A downtown resident is urging city hall to consider the needs of people who are visually impaired before someone “takes a header” and gets hurt.
Janet Taylor would like the city to ensure that light signals in the downtown are equipped with audible sounds such as beeps, as they help people with visual impairments to safely cross the street. Earlier this summer, she appeared before city council to express concern about the traffic signal at the crosswalk at Columbia and Fourth streets.
“It doesn’t beep, it doesn’t do anything,” she said. “It’s extremely difficult when you are visually impaired.”
Since her appearance before council in July, Taylor has learned the city will be making improvements to that light signal as part of the overpass that’s being built into Westminster Pier Park. She’d like the city to consider additional improvements in the area to make the area safer for people with visual impairments, such as installing a beeping feature in the crosswalk in front of the Army and Navy department store.
Taylor also expressed concern that devices at Fourth and Columbia aimed at calming traffic are hazardous to people with vision impairments. She suggested they be painted because visually impaired people can’t see the grey devices against the grey road.
“It is very difficult for a visually impaired person to see,” she said. “I have asked they be painted … so no one takes a header.”
Jim Lowrie, the city’s director of engineering services, said staff are aware of the issue and are looking into the situation. He said they were intended to serve as a barrier between motor vehicles and pedestrians.
“We are looking at that closely,” he said. “We are looking at what best practices are for making those more visible.”
Taylor, who has macular degeneration, walks with the assistance of a cane. Her husband is also legally blind.
“Uptown is fine – every last one of them is beeping,” she said of the light signals. “The Quay is also fine. What about us at this end of New West?”
Beeping lights go a long way toward improving mobility for people with visual impairments, Taylor said.
“It’s supposed to be a walkable city – then make it walkable,” she told The Record. “For visually impaired people, the city is not all that great.”
