The Municipal Services Committee met 07/25/2022. One of the items they took up was the one-year evaluation of the Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) at the intersection of Meade Street and Wisconsin Avenue.
A fairly comprehensive memo on the subject had been submitted to the committee, and City Traffic Engineer Eric Lom did not rehash all of that. He did however summarize what they had done at the intersection and why they had done it.
Based on a request they had received from Connor, a visually impaired Appleton resident, the council had approved a one-year trial to introduce Accessible Pedestrian Signals at that intersection. APS are special buttons located at each quadrant of the intersection that provide different types of feedback to assist visually impaired individuals as they crossed the street. They helped pedestrians find the beginning of the crosswalk and helped them orient themselves to get across the intersection. They also provided guidance on how much time was left before the crossing cycle would end.
Assistant Traffic Engineer Mike Hardy had worked with Connor multiple times to get the system set up in the way that would work best for Connor.
Traffic Engineer Lom told the committee that the APS systems cost approximately $6,000 per system, and as often happens to electronics that are out in the open at the bottom of a long metal pole, they tend to eventually get hit by lightning and need to be replaced. They expected an APS system to have a 10–15-year life range. The city’s street reconstruction schedule was theoretically 40-50 years, though it was more than that right now. Given the city’s current funding constraints, city staff was recommending that the system at the Meade/Wisconsin intersection stay in place and that they assess future street reconstruction projects on whether or not they think it would be worth the cost to install APS systems in those locations. Those recommendations on future intersections would come before the Municipal Services Committee and Common Council for approval at the same time the street reconstruction designs were approved.
There were also a handful of existing intersections [I took him to mean intersections that were not slated for reconstruction anytime in the near future] at which residents were asking about installing APS systems. In those cases, staff would review those locations for compliance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) which was essentially the federal guidelines on everything related to traffic control. After reviewing a request against those guidelines, staff would make a recommendation as to whether or not they thought installing an APS system was warranted. If staff recommended that a request be denied, the resident who was requesting that it be installed could bring their request to the Municipal Services Committee and ask that the staff recommendation be reversed.
He noted that, ultimately, installing APS systems would require funding. Staff might say that they believe an intersection should receive a system, but the funding for it would also need to be approved. The committee might approve it in concept but subject to finding funding at a later time.
He opened things up for questions.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) thought one of the other committee members had mentioned being aware of a city with these systems in place.
Alderperson Joss Thyssen (District 8) said that there were some installed on the University of Oshkosh campus. She thought those were probably because paying attention and the systems allowed them to cross with just the audio cues.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said she had used them in other cities—possibly Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
Alderperson Siebers wondered if there was some kind of grant money available to fund the installation of these systems.
Traffic Engineer Lom was not aware of any grant money. He noted that some cities such as Waukesha had chosen to install APS systems across the board at every single signal. Appleton had approximately 90 traffic signals, so at $6,000 per system, the upfront cost was around $540,000. Added to that would be the replacement cycle and maintenance cost. He could not tell them that there was no funding, but he was not aware of any grant opportunities.
Connor, the resident who had made the initial request, spoke to the committee. He said that he was legally blind and could not see the traffic lights. Even if he pushed the walk button he couldn’t tell if it was lit up because there was no audio feedback. At that intersection, in particular, there were a lot of cars turning right which prevented him from getting a good read on what the light was actually green and when it was safe for him to cross the street.
With the APS system in place, he felt now felt confident that he could cross the street and do so safely. The audio feedback was very helpful to let him know when he could cross the street and help him locate where the curb was. He thought it would be good if the systems could be installed around the city at other high traffic locations because it was hard, as a visually impaired person, to get a read on whether a light was actually green when there was a lot of turning traffic.
He did understand that funding was an issue and those systems were more expensive than regular crosswalk systems, but he thought it was a great system and he hoped to see more of them around the city if possible.
Former Alderperson Joe Martin was in the audience waiting to speak on the Bird E-Scooter Pilot Program, but he felt compelled to comment on this issue as well. He noted that on July 26, the day after the committee meeting, the Americans with Disabilities Act would be 32 years old. He said federal law did take precedence in this case and there was federal funding available. He encouraged them to look at that very seriously.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) appreciated the staff’s recommendations regarding this. She agreed that as they updated intersections, they should look at installing this type of traffic control, but due to the cost it should be done incrementally and they should, of course, look into possible grants.
Alderperson Van Zeeland noted that these systems did not only help people who were blind. They were also helpful to people who were not neurotypical, such as her son, and who have trouble making decisions in situations where they need to think quickly. In terms of attracting new families and young people to Appleton, she thought these were the kinds of things that they needed to put in place to make sure the city was accessible.
Traffic Engineer Lom mentioned that to get an idea of the human side of this and get a sense of what it felt like, one could go to that intersection with someone they trusted and close their eyes to get a sense of what crossing the street blind was like. Both he and Assistant Traffic Engineer Hardy did that and it was very scare.
The committee had no further comments and questions and they voted 5-0 to approve the memo and one-year follow up.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=982991&GUID=9FFFD603-3733-4B15-A385-D5C6961C1E74
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