the fun).
While most of Murray’s Instagram posts focus on her pedestrian escapades, she doesn’t shy away from deeper reflections: on local politics, infrastructure, and street safety.
Last spring, Murray posted a “poor signage series” — calling out what she described as “infuriating,” “word salad” signs posted by Lower Merion Township and other government bodies. She’s called out electric poles that block sidewalk access on West Spring Avenue and “infuriating” and “negligent” tree planting by landscapers.
Bringing urbanism to Ardmore
Murray didn’t necessarily wade into pedestrian activism on purpose, but her experience navigating a car-centric community by foot tuned her in to the many ways suburban infrastructure fails non-drivers. She noticed uneven sidewalks, dangerous intersections, and speeding drivers. She began to think about how “limiting” suburban life could be for people without cars, from individuals with disabilities to seniors. She tried recently to participate in the national Week Without Driving and “failed catastrophically.”
Now, she’s working with the Pedestrian Dignity project to put out a bilingual zine focusing on the stories of those who move through their communities by foot, wheelchair, and public transit. She was invited to give a presentation at the Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s Statewide Active Transportation Summit in June. She hosts a walking book club in Ardmore, where members have read texts like The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs’s critique of mid-century urban policy.
Murray says her foray into the world of urbanism came, in part, from a disillusionment with how people move about the suburbs. Despite Ardmore’s extensive sidewalk network, nearly everyone is reliant on a car (or two) to get around. People often tell Murray they’re afraid to walk places, due in part to dangerous conditions when they travel on foot.
This week, Murray posted about a “harrowing” experience trying to walk Mill Creek Road between Cherry and Montgomery Avenues. Cars rush down the road, and blind curves and insufficient places to walk make it hostile to pedestrians.
“I cannot imagine walking here at night or in inclement weather,” Murray wrote.
Murray says she’s inspired by the urbanist community she’s found online, and sees her Instagram as a way to affect change, if only to draw people‘s attention to the everyday wonders that await them on a daily walk.
As Murray said, “What’s the point of having all these sidewalks if we’re not using them?”
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