Culture
The Quest to Make Every Crosswalk an Accessible One
A new app uses crowdsourced data to make intersections safer for visually impaired pedestrians.
Can I hear traffic slowing to a stop? Is the curb sloping downwards? Can I feel the rumble of engines on a perpendicular street?
For people with visual impairments, safely crossing the street can be a tricky task, even at designated crosswalks. A 2007 report prepared for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program outlined the sensory cues that visually-impaired people note when locating and navigating an intersection. It requires a lot of maneuvering: How wide is this block? Are there any medians? What will I encounter on the other side?