EXCLUSIVE DESIGNS

This article discusses how far current road crossing designs, especially for side road crossings, are safe for blind pedestrians. Although many new crossings incorporate tactile paving, they can be dangerous for blind pedestrians if kerbs are omitted from the area surrounding the crossing. Without a kerb raised away from the crossing, a blind person can easily walk into a road without realising it. Although tactile paving is a very good system of informing blind pedestrians, it can work only if all its elements are applied correctly, and when the reasons behind the rules are understood by crossing designers. The rules for using tactile paving concern specific aspects of blindness, such as mobility techniques, navigation, veering, methods for finding objects, orientation, and listening methods. Visual impairment is a sensory loss that is not easy to imagine, so that many new crossings address the more obvious mobility problems, but ignore the needs of blind people, who need tactile information about the borders between roads and pavements. Crossings often have granite setts, laid on a road surface exactly where a blind person would expect tactile paving. Side crossings at places where a main road bends are difficult. Mutual interference between the designs of adjoining crossings is especially serious, and also illegal.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/3831968
• Corporate Authors:

  ALAD LIMITED

  112 HIGH STREET
  CROYDON, KENT  United Kingdom  ME2 1BY
• Authors:
  • DUNCAN-JONES, B
• Publication Date: 1997-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 22-3
• Serial:
  • Highways
  • Volume: 65
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Alad Limited
  • ISSN: 0142-6168
  • Serial URL: http://www.highways-mag.co.uk

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blindness; Crosswalks; Curbs; Design; Hazards; Mobility; Pedestrians; Safety; Tactile perception; Walkways
• ITRD Terms: 2075: Blindness; 9011: Design (overall design); 2720: Footway; 2917: Kerb; 9105: Mobility (pers); 1733: Pedestrian; 1659: Pedestrian crossing; 9150: Risk; 1665: Safety; 9120: Tactile
• Subject Areas: Design; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00741080
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Oct 30 1997 12:00AM