A Study of Tactile Guiding Lines to Assist Blind Pedestrians in Crossing

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Tactile guiding lines (TGLs) developed to assist visually impaired independent pedestrians in crossing intersections, have come into widespread use in Japan. The TGLs are a kind of tactile marker placed on the asphalt pavement of a crosswalk. In an experimental study, we evaluated the tactile sign that is installed at the entrance to each crosswalk, designed to help users find the position and direction of each TGL. The results showed that the presence of the tactile sign improved the subjects' performance of crossing. However, all subjects had difficulties in finding the tactile sign at the entrance to the crosswalk because of its small size. As a means to reduce the difficulty, we planned to use the sound of an audible traffic signal (ATS). The ATS speaker is usually attached to a pole that holds the pedestrian signal and is located at either side of an entrance to the crosswalk. In the test intersection, we repositioned the speaker to above the tactile sign to help users find the sign more easily. Two field experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of speaker position on subjects' performance of finding the tactile sign. The results showed that the speaker placed above the tactile sign contributed to better user performance. The position of ATS speaker should be very important to development of the TGL installation guidelines.