NYMTC Regional Pedestrian Safety Study - New York Metropolitan ...

• Ability to lift foot high decreases (leading to more tripping)
• Reaction times slow down
• Visual scanning decreases, causing older person to not notice vehicles approaching
• Judging speeds of approaching vehicles becomes more difficult
• Tendency to become distracted or confused increases
• Hearing decreases making them less likely to hear approaching vehicles
As the baby boomers age, the number of older pedestrians will increase. Rockland County,
which has the fastest growing senior population in the region, is already seeing this increase.
The problems of senior walkers are particularly concentrated near senior centers and naturally
occurring retirement communities. The problem is even worse when a major attractor, such as a
grocery store or medical center, is across a busy street from a senior center. These areas should
be redesigned using design standards for senior pedestrians, and land use planning should
discourage locating senior centers along high volume or high-speed roadways.
Specific problems mentioned for seniors in the NYMTC region were:
• Not having enough time to cross the street during the walk phase of the signals,
• Very wide streets, particularly those without medians,
• Sidewalks and streets that are in poor repair, and
• High traffic speeds.
People with Disabilities
Issues of pedestrian safety for the disabled vary by the type of disability, that is, physical,
sensory, or cognitive. Several issues (for example, difficulties for wheelchairs on poorly
maintained or obstructed sidewalks) have been mentioned above.
For the visually impaired, right turns on red, also mentioned above, are a particular problem.
Another, potential problem for the visually impaired is the increased use of electric vehicles,
which make no motor-noise and therefore do not produce the auditory cues that cars using an
internal combustion engine make. The American Council of the Blind notes that the blind and
visually impaired are disproportionately represented in the pedestrian population and list the
following specific problems for the blind (2006):
• Traffic control systems are becoming more complex as traffic volumes increase,
• Exclusive left turn phases and uncontrolled right turn channels are increasingly used,
• Sound cues provided by traffic no longer provide enough information for the visually
impaired.
The people attending a meeting of Disabled in Action in Manhattan, primarily people with
mobility impairments, reported the following issues (note that their comments have not been
verified):
• No one tells the people [car drivers] the law: it is illegal for a car to enter a crosswalk if
someone is in the crosswalk.
NYMTC Pedestrian Safety Study 39