Resolution 2001 - 02

WHEREAS, the Mayor's Disability Council strongly supports the Department of Parking and Traffic's efforts at finding solutions to assure safe and accessible pedestrian paths-of-travel, including using "bulb-outs" that reduce the length of time pedestrians need in crossing busy intersections, "count-down" pedestrian signals that provide needed information to pedestrians as to how much time is available to safely cross an intersection, the pedestrian crosswalk "ladder" which clearly defines pedestrian crosswalks and traffic circles; and

WHEREAS, after testing a traffic calming system called "speed bumps", "speed humps" and "speed tables", it was found that these systems dramatically effect the health, safety and comfort of individuals with disabilities who are passengers in paratransit vehicles and have no control over the speed of the vehicle they are riding in as it moves over these vertical deflections; now therefore be it

RESOLVED, that although the Mayor's Disability Council strongly supports the Department of Parking and Traffic in it's efforts to assure safe pedestrian ways, the Council, based on testimony from members of the disability community and testing by members of the Council, does not support the use of vertical deflection traffic calming solutions.

July 2001