3 days ago
DC faces lawsuit for inadequate pedestrian signals for the blind
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — For most people, crossing the street in the District means looking out for turning cars or bikes. But for the visually impared, alerts and vibrations at the crosswalk are lifesaving. It's a warning when it's safe to step off the sidewalk.
There's now a new class-action lawsuit accusing the District of failing to do enough to keep everyone safe.
When you press the button as a crosswalk and hear a voice say 'wait,' or 'walk sign is on to cross M Street,' that's an accessible pedestrian signal (APS). They help blind people like Qudsiya Naqui get around safely.
'A lot of the times, the APS are placed in the wrong place, or they're not working at all, or they're not there at all. And sometimes they're too quiet, so I can't hear them,' Naqui said.
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That's why she and four others are suing D.C. There are visual pedestrian signals at more than 1,600 intersections, but Naqui says only a fraction have accessible pedestrian signals.
'We're trained to listen for parallel traffic and to listen to traffic patterns. That's kind of how we get around,' Naqui said. 'But in D.C., that can be extra challenging because of the complexities of the streets.'
At the intersection of 14th Street and New York Avenue NW, most of the buttons are covered, and the one that isn't doesn't work.
'Some of our plaintiffs have had really scary close calls where they've started to cross the street and somebody has had to pull them back,' said attorney Kaitlin Banner. 'We even have one of our clients whose cane was hit by a car when she was trying to cross the street where there was no accessible pedestrian signals.'
Naqui said she'll often choose a route that's all perpendicular streets. It's easier to navigate but costs her a 'time tax.'
'Sometimes those routes avoiding the diagonal streets, avoiding the circles can take me up to double as long to walk,' Naqui said.
It's not just inconvenient, but Banner said it violates federal and local law.
'We hope that with this lawsuit, we can work together with the district to make sure that we have safe intersections for people who live here, people who travel here, people who visit here,' Banner said.
This lawsuit follows similar successful lawsuits in New York City and Chicago. Both cities were found to be in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and ordered to install thousands of new accessible pedestrian signals.
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