[Blindtlk] Walking on city streets with no sidewalks

[Arielle Silverman]

Thanks, Steve. This is really helpful. I had not thought about using
the slant as a landmark. Although Seattle is very hilly so that
technique might not be as reliable here, but I will definitely pay
more attention to the slant next time. I may try the bus stop there
again. The streets are not in my immediate neighborhood. It's an area
about a mile from my home that I visit periodically to go to the bank
and run other errands, like maybe once a month. So I am not sure how
often people see me more than once. I think that just because I am an
introverted person I hate being the center of attention and especially
having a bunch of people (not just one here and there but several at
once) all worrying over me just makes me feel really awkward.
Especially if they stop their cars or get out. I know being blind I
have had to get used to attracting attention even though it can be
unpleasant. It is also hard if I do ask someone for a simple piece of
information or confirmation ("Is this next street 28th Ave?" and they
take it upon themselves to tell me how I'm in the middle of the street
or want to follow me to my destination or something like that instead
of just answering the question. This is a problem on sidewalks, too,
but there is something about me walking on the street that seems to
just unsettle people. It is reassuring to know that other blind people
travel confidently in areas without sidewalks.
Arielle

On 9/26/15, Steve Jacobson via blindtlk <blindtlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Arielle,
>
> I am sorry for the frustration this is causing, at least I think I read a
> good bit of frustration between the lines of your note.  In 1997, my family
> bought a house in a neighborhood without sidewalks.  It is in an inner ring
> suburb, but there just were no sidewalks in our new neighborhood.  When I
> was a child, we never had sidewalks in our neighborhood, but I also didn't
> travel alone a lot, although we rode our tricycles in the street.  Anyway,
> with that background, I felt that the house we were buying, the
> neighborhood
> and the good schools were worth putting up without sidewalks.
>
> I still live in that same house and neighborhood, and have gotten pretty
> used to not having sidewalks.  Even so, I don't claim to have magic answers
> but here are a few things I've figured out for myself.
>
> In addition to getting to and from bus stops, I try to get exercise by
> walking.  I have a route that is about a mile that I try to do a few times
> a
> week, and most of it is without a sidewalk.  The first thing I noticed was
> that I would walk into parked cars more than I generally do.  After giving
> it some thought, I realized that I had much less warning when approaching a
> parked car from the back or from the front as I would when walking along
> the
> edge of a street.  If I happened to walk next to a parked car, I would
> generally hear it with echolocation, but the profile was much larger in
> that
> case, making it easier to hear.  I also figured out that my cane would
> often
> extend under the bumper before I got a warning.  It made me get a longer
> cane than I was using and that helped a lot.
>
> Another thing I became more tuned to is the slant of the street itself.
> Most of us have noticed when crossing a street that a street is lower at
> the
> edges and it rises to the middle and then descends.  This is less obvious
> when one is walking down a street.  However, I have become more in tune
> with
> the slant as I walk along the street.  If I feel the street slant to the
> left, I know I'm to the left of the center of the street.  If I happen to
> not walk a straight line, I can tell by the slant changing that I may have
> crossed over the center point and I can then make an adjustment before
> getting to the other side.
>
> Even crossing a street, especially in the middle of a block, can be easier
> by observing the slant.  If one is walking perpendicular to the direction
> of
> trafic, the slant up and down should feel the same on both feet.  This is a
> subtle thing, but it can be learned with time.
>
> A third thing that has helped me is that I definitely walk a straighter
> line
> if I am walking at a steady, somewhat brisk pace.  I don't mean one has to
> walk real fast, but if one walks slow, other forces can have a greater
> effect.  It is not unlike the fact that a bowling ball usually goes
> straighter if it is rolling fast.
>
> How to deal with people who are too helpful, or even are just helpful when
> the help is not needed or is distracting, is really a very personal thing.
> I do my best to deal with such people gracefully since I might actually
> need
> help sometime, but I know I don't always succeed.  For myself, I would not
> let such experiences cause me to walk further to a bus.  It's kind of the
> principle of the thing.  If I had to deal with someone who was consistently
> very difficult, maybe I would give in, I don't know, but what I have found
> is that people have gotten used to me over time.  I suspect that eventually
> people would come to understand that you are managing, and that if you
> don't
> walk directly to that bus stop, that you will make the appropriate
> correction.  It may take time, and it might be more frustrating than you
> can
> handle sometimes, but I suspect it will pay off in the long run.
>
> It is sort of funny, but sometimes when I make my one mile walk, I have
> more
> trouble on the sidewalks now.  There are driveways cut through the
> sidewalks
> so that when one encounters them, the slant is toward the street.  I have
> one ankle that gives me some problem, and stepping onto that slant can be
> difficult.  Of course, I don't have such slants when I am walking on the
> street, but of course there are potholes.  Also, during our Minnesota
> winters, the streets are cleared off very well by the city.  The
> responsibility for clearing most sidewalks is with the residents.  When I
> go
> into a neighborhood with sidewalks during the winter, I often find myself
> wishing I could walk in the street.  <smile>  I don't think you have to
> deal
> with winters so this is of little consolation, but I thought you would find
> the irony interesting.
>
> Good luck, and if any of this brings on questions, I'll try to answer.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
> Silverman via blindtlk
> Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2015 6:10 PM
> To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Blindtlk] Walking on city streets with no sidewalks
>
> Hi all. Just wanted to pick your brains regarding tips for traveling
> effectively and staying oriented on streets that have no or
> inconsistent sidewalks. There are some streets in my city that have no
> sidewalk and are fairly quiet streets but they intersect a busy
> street. When I attended LCB I got some good practice shorelining
> gutters on the edge of the road or seams between the road and
> driveways. But here there are often seams that come and go, or
> intermittent gravel patches, or rows of parked cars that come and go,
> making it difficult for me to stay centered. Sometimes the parked cars
> also make echolocation difficult. How do you stay straight?
> Another related aggravation is that often do-gooders will freak out if
> I am walking in the street even though it's my only option given the
> lack of sidewalk. Especially if I veer a tiny bit away from the edge
> because of the lack of consistent landmarks, people will get really
> concerned and keep asking me if I need help or if I need a ride or
> admonishing me not to be in the street like I'm an errant
> three-year-old. Even when I know my way, it makes me feel
> uncomfortable about walking in the street because I feel like I'm
> bringing all this attention on me and distracting and upsetting others
> around me. How do you handle such reactions? These are quiet streets,
> so I don't believe I am actually in danger (and if I hear a car coming
> I always get as far to the side as I can), but because it's hard for
> me to keep a straight line, sighted people don't know how to deal with
> me. What are your thoughts about this?
> One example: A bus stop I sometimes use is on a tiny patch of sidewalk
> with grass on one side and a fenced driveway on the other. When I
> cross the street to get to the stop, it's easy for me to miss the
> small sidewalk patch and I have to walk up and down the block a little
> bit (without sidewalk) to find it. I can usually find it fairly
> quickly, but one time as I was looking for the stop, several people
> stopped their cars or got out of their cars trying to help me find the
> stop (and some not even knowing there was a bus stop there) just
> making everything a big mess. I ended up switching to a further-away
> bus stop on sidewalk to avoid that problem, but I have to walk through
> a sidewalk-less block to get there.
> So, how do you stay oriented, and how do you placate the do-gooders
> and keep them from becoming a distraction?
>
> Best,
> Arielle
>
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