Effectiveness Evaluation Of Street-crossing Tactile Paving

China is the country with large number of people with visual impairment.However,the existing urban barrier-free traffic facilities cannot meet the travel requirements of people with visual impairment.Without valid guide traffic facility,people with visual impairment have many difficulties in crossing streets,such as inappropriate crossing decision,direction deviation,long crossing time,etc.Street-crossing tactile paving can be used as guidance cues for street crossing but has not been quantitatively evaluated yet.This study is aimed to investigate the effectiveness of street-crossing tactile paving and explore the influencing factors from the perspective of people with visual impairment,and then provide corresponding suggestions for the construction and application of the facility.The findings could provide a reference for the deployment of barrier-free traffic facilities(especially street-crossing facilities)for people with visual impairment.Firstly,this paper conducts the one-on-one interview with participants with visual impairment to investigate the effectiveness of street-crossing tactile paving,and applies an Ordered Logistic Model to analyze influencing factors.After investigating the interviewees’ personal attributes and travel attributes,the expected construction of street-crossing tactile paving was introduced to the interviewees.Structured questionnaire was designed and interviewees were requested to evaluate the effectiveness of street-crossing tactile paving in several aspects(normalization,guidance,safety,and comfort)and its overall effectiveness.A total of 148 valid samples were obtained in the interviews.An Ordered Logistic Model is applied in the model analysis.The results reveal interviewees with visual impairment generally believe that street-crossing tactile paving is effective.Degree of visual impairment,travel frequency,travel distance,travel training,standard construction and management of facility and guidance of facility have a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of street-crossing tactile paving.Secondly,an outdoor-environment experiment is conducted to investigate the effectiveness of street-crossing tactile paving.Several quantitative indexes for crossing behavior,including street-crossing trajectory,maximum deviation distance,crossing speed and crossing time,were calculated through the frame-by-frame analysis and target tracking of aerial videos.Indexes for gait regularity and symmetry were also calculated based on acceleration data collected by the sensor built-in a triaxial accelerometer.Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted for these quantitative indexes to compare the crossing behavior for the scenarios with and without street-crossing tactile paving.Results reveal that street-crossing tactile paving enables people with visual impairment maintain a straight crossing path,avoid direction deviation,reduce crossing time,and improve gait regularity and symmetry.Results also reveal that street-crossing tactile paving is more effective for people with blindness than for people with low vision.People with visual impairment pose a positive attitude towards the effectiveness of street-crossing tactile paving according to the one-on-one interview after the crossing experiment.Finally,targeted suggestions on construction and application of street-crossing tactile paving are put forward based on the results of one-on-one interview and outdoor-environment experiment,including design,construction and management of street-crossing tactile paving,as well as the training and guidance for related roadway users.