Wayfinding Problems for Blind Pedestrians at Noncorner Crosswalks: Novel Solution

Abstract

To travel independently, pedestrians with visual impairments must be able to locate crosswalks and align accurately for crossing streets. This action is especially challenging where crossings are not located at street corners and cues for locating the crosswalk and aligning to cross in the direction of travel on the crosswalk may be inadequate. This research compared midblock and roundabout crossings with curb ramps and detectable warnings but no other consistent cues for locating the crosswalk and no cues specifically intended to provide alignment and heading information, with the same crossings with the addition of a 24-in.-wide prototype surface of raised bars oriented perpendicular to the direction of travel on the crosswalks. This treatment was installed beside the detectable warnings and extended across the sidewalk. It was hypothesized that this surface would assist with both locating the crosswalk and establishing accurate alignment with the crosswalk. Sixteen participants having little or no vision failed, on average, to locate the crosswalk on the initial approach on 2.4% of their attempts for crosswalks having the guidance surface, while without the guidance surface, participants failed to locate the crosswalk on the initial approach on an average of 17.9% of their crossing attempts. With the guidance surface, participants aligned correctly on average on 77.3% of their trials, while without the surface the rate of correct alignment was 52.1%.

Effect of Tactile Walking Surface Indicators on Travelers with Mobility Disabilities

“…Additional research on the ability of blind pedestrians to use guidance TWSIs at midblock crosswalks, roundabout crosswalks, and skewed intersections or other non-corner crossings is planned as part of this project. The surfaces will be installed with bars parallel to the direction of travel on the sidewalk, in keeping with the research results of Bentzen et al and the results reported here including the preferred orientation for persons with mobility disabilities (2).…”

“…To cross streets independently and safely, pedestrians with vision impairments must locate the crosswalk, establish a heading (or align) to cross within the crosswalk, and maintain their heading while crossing. The difficulties that pedestrians who are blind have with locating crosswalks and aligning to cross at channelized turn lanes and roundabouts are well documented ( 1, 2 ). When pedestrians who are blind mistakenly cross at locations that do not have a crosswalk, or align and cross with a heading that takes them outside a crosswalk, they may be at risk of a crash or of becoming disoriented, and they are likely to delay the flow of vehicular traffic.…”

“…Bentzen et al demonstrated that a guidance surface installed across the sidewalk at a crosswalk can enable blind pedestrians to locate the crosswalk and to align accurately for crossing the street at roundabout and midblock crossings ( 2 ). The surface was 24 in.…”

“…However, it would be premature to recommend this treatment without making sure that it would not adversely impact travel by people having mobility impairments. The guidance surface used by Bentzen et al was placed beside curb ramps, terminating beside truncated-dome DWS at the bottom of curb ramps ( 2 ). When installed in this way, wheelchair users (and other pedestrians) would not encounter the guidance surface when using the curb ramp.…”

“…Internationally, a raised-bar surface with bars oriented parallel to the direction of travel on the crosswalk is quite common (Figure 1 b ); however, concerns have been expressed by wheelchair users in the U.S. about adding the bar surface to be crossed when continuing on the sidewalk ( 4 ). Bentzen et al chose to turn the raised bars by 90 degrees, orienting them perpendicular to the crossing, and parallel to the direction of travel on the sidewalk, because raised bars perpendicular to blind pedestrians’ direction of travel had previously been found to result in significantly more accurate direction-taking than raised bars parallel to their direction of travel ( 2, 5 , 6 ). Bars parallel to the direction of travel on the sidewalk also seemed to address the concerns of persons with mobility impairments ( 4 ).…”