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Abstract:
This study assessed the ability of people with visual impairments to reliably detect oncoming traffic at crossing situations with no traffic control. In at least one condition, the participants could not hear vehicles to afford a safe crossing time when sound levels were as quiet as possible. Significant predictors of detection accounted for a third of the variation in the detection time.
For pedestrians with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision), crossing a street where there is no traffic control can present a challenge. Crossing situations with no traffic con- trols include residential intersections where only one street has a stop sign, channelized right-turn lanes with no sig- nal, midblock locations, and roundabouts. In these situations, pedestrians must cross either when drivers yield or in a gap in traffic. Because drivers often do not reli- ably yield to pedestrians, even those with white canes (Geruschat & Hassan, 2005; Guth, Ashmead, Long, Wall, & Pon- chillia, 2005; Inman, Davis, & Sauer- burger, 2005; Sauerburger, 2003), pedes- trians often must cross in a gap in traffic. For a pedestrian to cross in a gap in traf- fic, gaps must exist that are long enough to allow time to cross, and the pedestrian must be able to recognize when these gaps exist (Sauerburger, 1999).
Pedestrians who are visually impaired use their hearing to detect approaching vehicles and gaps in traffic. Strategies for using hearing to cross streets with no traffic control were first developed in the late 1940s (Wiener & Siffermann, 1997). Early orientation and mobility (O&M) instructors used demonstrations to convince their students, veterans who were blind, that streets were clear to cross whenever the environment was quiet (Sauerburger, 1999). By measuring the time from when the veteran heard a vehicle approaching to when the vehicle arrived, they determined that all vehicles could be heard far enough away to know that it was clear to cross whenever it was quiet. For pedestrians who are blind, the strategy of "cross when quiet," for streets where there is no traffic control, continues to be used today (Allen, Courtney-Barbier, Griffith, Kern, & Shaw, 1997; Jacobson, 1993; LaGrow & Weessies, 1994; Pogrund et al., 1993). In the traffic environment of the 1940s...