Roundabout accessibility
Posted Feb 1, 2012 01:22:06 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Make roundabouts more accessible: that’s the message to the Region of Waterloo coming from the Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee (GRAAC).
GRAAC co-chairperson, Gord Cummer advised council yesterday that roundabouts lack accessibility.
Cummer tells 570 News, the key with roundabout safety is being able to see what is coming, and for the visually impaired, that’s a problem.
“Whether it’s making eye contact with the driver before they go out into the crosswalk, or even just knowing that there is no cars coming. Of course, with the vision-impaired, none of that works,” he said.
For the visually-impaired, Cummer said, hearing the direction of traffic is how roads are usually crossed. Even seeing eye dogs aren’t taught skills to cross roundabouts, “(they are trained) to recognize the traffic pattern, and the other is they are trained to recognize when a light has changed. So again, if you’re depending on traffic patterns, roundabouts are no help.”
It’s not just the blind who face difficulty crossing at roundabouts, Cummer said, “seniors with walkers and young mothers with babies and strollers are challenged by them.”
Cummer says he understands that roundabouts are here to stay, and he hopes council directs staff to look deeper into the accompanying accessibility issues.
