Why the Pandemic Has Made Streets More Dangerous for Blind People

United States Headlines News

NEW YORK -- For pedestrians who cannot see or have limited vision, navigating the chaotic sidewalks and crosswalks of New York City was dicey enough before the pandemic. But the outbreak, blind people say, has made crossing the city's streets even riskier and more harrowing.It has reduced the flow of cars and trucks at times, leaving streets in some neighborhoods as placid as suburban lanes. That may sound like a blessing for blind New Yorkers like Terence Page.But, in fact, the opposite is true. The normal roar of traffic moving past provides clues -- often the only ones -- about when it is time to venture into a crosswalk.Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times'Quiet is not good for blind people,' Page said as he swept his long green cane across the sidewalk along Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, trying to locate the curb at West 23rd Street.But Page had just traversed the avenue with confidence because that crossing is equipped with an audible signal that tells pedestrians when they have the go-ahead to stride across the pavement. The vast majority of the city's 13,200 crossings are not, including the one at 23rd Street that Page faced after crossing Sixth Avenue.As a result, a federal judge has found that the city has failed to fully protect some of its most vulnerable residents.The judge ruled in October that the 'near-total absence' of those devices -- known as Accessible Pedestrian Signals -- violated the civil rights of blind people by denying them equal access to the city's crosswalks.Blind New Yorkers 'must risk being hit by cars and bicycles and becoming stranded in the middle of intersections,' wrote the judge, Paul A. Engelmayer of U.S. District Court in Manhattan.Page, 6 feet and sturdy, knows well what the judge was describing. Standing at the northeast corner of the normally busy intersection, Page hesitated. Without an audible device, blind pedestrians like him have to guess when they have the light.'I know I am taking my life in my han