Beeping signal truly sends right message
JACK LAKEY The noises that come from audible pedestrian crossing signals are not what you might think, unless you know enough to understand them.
And it’s more likely that visually impaired people recognize sounds emitted by audible signals than those of us who can see but don’t know what they mean.
We recently got a note from Kate Prevedello about audible signals on Davenport Rd., just east of Bay St., who was concerned that they were not working correctly.
“The beep signal at the pedestrian lights is constantly beeping, indicating that it is safe to walk across, even when the light is red,” she said.
“I have yet to see someone blind attempt to cross, but it is only a matter of time,” she said, fearing a visually impaired person could step into oncoming traffic.
We went there and found the button to change the light emitted a constant beeping sound, like Prevedello observed. Yikes, could it fool someone into making a deadly error?
Status: We sent an email to James Chandler, in charge of traffic signals, and got a reply from Eric Holmes, a spokesperson for transportation services. The signal is working as it should. A city contractor “confirmed that the Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) are in proper working order. It is a ‘fixed’ signal intersection, which means that all movements are served in a constant specific order, and has a ‘pedes- trian priority phase,’ which is part of how the intersection is supposed to operate. The APS locator tone is supposed to remain on at all times, even during the pedestrian priority phase, unless a pedestrian button has been depressed and held for a minimum of three seconds. Depressing the button for three seconds activates the audible walk message during the pedestrian priority phase.”
To recap, the noise we heard is the locator tone, which helps visually impaired people find the button. To activate the signal to allow a person to cross the street, the button must be held for at least three seconds. Learn more by typing “accessible pedestrian signals” into the search field attoronto.ca.
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