First, thank you very much to whoever was doing whatever along Roosevelt way in the U-district today. There was something involving what RantWoman thinks was a long blue crane and a lot of orange traffic cones. The really miraculous noteworthy point is that the people working with the crane posted very sensible "Sidewalk closed" signs at crosswalks, and not only at crosswalks, but at crosswalks with traffic lights so that a person could figure out to avoid the problem far enough away to take sensible rather than desparate action! RantWoman is sorry that the entirely appropriate practice about stationing "sidewalk closed" signs to allow pedestrians to make sensible detours which SHOULD BE STANDARD PROCEDURE is erratic enough to merit enthusiastic acclaim when it occurs, but RantWoman does enthusiastically note it.
Now on to some other comments.
If RantWoman were a really disciplined researcher, she would include in this entry some links to ACB, NFB or Access Board information about pedestrian accessibility and traffic signals. For the moment, seeding the conversation with search terms will have to suffice.
The other caution: for some reason audible pedestrian signals and attempts at pedestrian accommodations are one of the topics about which members of the two main national blind organizations, http://www.acb.org/ and http://www.nfb.org/ become most ballistically divergent in approach. Both organizations lobby actively about pedestrian issues. Some of the approaches overlap significantly. However, RantWoman has detected a range of views ranging from "what's the point because nothing can be relied on 100% of the time?" to "well look at all the other people who benefit, for example from curb cuts."
RantWoman MAY be generalizing inappropriately from local samples. Suffice it to say, caution is always in order: if you are recruiting a blind person to offer perspectives on some or another policy or infrastructure, do your best to recruit one who is able and willing to speak carefully about multiple perspectives including the one(s) he or she is most ardent about.
Take audible traffic signals. Every once in awhile RantWoman will be out walking with one of her groupies. We will come upon a crosswalk with an audible traffic signal and RantWoman's companion will say something like "what does that signal mean?" RantWoman typically has no freaking idea at first, though RantWoman does know that the onset of a beeping traffic signal most assuredly is not a guarantee that it is safe to cross the street; sometimes she simply says "It means there is a beeping signal."
Typically these signals have two tones for the average orthogonal crosswalk. Simply by listening, RantWoman may or may not be able immediately to tell which direction the traffic is moving with each kind of tone. This being Seattle, this problem may obtain even if one naively thinks one side of the grid SHOULD be stopped.
Perhaps there is a left turn signal. Perhaps someone(s) are into "California stops" before going right on red. Perhaps someone just has a hormonal urge to pull their large metal carcass into the crosswalk in anticipation of the light change. Or perhaps the audible signal is located at an impossible intersection where at certain times of the day, the traffic can be guaranteed not to clear the intersection during the signal, perhaps due to traffic, due to backups behind a bus or a jaywalking pedestrian or a cop trying to ticket a jaywalking pedestrian or just sunspots.
There is one signal near RantWoman's house which definitely falls into the last category above. There is audible signal on only one side of the intersection, an impossible 5-way mess that MIGHT need an audible signal on one other leg. Even so, the onset of the beeping is most certainly NOT a guarantee that it is safe to cross the street.
Here we come to another feature guaranteed to make crossing the street entertaining, curb cuts and the textured strips that often accompany them.
RantWoman generally thinks curb cuts are a great good thing, not only for wheelchair users, but for shopping carts, strollers, wheeled luggage, seniors who do not want to climb giant curbs, blobs emerging from the sewer.... RantWoman does acknowledge some downsides: if drainage is not done correctly, curb cuts can quickly become grease-covered, leaf-choked swimming pools during inclement weather. Curb cuts also may lack a sharp distinction between street and sidewalk; this makes it difficult for SOME blind people as well as cars to avoid going places they do not intend. Sometimes, despite the prescriptions of the ADA and whatever is on the blueprint, what gets built winds up being too narrow or situated in a way that makes it really difficult for a wheelchair user to turn from curb cut to sidewalk or vice versa. Finally, curb cuts get built at all sorts of angles to the intersection, the crosswalk, oncoming traffic, arrive space ships and foot traffic.
The inconsistent location and unpredictable variations in grade are one reason that many newer curb cuts get a wide yellow or whiite bumpy rubber strip imbedded in them. Some blind people, conscious of the "can never be relied on 100% of the time" issue think these are silly and counterproductive. RantWoman by contrast really loves them, for two good reasons. First RantWoman is cheap and she will take a free foot massage anyway she can get it.
Second, RantWoman walks a lot with RantMom. RantMom uses a walking cane and always makes a beeline for the curb cut at any intersection. The bright color distinctions really help her find the curb cut faster.
Unfortunately RantMom is always zigzagging around trying to use curb cuts that face a bunch of different directions. Sometimes she is on RantWoman's right. Sometimes she is on RantWoman's left. Sometimes she is just weaving in and out. Maybe RantWoman will just ask RantMom to wear a nice bell so RantWoman can keep track. Or maybe that would just get lost in all the traffic noise too.
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