Mark H. Ekern

October 20, 2002

I oppose the wholesale applications of Audible Traffic Signals(ATS) for the purported benefit of blind people. The blind people I know have adapted to traffic situations by listening for traffic etc and would not rely of these signals.

These installations would make blind people unnecessarily dependent on ATS since these signals may not be totally reliable and the noise of traffic will probably drown out the ATS anyway.  These ATS's would also have an undesirable social effect in that blind people would have their own crossing separate from the rest of the public. In any case, I do not see the value of ATS, especially with the high price tag of installing ATS at all intersections.

Mark H. Ekern