As part of the Dundas Street and Bridge Street re-construction projects in Napanee two Downtown intersections are now equipped with Accessible Pedestrian Signals.

Accessible Pedestrian Signals, abbreviated as APS, provide visual, audible and vibro-tactile WALK indications to advise pedestrians when they have the right-of-way to cross the street in a particular crossing direction.

 

How They Work:

IMPORTANT: All pedestrians must push the pedestrian button to activate the Pedestrian Signals.

push button.jpg

Locator Tone:

The pushbutton has a locator tone which is a ticking tone that constantly repeats once per second from each pushbutton to help people who are blind or who have limited vision to find the pushbutton.

 

Raised Arrow:

The pushbutton has a tactile or raised arrow on it that points in the direction of travel that the pushbutton applies to.

 

Actuation:

The pushbutton has an audible, vibro and visual actuation indicator.  When pushed (latched) the button will make a click sound, vibrate (bounce) and an LED light will illuminate to confirm that the button has been activated.

 

Walk Sounds:

Two audible sounds are used to distinctly indicate the direction in which the pedestrian has the walk signal:

  • A "Cuckoo" sound (listen below) indicates that the "walk" symbol is on and the pedestrian has the right-of-way in the north/south direction. 

  • A "Canadian Melody" sound (listen below) indicates that the “walk” symbol is on and the pedestrian has the right-of-way in the east/west direction.  

The sounds come from the pushbutton and automatically adjust to the ambient noise so they will be louder when the traffic is loud and quieter when traffic is quiet.

 

Walk Indications:

When the WALK phase comes on audible (Cuckoo or Canadian melody) and vibration indications from the pushbutton tell a visually impaired pedestrian that the WALK signal is on. The signals will also have the pedestrian walk symbol illuminated followed by a visual countdown timer that shows how much time remains to cross the street.

 

IMG_1966.JPGOther feature at these intersections:

Tactile sidewalk pads to indicate the location of the crosswalk.

 

Colour and textured crosswalk surface (Centre Street at Dundas Street)

 

Pedestrian Countdown Timers: A pedestrian countdown timer indicates to pedestrians the amount of time (in seconds) left to cross the street at a signalized intersection. The countdown timer starts counting at the beginning of the "flashing don't walk" display showing how many seconds a pedestrian has left to finish crossing the road.

 

Related:

Frequently asked Traffic Signal questions.