More blind, deaf-friendly crosswalks coming to Surrey | Daily Hive

Pierre Jarry

Surrey residents know more than anyone that there seem to be very few areas in the city that are not undergoing construction. However, it may be comforting to know that along with significant developments, accessibility improvements are being rolled out too.

The City of Surrey has been installing special pedestrian push buttons at traffic signals called Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) for over a decade.

These push buttons are intended to be friendlier for vision or hearing-impaired people.

“Not all sight-impaired pedestrians experience a complete loss of vision and can still see with some limitations,” the City points out. This is why there are several APS features to help pedestrians cross the road safely.

Features include:

a bright yellow colour so people can find the button near the traffic signal,
a locater tone to help people find the button,
a large arrow to see and feel the direction that is associated with the button,
a confirmation red LED light, an audible response, and tactile feedback (vibration) to indicate the button has been pushed,
an audible “wait” message until the walk signal is available for the direction of travel,
and an audible Cuckoo (for north-south) and Chirp (for east-west) to indicate someone can cross.

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Currently, about 220 traffic signals are equipped with APS out of 450 in Surrey, according to Rafael Villarreal, the manager of the City’s traffic division.

“We’re installing this APS in every new and rebuilt traffic signal. We do about 12 to 15 locations annually,” he told Daily Hive.

“We cannot change everything overnight. But it’s the new standard for development.”

Surrey has also implemented other configuration settings, like Leading Pedestrian Intervals, which gives pedestrians who are vision-impaired and other users more time to cross a street.