I just got word that the Justice Department has moved to intervene in a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by private plaintiffs with visual disabilities alleging the City of Chicago fails to provide people who are blind, have low vision, or are deaf-blind with equal access to pedestrian signal information at intersections.
Sighted pedestrians can see flashing “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs and countdown timers to alert them when it is safe to cross the street. We can’t see them. Devices providing pedestrians with safe-crossing information through audible tones, speech messages, and vibrotactile surfaces do exist, but few intersections in Chicago offer them.
Chicago currently provides visual crossing signals for sighted pedestrians at nearly 2,700 intersections, but it has only installed Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) at a mere 15 city intersections. The proposed suit alleges that the lack of accessible pedestrian signals at over 99 percent of Chicago’s signalized intersections subjects people who are blind, have low vision, or are deaf-blind to added risks and burdens not faced by sighted pedestrians, including fear of injury or death.
I’ve come across accessible pedestrian signals in other cities we’ve visited — Madison, Wisconsin comes to mind, and Urbana, Illinois has a few — but those were inconsistent. At some intersections hearing “beep, beep, beep” meant I should cross, and at others it meant I should stay put. Looking for the button to press to activate the Accessible pedestrian signals got me off-track and made it hard to find the crosswalk again. Sometimes the beep, beep beep noise was so loud it made it difficult to hear and judge the traffic surge. I pitied the poor people who lived and worked near one of the APS and have to hear it all the time.
When I was newly blind and learning to use a white cane, orientation and mobility (O&M) instructors taught me to rely on the surge of traffic at my parallel to recognize when the signal is green and it’s safe to walk. That principle is reinforced every time I travel to Morristown, New Jersey to train with a new Seeing Eye dog. In fact, at the Seeing Eye, one isn’t eligible to be matched with a dog without having completed O&M training.
Dogs are color blind. Seeing Eye dogs can’t read the stoplights, so it’s not their job to determine when it’s safe to cross a busy street. They are trained to go right up to every curb at each street crossing they get to, stop right there, and trust their human partner to use their sense of hearing to figure out what direction traffic is moving. Once we’re certain that traffic is flowing the same direction we want to travel, we give our dogs the command to cross. Dogs are trained to keep an eye out and to disobey their partner if the team is in harm’s way. It’s called intelligent disobedience, and it’s a pretty difficult thing to ask the dogs to do, when you think about it.
Traffic in Chicago has changed immensely in the year Luna has been with me — things started out normal in February. Then came the COVID shutdowns in March. Cars were few and far between, making it difficult to rely on my sense of sound to judge traffic flow. “Is the light green?” With so few people out and about, there was no one to ask.
Traffic increased again when things opened up in the summer, then decreased again when a surge in COVID forced another shutdown in fall. I’ve made my share of bad decisions at intersections during these times, and I cringe to think that onlookers are blaming my young new Seeing eye dog Luna when it’s me who made the mistake.
So I’m no longer skeptical when it comes to accessible pedestrian signals. Do I need one at every corner? No. Be selective and put them at particularly difficult intersections — the T-intersection down the street at Dearborn & Polk comes to mind. I need all the help I can get at that one. You know what else would help? Mike tells me that most intersections display countdowns until the light next changes. Simply making those audible would be a great help. And as long as I’m getting greedy, can you please make sure I don’t have to locate a button to make the thing work?
Yes, yes and yes! What is a bit of beeping to add to the city noise I already have? Bring it on! Make our city safe for Beth and others like her!!
This message needs to be sent to Mayor Lightfoot. The crossings need to be safe for everyone.
DOJ? Perhaps this will be a part of the infrastructure bill. Oh for Marca Bristo.
Beth, I love the idea of an audible countdown. As a sighted person, you can’t imagine how often I rely on those countdowns both as driver and pedestrian. To think what that might mean to you only amplifies (excuse the pun) the want for such a warning system.
Really interesting, Beth. I thought Chicago had more of these audible signals. I certainly have noticed/heard them in
other places. Hope the lawsuit bears fruit.
I must say that, even as a sighted person who can also hear (though not as well as I once did) I get nervous at
some intersections, for instance Foster and Sheridan. One learns to let the impatient drivers make their turns
even though technically they should be stopped for me/us. I toss my share of f-bombs at the particularly irresponsible
ones, in fact tossed one this am. The guy simply quietly returned the favor as he turned. Sometimes they scream
bloody murder at me.
At least upon seeing a guide dog one would hope people like the above guy would behave more kindly.
But I realize you are not talking about the turning situations, but about the main flow of traffic in the
two directions. Obviously, one does not want to make a bad mistake!
Wow. The things sighted people take for granted! Thanks for sharing this, Beth. It’s important for people to know what improvements need to be made so that we can become allies and advocates.
Well said, Beth. Most people have no idea what disabled people face every day. I sure hope that case wins!
Lori Lightfoot is already aware. The lawsuit and the Justice Department muscle is needed to force a commitment. The signals themselves will most likely comport with the standards listed in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, published by the Federal Highway Administration in the U.S. Department of Transportation. I am familiar with these because the signals were installed at one intersection in my north side neighborhood and they did not seem to be helpful. I figured out the problem was that they did not comply with the standards. For example, the signals could not be heard over the roar of Lake Shor Drive or speaking announcements rather than producing the percussive tones called for in the standards. The guidelines require the audio signals to be user activated with the activation button sounding a locator tone. Spoken countdown announcements are not part of the standards. Instead, the percussive tones stop when the number of seconds left are not sufficient for someone to cross at a typical pedestrian walk speed. The standards for pedestrian signals can be found at:
https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part4/part4e.htm
Thanks for this enlightening comment. Especially the link. I’ll check it out.
Hi Beth, this is Merle Gleeson. Long time no see! I spend my winters in Scottdale where they have incredible audible lights. As soon as you press the button it repeats “wait” until the light changes and then says “walk across Scottsdale Rd now on.” Very impressive and helpful! Glad to see you are doing well.
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