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Stop, look & listen

PennDOT installs new audible crosswalk safety features

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry A crew from Williams and Willman Line Painting of Fenelton paints the stop bar for the right hand northbound lane at the intersection of Market Street and Fourth Avenue on Monday after finishing the lane arrows in that lane.

That beeping at a number of intersections is an important safety feature.

Audible pedestrian crossings have been installed at seven intersections in the City of Warren and one in Conewango Township as part of PennDOT projects on Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street.

At the Elm Street, South Street, and Marion Street intersections on Pennsylvania Avenue, and at Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth avenues, and Warren Commons, on Market Street, there are, or will be, posts with crossing buttons. Not all of the equipment had been installed Monday afternoon.

The new equipment doesn’t change how the walk signals at the intersections work. At Warren Commons, the buttons activate a walk period. At the other intersections, a walk signal in one direction or another is already paired up with every signal change.

“It makes the crossings safer for people who are visually impaired,” PennDOT Press Officer Jill Harry said. “They beep like that so you can find them.”

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Seven intersections in the City of Warren and one in Conewango Township have been installed with new equipment with audible features to improve safety as part of PennDOT projects on Pennsylvania Avenue and Market Street.

The equipment makes other sounds — they even talk.

“If you press it and release it, it will say, ‘wait,'” Harry said.

That’s all the one at Second Avenue says as of Monday.

There may be more programming ahead.

Harry said the plan is, “If you hold it down, it will say, ‘wait to cross Market Street at Second Avenue,” for example.

Then, once the light changes, “it will say, ‘walk sign is on for crossing Market Street at Second Avenue,” she said.

That had not been implemented at Second Avenue as of Monday. The beeping grew louder and much faster when the walk indicator came on.

There is no corresponding increase in the volume at the sign across the street.

PennDOT works with organizations that represent people with specific disabilities when designing safety features.

For the signals, the appropriate groups said they would rather be able to hear traffic better than have some audible signal at their destination, Harry said.

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