From: James Sofka 
Subject: 116L-060497-idx.html (fwd)
Hy all for your information.
Jim Sofka.
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Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 21:48:20 -0500 (CDT)
From: jsofka@texas.net
To: jsofka@texas.net
Subject: 116L-060497-idx.html
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   Today's Top News: breaking news updated 24 hours a day.
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   All the stories inside the "A" Section of this morning's Washington
   Post.
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              Metro to Put Bumpy Tiles On Platforms to Aid Blind
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   By Alice Reid
   Washington Post Staff Writer
   Wednesday, June 4, 1997; Page A01
   The Washington Post
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   After spending $3 million and three years testing high-tech equipment
   designed to warn blind riders away from Metro station platform edges,
   transit officials have abandoned the troubled infrared system and now
   plan to install bumpy tiles along the busiest platforms.
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   The 24-inch-wide ceramic tiles, with bumps large enough for blind
   riders to feel with their canes or feet, would be similar to the
   rubber strips that federal regulators told Metro to install six years
   ago to conform with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
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   Metro officials balked, saying it could cost up to $30 million to
   install the rubber strips. They later got permission to test an
   infrared warning system, whereby blind riders would wear beeper-like
   devices that would vibrate when they got close to sensors on platform
   edges.
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   Metro spent $3 million installing and testing the system in nine
   Yellow Line stations. But blind riders who tested the devices during
   April and May complained that they were too cumbersome and often
   unreliable.
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   "It's a shame that they wasted so much money," said Raymond Keith, who
   was in a group that tested the system. "It was pretty abysmal."
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   Metro General Manager Richard A. White defended the experiment, saying
   that "it could have been a significant breakthrough. . . . We gave it
   a shot, and what it did was show us the technology wasn't there yet."
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   And so, Metro officials now will spend about $11 million doing pretty
   much what federal regulators wanted them to do in the first place:
   install bumpy tiles on platforms.
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   Transit officials say the ceramic tiles will be placed in 45 of the
   system's busiest stations -- as federal regulations require -- and the
   nine stations still to be opened. Metro currently has 74 stations.
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   The tiles would run alongside the existing 18-inch-wide granite edges
   in each station. Thus, Metro officials say, blind riders will have
   advance warning, even before they reach the granite, that they are
   approaching a dangerous zone in which they could fall onto the tracks,
   nearly four feet below.
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   The danger of falling from subway station platforms has long been a
   concern for the estimated 2,500 blind people who ride Metro each day.
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   Since Christmas, at least eight blind riders have fallen onto tracks
   in stations; two suffered broken bones.
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   In 1990, a blind man was killed at the Arlington Court House station
   when he mistakenly stepped between cars, instead of going into an open
   train door, and the train pulled away. Officials acknowledge that a
   bumpy platform probably would not have prevented the Arlington
   incident.
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   "If it passes the test of acceptability, the tiles are a win, win, win
   solution," White said. "A win for the visually impaired community in
   that we can show there are greater protections for them. . . .
   Architecturally a win because it will be nicely integrated. And it's
   also a win as a cost-effective solution."
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   Metro has been ordered by federal regulators to add something to its
   granite platform edges, which regulators say are not rough enough to
   indicate that the platform's edge is nearby.
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   The Federal Transit Administration has ruled that the granite edges do
   not conform with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
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   The ceramic tiles are both more durable and more expensive than the
   rubber warning strips used in many transit systems. But the overall
   cost will be far cheaper because the installation will be simpler than
   embedding the rubber strips in platform edges as originally
   envisioned.
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   Safety also is a factor. Rubber strips can come unglued and become a
   tripping hazard to all riders, officials said.
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   Before the ceramic tiles can be installed, the Federal Transit
   Administration must approve the solution and public hearings must be
   held. White estimated it could be up to two years before workers can
   begin laying the tiles, which must be ordered and manufactured to
   Metro's specifications.
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   Similar tiles are used in some Maryland commuter rail stations, as
   well as rail systems in Boston and Dallas.
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   Tiles envisioned by Metro designers would come in two colors. The
   six-inch border next to the granite would match the stone. The
   remaining 18 inches of the borders would be red to match the tile that
   is predominant in Metro stations.
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   @CAPTION: Blind riders such as Lloyd Rasmussen will be able to feel
   the new tiles.
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                =A9 Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
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