Judge orders far-flung plan to make NYC crosswalks accessible

MANHATTAN (CN) — New York City must make all of its crossing signals accessible to blind and low-vision pedestrians by 2036, a federal judge ruled Monday. 

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer outlined the 15-year plan after finding last year that fewer than 5% of city intersections had crossing signals with audible or tactile features, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

As an incremental step toward complete accessibility, the city will address the dearth of accessible crosswalks by installing Accessible Pedestrian Signal devices on 10,000 of its 13,200 signalized intersections over the next 10 years.

Fewer than 1,000 intersections are APS-equipped to date, according to an estimate in the judge’s ruling. 

The opinion says that lagging technology contributed to the historically slow pace of installation but is no longer an issue. 

“Today, there is widespread technical know-how as to the design and installation of APS and their integration into traffic design,” Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, wrote in the 90-page ruling. 

The plan includes a ramp-up period requiring 500 new devices be installed each of the first two years; then 700 the third year; and 800 in the fourth and fifth. A court-appointed independent monitor will oversee the process. 

“This outcome is tailored to curing the violations of federal and local law the Court has found,” the order states. “It achieves this goal on a timetable that is prompt, attainable, and respectful of the City’s realistic capacity and competing demands on its resources and budget.”

Two individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in 2018, along with the American Council of the Blind of New York. The chapter’s president, Karen A. Blachowicz, said she was thrilled by the judge’s order. 

“Blind or visually impaired individuals’ primary means of transportation is still walking and using public transportation,” Blachowicz wrote in an email to Courthouse News. “This will be a precedent setting case and the importance of making our streets safe for blind and visually impaired individuals.”

Lori Scharff, a plaintiff and former president of the New York chapter of the council, has been pushing for better accessibility since 2010. When crossing signals lack accessibility features, blind and low-vision pedestrians have to rely on traffic sounds to know it’s safe to cross, she explained — and that is even trickier when the city changes up its traffic patterns so cars are coming at different intervals. 

“Traversing the city became more and more difficult because you could not rely exclusively on traffic sounds and traffic patterns by listening to hear what was going on,” said Scharff, who is blind and travels with a guide dog. 

Clusters of accessible crosswalks have been installed in some neighborhoods, like downtown Brooklyn, Scharff said. In other neighborhoods, the distance between nonvisual crossing signals may be tens of blocks. 

Describing Monday’s ruling as a “victory on so many levels,” Scharff told Courthouse News it will help blind and low-vision pedestrians to travel and live independently. 

“Having to solely rely on what you’re listening to with cars is not giving us access to the same information a sighted pedestrian gets when looking at the walk/don’t walk sign,” she said. “So really at any intersection we’re at a disadvantage.” 

Engelmayer had granted the plaintiffs summary judgment on their ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims in October 2020, finding that more than 96% of city intersections lacked crossing signals with audible or tactile features that make them accessible to blind, low-vision or deaf-blind pedestrians.

The ruling out of the Southern District of New York required both the plaintiffs and defendants to submit proposed plans ahead of Monday’s order. If the city can show that the pedestrian grid is meaningfully accessible come 2032, the order includes room for its termination.

Torie Atkinson, an attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which is the first of its kind. The outcome is “monumental” for advocates like Scharff, whose work dates back to the Bloomberg administration, Atkinson said. 

“We are thrilled that our trailblazing clients were able to see such a momentous and impactful decision,” she told Courthouse News. “There has never been anything like this.” 

The American Council of the Blind has a similar suit pending in Chicago, said Clark Rachfal, the organization’s director of advocacy and governmental affairs. 

“A landmark decision like this really sets the stage for the rest of the nation,” Rachfal said in a phone interview. Other cities and municipalities will see the decision, he said, and “it will be quite clear to them what is expected” — especially with billions in infrastructure spending to be distributed as part of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act.

New York City’s law department said little about how it plans to respond to the order. 

“The Court acknowledged the operational challenges faced by the City in installing APS over the years,” spokesman Nicholas Paolucci said. “We are carefully evaluating the Court’s plan to further the City’s progress in increasing accessibility to people who are blind and visually impaired.”

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