For more information by others regarding O&M and street-crossing, try publications and websites devoted to orientation and mobility issues, including:
• O&M Resource Site
• Accessible Design for the Blind.
GENERAL STREET-CROSSING
Skills and Concepts Needed for Crossing Streets
This page, excerpted from a more comprehensive list of O&M skills, lists skills and concepts that are necessary to get across a wide variety of streets, from simple residential streets to complex modern intersections.
A GENERAL APPROACH TO STREET-CROSSING (analyzing risks, making decisions, and considering alternatives):
I first presented a new approach for teaching street-crossing at modern intersections at the O&M Division Conference in 2003; a recording of this presentation, as well as handouts, are available free for AER members (click here) and can be taken for ACVREP credit.
This approach is also explained in the following article: Dona Sauerburger (2005). “Street-Crossings: Analyzing Risks, Developing Strategies, and Making Decisions” Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness October, 2005, AFB Press, New York, NY
Quiet Cars and the Safety of Blind Persons This paper was presented at a public meeting on "Quiet Cars" held by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington, DC June 23, 2008.
Getting Across the Street with Visual and Hearing Impairments This outline from a handout includes an approach for teaching any student to cross intersections in general, as well as suggestions for working with students with both hearing and visual impairments.
O&M Specialists have been teaching blind people to cross streets for more than 50 years, but traffic signals these days “aint your father’s traffic signals”! It is the consensus of the world’s largest professional organization of O&M specialists (the AER O&M Division, with more than 1,300 members) that O&M instruction for crossing streets with traffic signals must incorporate skills and information needed to address the modern signalized intersections, as explained in their position paper on the AER O&M Division website. Some of the links on this site attempt to address this critical issue, as well as raise general pedestrian accessibility issues. Information about accessibility of signalized intersections can be found at the website of Accessible Design for the Blind, and the Institute of Traffic Engineers’ “Electronic toolbox” for making intersections more accessible to blind people. Changes in O&M “Best Practice” for Crossing at Traffic Signals Explains that best practice has changed for teaching crossings at traffic signals, and implications of not using best practice Spring 2007 Newsletter, AER Orientation and Mobility Division
Crossing at Modern Signals Explains features of modern traffic signals that challenge our traditional street-crossing techniques, and strategies that are successful or dangerous and misleading Fall 2005 Newsletter, AER Orientation and Mobility Division
Traffic Signal Enlightenment A trip back to the time when we began to recognize the challenges of modern intersections and learn more about the mysterious world of traffic engineers and who to call about specific intersections. Includes links to some great resources on accessibility for blind people and several articles about advocacy efforts, and two articles by blind pedestrians / advocates:
• “Maryland's Audible Traffic Signal Pilot Study” by Debbie Grubb (September 1996);
• “Actuated Traffic Signals” By Mary T. (Terrie) Terlau, Ph.D. (May 1997).
Pedestrian Clearance Intervals at Modern Intersections: Implications for the Safety of Pedestrians Who Are Visually Impaired” (Comment) by Barlow, Janet M., Franck, Lukas, Bentzen, Billie Louise and Sauerburger, Dona (2001). Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, AFB Press, NY, Nov. 2001, pages 663-667
General pedestrian accessibility issues at traffic signals:
CROSSING STREETS WHERE THERE IS NO TRAFFIC CONTROL
Following are tools, strategies and approaches to assess and teach street-crossing where there is no traffic control (that is, where there is no stop sign or traffic signal for the street being crossed, as well as right-turning lanes separated with an island, and roundabouts). My interest in this topic began in 1988 as the result of a tragedy -- to read "behind the scenes" about the efforts to study and bring attention to this issue, see the award acceptance speech.
Program to Teach Concepts and Risk Analysis for Uncontrolled Crossings A suggested list of concepts and skills (and activities for teaching them) to enable people to recognize situations where they cannot hear or see the traffic well enough to know when it’s clear to cross (that is, when there is a sufficient crossing gap)..
Videotape “Teaching and Assessing Judgment for Crossing Streets Where There is No Traffic Control” can be obtained from the producer Dona Sauerburger
Poster: Assessing and Developing Judgment of Safety for Crossing Streets Which Have No Traffic Control The SpEdEx website has a poster with pictures of situations where there is no traffic control where it is not possible to hear the traffic well enough – even when it’s quiet – to know whether there is a gap long enough to cross (one of these situations is at an intersection at a two-lane residential street). The poster also has pictures of situations where the traffic can be heard far enough away to know that there is nothing coming that could reach you before you finish the crossing (one of these situations is a 3-lane highway). These pictures are on the “picture quiz.” The poster also illustrates that conditions can change, with the example being “Street E,” where the traffic can normally be heard well enough but not when there are cars parked nearby. The ability to hear approaching cars is also affected by pavement conditions (wet vs. dry) and other environmental conditions (air temperature, snow, leaves, etc.).
In many situations at roundabouts, it is difficult or impossible for blind people to determine whether there is a gap in traffic long enough to cross. It is also difficult for some people with cognitive disabilities who need clear-cut rules, such as "cross when the WALK signal comes on, after checking in certain places for traffic movement." Children who have not yet learned how to determine speed/distance of approaching vehicles also cannot reliably determine safe gaps. And as we age, our ability to determine gaps also deteriorates.
Roundabouts have many safety benefits over any other kind of intersection. Those safety benefits should be available to all pedestrians, including those who have difficulty with gap detection (such as children, people with cognitive or visual disabilities, and elderly people). These pedestrians need the safety benefits that roundabouts provide as much as or more than others. Roundabouts can and should be accessible to all users.
The following address the issue of roundabouts and blind people: