By Marley Seaman
The village is preparing to repave a number of roads, including Malverne Avenue, in order to improve drainage. As a result, curbs have been installed or changed on those streets. But the curbs have a single cut in the center of the corner instead of two on either side of the corner. One resident believes that the design is dangerous.
"A blind person who uses that diagonal [center] curb cut to line up on, not knowing it's a diagonal, could wind up in the middle of the intersection," said resident Mike Godino, who is legally blind.
The streets affected by the repairs include Scarcliff Drive, Nassau Avenue, Tilrose Lane, Linden Street and Peterhoff Avenue as well as Malverne Avenue.
"The curb cuts should be straight, parallel with the sidewalk and perpendicular with the street," Godino said. "Where they are installing the curb cuts are on the corner, so rather than installing two curb cuts, one on each corner ... they're installing one, diagonal with the corner."
The warning strips are supposed to contrast with the color of the sidewalk ‹ in Malverne they are dark red ‹ and they are covered with large bumps. "A blind person with a cane would come here, hear the sound of the cane and feel [it] with their feet," said Godino. "They do provide direction for people that are blind."
New editions of the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines suggest that new curbs have warning strips to allow blind people to recognize them more easily. "The reason we call for detectable warning on curb ramps is that the curb ramp takes curb space that would be a tactile warning," said Dave Yanchulis, a spokesman for the United States Access Board. "It takes away the straight edge of a curb."
Yanchulis explained that diagonal curb cuts and ramps are acceptable, as long the ramps end within crosswalks. The Access Board is working on guidelines for the ramps and warning strips.
The ramps are not intended to show people which way to walk, Yanchulis said. He added that blind people use other cues, such as listening to traffic, to make that choice.
Paul Jessup, the superintendent of Malverne's Department of Public Works, said the contractor performing the road repairs would put in two ramps whenever possible. In many cases, however, he said two ramps would not fit on one corner. "They're too short," Jessup said of the curbs. "It gets involved with fire hydrants, storm drains. There's all kinds of stuff that gets in the way."
Godino, a member of the Long Island chapter of the American Council for the Blind, told the village trustees on Dec. 6 that the design was unsafe. "If there are [curb cuts] that can be corrected, we'll correct them," said Deputy Mayor James Callahan.
Godino agreed that the village had to compromise on some streets. However, he said, he brought this to village officials' attention months ago, and the situation could have been avoided.
Comments about this story? MSeaman@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
