Day 137

Safety device?

August 10th, 2010



I guess the purpose of this is to give blind people an audible warning that they're entering the street. There's another pillar facing this one on the other side of the pedestrian ramp.


11 Comments

  1. MN Roxanne says:

    Also warns carts when they’re to close to the curb I guess!

  2. Jeff says:

    cool. why arent they everywhere? I agree….thanks for all the recent video’s helps us walk vicariously even better.

  3. Gigi says:

    At first glance I thought it was a tower fan left on the street ;-)

  4. deanna valenti meyer says:

    I’m thinkin’ that is exactly what it is. Good for Kennewick for doing that for it’s citizens.

  5. Dorinda from Mentor, Oh. says:

    Well Matt it gives the old transportation engineer in you something to take back to NY and implement it into the culture there.

  6. Dorinda from Mentor, Oh. says:

    But my question is, why would a blind person be walking across a four lane highway in the first place? I guess if it’s the only way to get to where you need to go fine, but seems kind of dangerous to me(crossing 4 lanes)

    • Kris in MN says:

      Considering that a blind person can’t drive and depending upon the availability of public or mass transit, walking may be their only choice. I’ve encountered a number of signalized intersections that have audible cues for the blind, but have never seen this as a part of the system.

  7. JuJu says:

    But what if you are blind and in a wheel chair? There appears to be no ADA ramps. Maybe this signal is to alert a wheeled and sightless traveler that it’s time for a wheelie!

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