Chip, Did you ever think that the city commissioners can never guarantee your safety. Even sighted pedestrians and drivers have accidents. There are only two audible crossings now, but they are going to try to address the rest and we will never get there if we don't start. Your refusal to consider or compromise means we will never get any where. We are not helpless and we don't need the entire world to change just to guarantee our safety. I know who walks the streets and who never sets foot on the sidewalk. I am tired of this bashing that is going to build a wall between us and them. We need to work with them or they will do what they want and we will be labeled as trouble makers and we will be left behind, because they are the powerful majority and we are not. I have been trying to be reasonable and they are listening to us by coming to our TCB meeting and to the Light House, but if we go in there with guns blazing, then we are going to loose our position of reason. William ----- Original Message ----- From: Chip Orange To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 11:54 AM Subject: [tabi] my object to Nova 2010 hi all, I spoke with a StarMetro planner yesterday, and he said only 2 intersections of the possible 41 proposed for transfer points, currently have audible signals. (I think Lynn did tell us that). perhaps, just perhaps, they'll be able to add 10, even 20, in the next year, but by no means all of them will get audible signals. the point I made to him, and the one I intend to make to the city commission unless there is a dramatic change in the plan, is that no intersection, even with an audible signal, is safe for a blind person to cross. audible signals only make it somewhat safer, but many of our local blind residents can testify about being hit. I don't think even our best, most skillful, independent travelers, can say that crossing an intersection such as many of those proposed by StarMetro is safe; and, a number of our blind residents do not fall into the class of our "most skillful" independent travelers. I intend to urge the city commission to deny the entire plan until the safety of disable riders can be assured by never requiring a transfer through an intersection; StarMetro has got to be forced to come up with another way to handle transfers. I know others of you have other objections to the plan, and I've heard and agree with a lot of them, but this is to me, the single really good one, which is good enough to warrant the city commission stopping implementation until it is worked out. I do support other objections which have been raised, including the one I just mentioned that with all the bus stops moving to new locations, they are going to be hard to find, and that the routes and the location of stops require a lot of walking at times, which itself is also unsafe. but when I write the commission after the plan is submitted to them, I am only going to focus on the safety issue, as I think it's the most important, and I don't want to overwhelm them in my letter with les important objections. I hope all of you will consider writing to the city commission, but not until the plan has been submitted to them. any letters before then are evidently just forwarded to StarMetro, without engaging the commissioners' attention. thanks. Chip ------------------------------ Chip Orange Database Administrator Florida Public Service Commission Chip.Orange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (850) 413-6314 (Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)