[Mt-blind] Interesting update

[Jim Marks]

Both the MAB and NFB have a clear stand on audible pedestrian signals.  If I
can find some relevant resolutions, I will post them here.  However, to
summarize, we favor only vibro-tactile signals, the kind that make very
little noise.  And we want them only in places where they serve a verifiable
purpose, a purpose beyond someone merely wanting them.  There should be
reasonable logic behind their installation.

The trouble with audible pedestrian signals is that they are an answer
looking for a question.  We assume the signals are beneficial when they are
often not helpful at all and sometimes even harmful to blind people.  Blind
and visually impaired people are almost always better off relying on their
own blindness skills, which depend on listening well.  The chirps and beeps
of audible pedestrian signals can create barriers to those who are paying
attention to the vehicle traffic by listening to the traffic.  They add
unhelpful and sometimes harmful noise.  In some rare instances, the signals
provide information that can be obtained in no other way.  For these, we
strongly urge the use of the kind of signals that are unobtrusive such as
the vibro-tactile type.  But then we also recommend getting good, high
quality rehab.  If the question is, how do blind people cross the street,
then the first and best answer is they do it with good blindness skills.  As
mentioned, there are intersections that might be appropriate for
vibro-tactile signals.  These would be multi-lane crossings with short
durations or high-speed, low traffic type of crossings.  I've not crossed at
Benton and Euclid, but I do not understand why this intersection would be
difficult.  And I do not understand how the signals would make a difference
there.  The devil would be in the details, but it's the details that are
necessary to make sure we are doing the right thing.



Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at GMail.com 
-----Original Message-----
From: mt-blind-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:mt-blind-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Carl Schweitzer
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 9:28 PM
To: blind
Subject: [Mt-blind] Interesting update

Everyone:  Kayla is back on campus at Carroll College and yesterday I
stopped to visit with her.  In our conversation she asked if I could look
into see if a auditory signal could be put in on the corner of Benton and
Euclid in Helena.  She has to cross that street to get to the grocery store
and it is very difficult for her to tell when traffic is stopped.  So I
called a friend at the Department of Transporation and ask how or who we
should talk to about getting an auditor traffic signal on that corner.  He
talked with the district manager for the Helena district and evidently
Helena is about to get all new traffic signals all over the town.  But the
traffic engineers had not thought about auditory signals, but they are
interested in learning and considering them.  Kayla said that when she was
in Poland that all of the intersection had auditory signals that make a low
clicking sound that was not obnoxious like the one on Eleventh and Roberts
in Helena (by the mall).  So with the new traffic systems coming to Helena
and the district engineer interested in the possible, the association has an
opportunity to get something positive accomplished regarding traffic.  Since
the summer school is in Helena now, it would be great to have all of the
traffic signals working for the blind as well as everyone else.  The
district engineer suggested that I write him a letter telling him about what
I would like to happen.  If any one else would like to write him or call
him, his name is Michael Johnson and his address and phone number are:  200
Smelter Avenue NE; PO Box 1359; Great Falls, MT 59403-1359; Phone:
406.454.5880 | 888.730.0898