2022
A Safety Island. Photo: NACTO
As part of One Accessibility advocacy, we shall share information about disability issues, inclusion, and or accessibility features on Maps. Look out every week for this enlightening post.
The accessibility topic of this month is “Accessible Road features in our areas”. The roads we use every day may have various kinds of accessibility features and those accessibility features are very much helpful to the PwDs. Some features are helpful to the normal pedestrians also. Safety Island is one of them that is very much helpful to abled and specially-abled persons, both. This is also known as a Refuge Island, Pedestrian refuge, or only pedestrian island.
What is a Safety Island?
This is a raised or separate area or small section inside a multilane road where the pedestrians can wait safely before finally crossing to the other end of the road. Safety islands gives the facility to the pedestrians to stop in between two crosses, from one side to the other. It is marked with high-visibility crosswalk. It helps the pedestrians to look at one direction at a time while crossing the road. Pedestrians get a safe place to wait at the middle of the road. It can reduce the pedestrian crashes by more than 32 percent.
Where it is used?
Pedestrians’ safety islands are very much useful in a very wide road. If the wideness of a road makes the crossing long and difficult for any individual to cross in a single traffic signal time, safety islands are used there. Safety islands are used in a place where both speed and volume of vehicles make the road crossing difficult to the pedestrians. If any road has a higher speed, safety island can be installed there as well.
Purpose of using safety islands:
The main purpose of the safety island is the safety of the pedestrian. It increases the safety of crossing a road. It helps the pedestrians not to be stuck somewhere on the road while crossing from one side to another. It is very useful where there is short signal time with high-speed vehicles.
A Safety Island in New York. Photo: Wikipedia
Points to keep in mind:
1.It can affect the underground facilities.
2.Safety islands should have the facility to accommodate specially-abled person.
3.The width of the safety island should be 4 to 8 feet, though, more is better.
4.Safety islands may create problem left-turn access.
5.During design of safety island, impact on bicycle facility should be considered.
6.Cub extension facility can be very much supportive to safety islands.
7.To be more visible to the vehicle drivers, safety islands should have street lights, signs, and reflectors.
If you have a question, suggestion, or contribution, feel free to comment below. You can read last week's roundup article here and check the list of our other articles under "Accessibility Uncovered".
