Thanks Kathy and Carson for educating us on this important consideration! I
had no idea of this drawback of dedicated pedestrian signals, so I'm glad I
asked.
May I pick your brains further?
The main reason I asked was that I was thinking about the crossing of
William Clark Drive at Hannaford. Given the characteristics of that
location -- crosswalk to the left of the driveway, and potentially two
lanes of traffic turning left out of it, what in your opinion would be the
ideal infrastructure for the blind or visually impaired pedestrian? Would
it help if the crosswalk were on the right side of the driveway instead of
the left?
And also a general follow-up question: When an audible signal is used, is
locating the direction of the audible signal helpful at all in keeping the
pedestrian on course? Is the issue that the audible signal does not sound
for long enough to complete the crossing? Or in the case of a dedicated
pedestrian phase, would having the audible signal coming from all
directions confuse the pedestrian's "auto-location"?
Just a comment, it seems to me that this in an area where it certainly
ought to be possible to design better technology. Maybe the audible signals
at a dedicated crossing could be a different pitch for the different
directions, so the blind user could better distinguish them. Maybe the walk
signal directly ahead of the pedestrian could communicate in some way with
a white cane to assist in course-keeping. Possible application for
Bluetooth-connected technology?
On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 7:54 AM Carson Wood <cwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Blind and visually impaired use near parallel traffic which firstly
indicates that the light is green in the direction the pedestrian wants to
cross. Secondly, the near parallel traffic forms a wall of protection as
well as guidance to stay traveling in a straight line.
The lane by lane piece has to be mentioned. When the near parallel
traffic starts the pedestrian starts the crossing knowing the light is
green but, due to right on red, the pedestrian must be cognizant of
possible immediate right turners. Usualy these drivers are concentrating on
looking left towards the oncoming traffic instead of the possible
pedestrian making it imperative for the pedestrian to be hyper aware.
At the halfway point in the crossing just at the center line, the
pedestrian must be cognizant of the possible left turning traffic that is
traveling from the same direction as the pedestrian. Just as this is being
processed, the pedestrian must be cognizant of possible right turners
traveling towards the pedestrian.
This process must be adjusted by the pedestrian when there are wider,
multiple lane crossings. The intersection must be understood in weather or
not it has specified traffic lights like arrows with designated turning
lanes and median strips.
To make all of this more fun, especially for the blind pedestrian is
the presence of pressure pads that trigger traffic lights.
T intersections are unique in that the green light will always have
left and right turners for the pedestrian to contend with.
For the blind pedestrian, keeping ones head in a crossing is
imperative, When traffic flow is operating as it is designed to flow.
Crossings are completed easily with proper training and knowledge of how
intersections work.
What you are hearing in many of my email messages is the widening gap
between the well educated blind pedestrian’s skills caused when drivers do
not operate in the way the infrastructure was designed.
The role of the O&M instructor to solidly burn all of this into a blind
pedestrian’s mind is literally the difference between life and death. It’s
a gravely serious responsibility.
So, when I know traffic is running traffic lights at greater than 50
mph I’m rattled and complain about it.
I hope this helps in understanding where I’ve been coming from.
Carson Wood.
*From:* wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wsmac-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On
Behalf Of *John Brooking
*Sent:* Tuesday, August 21, 2018 8:45 PM
*To:* wsmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [wsmac] Dedicated pedestrian crossing and visually impaired
pedestrians
Here is a question for Carson and other people on this list familiar with
issues around visual impaired walking, as well as engineers like Eric or
Ethan. I recently had an email exchange with Patrick Adams at the DOT
regarding the application of dedicated pedestrian phasing of walk lights,
meaning all traffic is stopped when the walk light is on. He mentioned a
number of challenges to doing that, one of which was the impact to visually
impaired pedestrians and their ability to navigate the intersection.
I have not heard before that a dedicated pedestrian phase would present a
challenge to these users. Can anyone explain what it would be?
