City lags with audio signals to assist at street crossings
Chicago has 18, while Boston has more than 300
In 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago would make the city’s intersections more accessible for blind and low-vision pedestrians, pledging on the 29th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act to add more crossing signals with audible tones.
Lightfoot’s plan called for adding these signals at up to 50 intersections as part of a pilot project that would seek input from the blind community about which intersections most needed the signals. She also said crossing signals that needed routine modernization work would be outfitted with accessible signals.
Today, though, such crossing signals are installed at 18 intersections, with only seven added since the announcement in 2019, according to information provided by the city to the Tribune. The seven new signals were added as part of the modernization work. Though the city has identified intersections for the pilot project, those signals have not yet been installed.
Chicago lags behind a number of other major cities that have such crossing signals at hundreds of intersections. In Boston, for example, more than 300 locations are outfitted with accessible signals, a city spokesperson told the Tribune.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to intervene in a pending lawsuit filed in 2019 by a nonprofit group that alleges Chicago has failed to equip intersections with the signals, called Accessible Pedestrian Signals, or APS.
“We are concerned about the serious lack of accessibility to safe intersection crossings for Chicagoans who are blind, have low vision, or are deaf-blind,” said John R. Lausch, Jr., U.S. attorney Northern District of Illinois, in a news release announcing the DOJ’s intervention.
Blind and low-vision Chicagoans who spoke to the Tribune said the city should add more accessible signals, but cited the importance of the locations being chosen with input from the blind community. Many said cities don’t need to put accessible signals at every intersection — rather, a targeted approach that installs them at more complex intersections is the best way forward.
“Frankly, I do believe the city of Chicago should have some additional (signals) with the input of the disability community,” said Patti Chang, second vice president of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois. “Sometimes cities and organizations place them where engineers think. They don’t live my life.”
Chang noted that blind people commute throughout the city every day, listening to traffic patterns to know when it is safe to cross. She added that sites that need accessible signals are often intersections near sources of noise, like highways, that may obscure some of the relevant traffic sounds.
She said the city has made some progress in this area in recent years, and members of the community say they have given feedback to officials exploring the issue.
As part the pilot project, the city has outlined the intersections where they will likely place the new signals, identified with input from the blind community, officials said. Michael Claffey, a city spokesman, estimated they will be added throughout this year and next.
Claffey said the processes involved in installing the signals are time intensive, and coordinating the work during the pandemic has “had an impact on the timeline for planning and design.”
“This is an ambitious pilot project that is targeting three to four times the number of locations of a typical signal modernization project,” he said in a statement.
In a statement from the city’s Law Department on the DOJ’s motion, officials denied that the city is in violation of federal law, but said it “looks forward to working with the DOJ to build upon the commitments and foundation it has already made in this area.”
‘Low and pretty slow’
Accessible Pedestrian Signals can use audible tones, vibrations and speech messages that accompany the visible walk signal at intersections, and experts have said these signals are particularly important at intersections that have a lot of background noise, a right turn on red or a complex layout.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2019 by the American Council of the Blind on behalf of three named plaintiffs, said that at the time of filing, out of 2,672 signalized traffic intersections in Chicago, only 11 were outfitted with audio signals.
“Such systemic failure dangerously diminishes blind pedestrians’ ability to navigate street crossings safely and independently,” the suit says.
The DOJ’s motion to intervene alleges the city has made little progress in adding such signals since the original suit was filed, accusing the city of discrimination under the ADA.
“We are delighted that the DOJ decided to join the suit,” Jelena Kolic, one of the suit’s attorneys, told the Tribune. “We believe their participation will be very productive in resolving a long-standing, serious problem.”
Other major cities far outpace Chicago in providing accessible crossing signals for pedestrians.
More than 300 intersections in Washington, D.C., are equipped with accessible signals, officials said. In San Francisco, 342 intersections had APS installed as of January, according to information from the city.
New York City reports more than 800 intersections with these crossing signals.
“Other large cities similar to Chicago have really kept to their commitment of providing accessible walkways,” said Dustin Cather, youth and employment coordinator for the Blind Service Association. “(Chicago is) low and pretty slow.”
Pilot program
Denise Avant lives along Lake Shore Drive on the North Side, and often uses an accessible pedestrian crossing that was installed near her home a few years ago.
The noise from inner and outer Lake Shore Drive sometimes made it difficult to listen for traffic when crossing, so she appreciates the new signal.
“It’s definitely helpful there,” Avant said, though she added that she doesn’t believe there needs to be an APS at every intersection.
But she has worked with people in the mayor’s office to help determine which intersections could use an APS.
“We’ve been able to have some input,” she said.
The city’s plan to add APS at up to 50 intersections is part of a pilot project that has identified 25 locations where the city plans to install accessible signals and another 25 locations where the signals are “likely” to be installed, according to Claffey. He said the intersections — such as six-corner intersections at Cicero Avenue, Milwaukee Avenue and Irving Park Road; and Oakley Boulevard, Ogden Avenue and Roosevelt Road — were chosen with “direct input” from Chicago’s blind community.
The city is also adding APS at intersections due to get new signals because of routine work, planned at another 26 locations this year and next.
The city is “committed to increasing the number of APS throughout” Chicago, Claffey said in a statement.