walk lights?

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:54 pm

Lost drunk calling a friend to pick him up:

"I am at the corner of walk and don't walk."

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:54 am

The magnificent "city" of Portage Michigan has a pedestrian light with a noise maker for the sake of the blind. Unfortunately it's out where no pedestrians ever go. Makes sense to me.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:00 am

There's quite a few of those in Toronto. Took me a while to figure out what the noise was for. Some places have a recorded voice that says "Walk" or "Don't Walk".

djm

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:15 am

Flyingcursor wrote:The magnificent "city" of Portage Michigan has a pedestrian light with a noise maker for the sake of the blind. Unfortunately it's out where no pedestrians ever go. Makes sense to me.

Yaaay!

I was going to post (before you beat me to it), why doesn't the USA cater for bind pedestrians? Almost every pedestrian crossing has no audible signal, but in the UK they all do. Useful for distracted tourists who are looking everywhere at once except at the little green man.

This was one of the many minor culture shocks I had in the States - so I used to put my own sound effects in.

missy · Post by **missy** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:25 am

we live in an area with a high percentage of blind people (we have a major school/training/work center near us).
All of our crossings have a noise generator (although some of them have a button to push to get the noise to come on). Many of our crossings are also made of raised strips or bricks so that the blind can "feel" these with their canes. And we have numerous warning signs posted.
Almost all of the restaurants have braille menus, etc.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:29 am

Martin Milner wrote:
I was going to post (before you beat me to it), why doesn't the USA cater for bind pedestrians?

Well I'm not sure about the bind pedestrians, but in SLC we have signals for the hearing impared...

mukade · Post by **mukade** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:35 am

In big cities, and even small ones, you can see these yellow tiles everywhere. Of course, all crossings have beepers.

Mukade

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:23 am

We have talking crossing signals here. Also ones that chirp. If the percentage of users is high, they'll give extra time, stop traffic in all directions and ban right turns on red while someone is crossing.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:25 am

If I were blind, I doubt I would feel comfortable crossing the road.

missy · Post by **missy** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:54 am

Cran - I have a friend who's blind (and a fantastic musician of just about every instrument she picks up!). She has lived on her own for over 30 years. She's travelled all across the US and in Europe and Africa, all on her own (she had a helper canine in Germany that ran away).
She rides the buses all over town - has NO problem with finding the correct one. And never lets something like a street and traffic slow her down.

Her goal now is to someday go to a school for the blind in Africa and teach music. Currently she works at the local place I referred to - translating things into braille.

She's an amazing person.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:57 am

missy wrote:Cran - I have a friend who's blind (and a fantastic musician of just about every instrument she picks up!). She has lived on her own for over 30 years. She's travelled all across the US and in Europe and Africa, all on her own (she had a helper canine in Germany that ran away).
She rides the buses all over town - has NO problem with finding the correct one. And never lets something like a street and traffic slow her down.

Her goal now is to someday go to a school for the blind in Africa and teach music. Currently she works at the local place I referred to - translating things into braille.

She's an amazing person.

I didn't mean to seem to say that ALL (or even most) blind folk shouldn't or can't cross the road, I just meant that I don't think I could feel comfortable doing it, even with a seeing-eye dog.

flanum · Post by **flanum** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:54 pm

There are quite a few visually impaired and hearing impaired schools/clubs/societies in Dublin. All the pedestrian crossings have beepers, flashing indicators AND vibratory indicators on the crossing unit for the doubly impaired!

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:59 pm

Lambchop wrote:We have talking crossing signals here. Also ones that chirp.

They have the chirping ones in Brattleboro, VT. At least at the light I was stuck at for about a half an hour. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what that loud chirping was, until about the 3rd time I'd sat through it. BTW, the traffic is normal for Brattleboro. If you want to get somewhere quickly while visiting there, do NOT take the downtown route. You'll be stuck forever.