[Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do you have in your city?

Wed Jan 10 20:00:26 UTC 2018

This is a common scenario that can be well served with an APS.

Andy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances'" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione at access.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 5:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do 
you have in your city?

> Hi Jim.
> I also live on a quieter street that crosses a very busy one, and I had 
> the
> exact problem you describe--figuring out a lull in traffic from when I had
> the light.  It's also an offset intersection, with a lot of turning 
> traffic.
> As I said, I had to fight hard to get an APS there, but, every time I was
> thinking of giving up, I'd misjudge the light, and I'd grit my teeth and 
> go
> back to the battle.  I should not have to risk my life, literally, to 
> cross
> the street.  Well, no more than anyone else does. To heck with what it 
> cost
> the county.  I pay taxes, and my life has value in itself.
>
> I have been wondering for years if it would be practical to develop a 
> smart
> phone app that would say when the walk sign was on.  It would have to be
> absolutely real-time, and reliable.  But, if it could be done, it ought to
> be a lot cheaper than APS's are now. And maybe there's a way to make it 
> work
> with any traffic light one encounters.  Do you think such a thing could
> work?
> Tracy
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Electronics-Talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jim McCarthy via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2018 2:28 PM
> To: 'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances'
> Cc: Jim McCarthy
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do
> you have in your city?
>
> Tracy,
> I do think that the end point is what you suggest, to have one at every
> intersection that has a traffic light. When there is new development, they
> should be put in at the get go as you suggest they are. In other cases, I 
> do
> think the more complicated intersections should be first; I think that if 
> a
> traffic light needs repair or replacement, an accessible signal should 
> take
> its place; and finally, someday there will be accessible signals at every
> intersection. I did not always think that it needed to be an equality 
> thing
> but that is the way I am headed now also. I live on a north south street
> that is not very busy. It is a plus intersection though so my street 
> crosses
> a very busy street, one of the more busy in that part of the city and one
> that crosses the entire city toward its north end. The busy street is not
> even all that wide so the intersection is not geometrically complicated. 
> It
> does not have an audible signal but might benefit from one. The reason is
> that there is often not traffic on my street crossing. There are some gaps
> on the busy street but a blind travelers is left guessing, "is there a gap
> because the light is favorable?" Perhaps, it is just a traffic lag and one
> may need to race across. Having an audible traffic signal would take away
> the guess work. Is this the most important intersection in the city for a
> signal? Probably not but there would be benefit in having one. I have 
> lived
> in that neighborhood for many years and feel safe crossing so I have not
> asked for this yet.
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Electronics-Talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2018 11:14 AM
> To: 'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances'
> Cc: Tracy Carcione
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do
> you have in your city?
>
> Thanks Jim.  I hadn't thought much about what you bring up.  What criteria
> do you think they should use?  Put in an accessible signal at the most
> complicated intersections, and, when those are covered, move on to less
> complicated ones?  Should the goal be to have an accessible signal 
> wherever
> there is a crossing signal?  I didn't used to think so, but now I'm 
> starting
> to think that I have the same right to know the status of the light as my
> sighted neighbors have.
>
> I had to fight tooth and claw to get the first signal in my county.  I had
> to get my state assemblywoman involved, and threaten the county with an 
> ADA
> lawsuit.  But now, a few years later, they have put in 2 more signals on 
> the
> main drag all on their own.  They seem to be putting them where there is 
> new
> development--new businesses going in.  I'm not sure what their criteria 
> are,
> but I am glad to have them.
> Tracy
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Electronics-Talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jim McCarthy via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Friday, January 05, 2018 10:23 AM
> To: 'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances'
> Cc: Jim McCarthy
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do
> you have in your city?
>
> I have been reading this thread with some interest. It seems to me that 
> much
> of the time, the answer will be like Mike has said here that there is some
> certain number in his area and he knows this because he asked for and got
> their installation. What I have not noticed in the thread is a reason for
> knowing how many there are. This is information a city transportation or
> traffic department probably has but I think the number a jurisdiction has
> does not matter very much. The trend of installation is more important to
> indicate progress in the installation. It still bothers me that many
> jurisdictions react as Fort Collins did for Mike, that is that they 
> install
> them in areas that blind people frequent or only when a blind person or
> enough of us make the request. The result is that in many of the places
> these are installed, they do not offer actual assistance to blind 
> travelers
> and in places where they would offer that help, they are not installed
> because there is not an entity expected to be frequented by people who are
> blind or because no requests have been made.    I suppose though that if 
> the
> trigger for installation is that there has been a request, I am glad Fort
> Collins has responded as they have. In many instances, the answer is that
> they are expensive so we can't or won't install. To me the right approach 
> is
> to have as a part of a long term transportation plan the goal of 
> installing
> some number per year. It also strikes me as best to rank intersections 
> based
> on criteria so that the really complicated ones receive the devices also.
> Jim McCarthy
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Electronics-Talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Mike Sedmak via Electronics-Talk
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2018 5:25 PM
> To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances
> Cc: Mike Sedmak
> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do
> you have in your city?
>
> We have five in my corner of Fort Collins, CO.  I called the city traffic
> operations engineer and asked him to install them on all the crossings I
> frequent.  I would recommend asking for them in your area if you like 
> them.
>
>
> Our city ops said they are relatively expensive, so they only install them
> when requested.
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
> Sent from my iPhone, please forgive the typos.
>
>> On Jan 4, 2018, at 1:19 PM, Andy Baracco via Electronics-Talk
> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Interestingly enough, I don't think that we have that many in the
>> entire
> city of Los Angeles.
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike via Electronics-Talk"
>> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> To: <Electronics-Talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: "Mike" <mrmikie273 at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2018 2:29 AM
>> Subject: [Electronics-Talk] How many accessible pedestrian signals do
>> you
> have in your city?
>>
>>
>>> How many accessible pedestrian signals do you have in your city or
>>> area? In the greater Daytona Beach Florida we now have 32 of them.
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
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