by Melanie Brunson
The long-awaited report of the Public Rights-of-Way Access Advisory Committee was presented to the Access Board on January 10, 2001. The report, entitled Building a True Community, will be used by the Access Board in developing accessibility guidelines specific to public rights-of-way under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act. The committee’s 33 members included representatives from disability and advocacy organizations, including ACB, public works departments, transportation and traffic engineering groups, civil engineers, government agencies and standard-setting bodies.
The report makes several significant recommendations for new construction in the public right-of-way. Some examples include: requiring wider sidewalks, clearly marking crosswalks at signals, and improved curb ramp design that will allow intersections to be accessible to people with both visual and mobility impairments. The committee also voted to recommend to the Access Board that 24 inches of truncated dome detectable warnings be required at some street corners where it is difficult to determine where the sidewalk ends and the street begins.
Other recommendations include scoping requirements for accessible pedestrian signals, such as requiring that they have a locator tone and that they clearly identify which crosswalk has the walk interval, and the use of audible signage to communicate information of various kinds to blind and visually impaired people. Finally, in an effort to address concerns raised by the blind community about the design of curb ramps, the committee recommended requiring that all newly constructed intersections provide a separate curb ramp for each direction of travel, and that the use of lips at the bottom of curb ramps be eliminated.
It is our hope that this process will be completed within two years. If you’d like to read the report of the Public Rights-of-Way Access Advisory Committee, it is available on the Access Board’s web site, http://www.access-board.gov/news/prowaac.htm. If you have questions about any of its contents, please feel free to get in touch with me, or Charlie Crawford, at the ACB national office.