title: Directional guidance from audible pedestrian signals for street crossing.
abstract: Typical audible pedestrian signals indicate when the pedestrian walk interval is in effect but provide little, or even misleading information for directional alignment. In three experiments, blind and blindfolded sighted adults crossed a simulated crossing with recorded traffic noise to approximate street sounds. This was done to investigate how characteristics of signal presentation affected usefulness of the auditory signal for guiding crossing behaviour. Crossing was more accurate when signals came only from the far end of the crossing rather than the typical practice of presenting signals simultaneously from both ends. Alternating the signal between ends of the crossing was not helpful. Also, the customary practice of signalling two parallel crossings at the same time drew participants somewhat toward the opposite crossing. Providing a locator tone at the end of the crossing during the pedestrian clearance interval improved crossing accuracy. These findings provide a basis for designing audible pedestrian signals to enhance directional guidance. The principal findings were the same for blind and sighted participants and applied across a range of specific signals (e.g. chirps, clicks, voices).
authors.affiliation: Western Michigan University, Department of Blind Rehabilitation and Low Vision Studies, 1903 West Michigan, Mail Stop 5218, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA. robert.wall@wmich.edu
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wall
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Ashmead
authors.forename: Billie Louise
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Bentzen
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barlow
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D016138:Walking