March 20, 2008: Blind Sidewalks

Cellarite Kirk Israel, is visiting Japan at the moment, and posting a lot of pictures on his website(The first picture there, may not be safe for work?).

There are many interesting pictures, but I was struck by the pictures of the sidewalk markings for the blind. I stole these two pictures, to show you how they mark the path with straight ribs and intersections with dots.


Uh, thanks Kirk. :blush:

We have those here. They can be a death trap if you're wearing spike heels. We also have noisy walk signals at traffic lights. Do you have those too?

Ah, blind sidewalks. Not those other kind.

I've seen one of these with the dots and just thought they were for walking on during the icy season.

They put those on some subway stops in DC, at the edge of the tracks. Apparently, if you're not used to them, the way they catch the cane can be startling.

Aliantha;440219 wrote:

We have those here. We also have noisy walk signals at traffic lights. Do you have those too?

Not sure where 'here' is Ali but we def have them in Oz. I have one particularly loud signal outside my bedroom window. It's a good 30m away but still keeps me up from time to time. If I were a lighter sleeper I think I would have gone crazy years ago!

I'm in Brisbane and I can imagine those noisy things would be very annoying if you were a light sleeper. Glad it's outside your window and not mine. ;)

I haven't seen you around here before that I can remember, so g'day etc. Where abouts are you from?

We have them here (at least the bumpy ones at crossings) and I agree with Ali - it's hell on high heels, especially if a little worse for wear.

On the pavements near Moorfields (big London hospital specialising in sight issues) there are coloured stripes on the pavement (sidewalk) from the Tube station - different stripes lead to different entrances/ departments of the hospital for the partially sighted.

Yeah, those are far less misleading than the crosswalk's that tell you when to walk.

Great photos!!! Loved them! Now what is Kirk's cellar name? Or is it secret?

kisrael

The raised dots were installed in our city (Greenville, SC) after a local blind woman complained that her seeing eye dog didn't stop at streets where there was no curb. It seems the dog only recognized, and stopped at roads with curbs. The bumps allow her to tell when she is about to cross a street where there is no curb for the dog to recognize.

Back in the early 1980s, they redid the sidewalks in town in West Chester, particularly the crossing at Gay and High. For wheelchair access they removed the curbs at the intersections. It was a masterful job, with a very gentle slope to the street.

Unfortunately, blind people never knew when they were crossing the street. I don't know if there were any injuries or near misses, though.

Within a few weeks the brand new crossings were ripped up, and some rough cobblestones were laid in place to mark the edge of the sidewalk and the beginning of possible sudden death. If you've ever tried to cross at Gay and High, you know what I mean.

I believe that Dave Barry (who at the time was a columnist for The Daily Lack o' News) wrote a particularly humorous column about this.

We have a new Kroger that just put those bumpy things across the front of the door opening. Now I guess it is to keep the blind people out or keep them in once they get there.

Rumble strips, for people.

Aliantha;440219 wrote:

We have those here. They can be a death trap if you're wearing spike heels. We also have noisy walk signals at traffic lights. Do you have those too?

Noisy, as in VERY loud clicks? Or does it makes some other noise? We get very small clicking noises on our lights in NYC, so the only real noise indicating a light change is the honking of the horns.

I wouldn't call the sound a click so much as a pipping sound, but it's very loud, and starts off with the sort of sound you associate with a laser shooter in a star wars movie. You can hear them from half a block away at a busy city intersection.

It seems the dog only recognized, and stopped at roads with curbs.

I'm more interested in the intersection of gay and high . . .

We have those blind sidewalk pavers in Canberra, on the paved areas at the major bus interchanges. Ours look exactly like the ones in the pics.

We have the noisy walk signals too: they also vibrate to help people who are both blind and deaf.

wolf;440766 wrote:

Back in the early 1980s, they redid the sidewalks in town in West Chester, particularly the crossing at Gay and High. For wheelchair access they removed the curbs at the intersections. It was a masterful job, with a very gentle slope to the street.

Unfortunately, blind people never knew when they were crossing the street. I don't know if there were any injuries or near misses, though.

Within a few weeks the brand new crossings were ripped up, and some rough cobblestones were laid in place to mark the edge of the sidewalk and the beginning of possible sudden death. If you've ever tried to cross at Gay and High, you know what I mean.

I believe that Dave Barry (who at the time was a columnist for The Daily Lack o' News) wrote a particularly humorous column about this.

was that the origin of "in West Chester, you go in High, and come out Gay?"

Given that one can't really walk in high heels, I don't suppose that it matters much. High heels are for transferring from taxi to elevator, not for walking on city streets.