I'm not anti bikes, but we need to appreciate why blind people are scared and at least try to address the issues, even if it is "giving extra space and not close passing even if the cyclist thinks it's safe" and maybe that infra needs signage "Cyclists must give way at zebra" in WORDS X meters ahead...
Or just part of the cycle education. After all every kid does their cycle training when they are in primary school right? Same as they are taught how to cross the roads then... or is that just a Dutch thing ?
Same as how drivers will find this exotic infrastructure hard to fathom at first, so will cyclists, and pedestrians. How many floating busstops are there in the UK now? How many visually impaired people will have had their walking with cane training to include floating bus stops?
Education!
I hadn't realise the give way on zebras wasn't until you stepped on. As a sighted ped, I always wait and make eye contact with drivers until I'm sure they're going to stop and not just run into me. Many visually impaired folk can't do that.
Depends on the country, and depends on the drivers. I confused some Dutch drivers by standing at what I hadn't realised was a zebra crossing, eating an icecream, and all the motorists had stopped so I could cross... At many Dutch crossings there will be lights, *AND* zebra stripes, first time I came across this I almost got killed as I walked out onto what I thought was a zebra crossing, but which turned out to be a light controlled crossing at the time, but a zebra when the lights aren't in use... But yes, in the UK, until you put a foot, or the tip of your cane onto the zebra crossing, there is no requirement for the vehicles in the carriageway to give way. Many will, but that's not the legal requirement.
Attention's the thing, isn't it? I'll be driving along and say "Ooh, Rohloff" to barakta who won't have even seen there was a cyclist. On the other hand, she can spot a hearing aid at 50 metres. I expect more of the population are tuned into dog-spotting (for one reason or another) than noticing blind people. Cynically I suspect the public's attitude to dogs is also more positive than to disabled people, or indeed cyclists.
It says much about the UK that it's the Royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, yet the National society for the prevention of cruelty to children. It's also worth noting the former is older than the later.
A white cane is maybe 1.5m long, 10mm in diameter, that's not exactly a big object to spot, at speed in the cluttered urban environment (I wonder how driverless cars will cope...). A dog is large, even if it doesn't have it's coat on.
Hi-vis red on a cane denotes deafblindness. I learned this stuff at primary school, but maybe that was unusual...
I didn't know that! Do you know if it's international or just a UK thing?
How versatile are guide dogs? I read somewhere that they learn their owner's individual common routes and just know by rote where to go, stop, etc. If so that suggests they're not much use when road and building layouts change, let alone in a new area. Whereas a white cane is presumably the same thing working in the same way wherever you are.
*VERY*, the girlfriend of a friend of mine is blind and has a guide dog (a poodle). She travels with the dog both within Germany, and also abroad to the UK, Austria etc... Yes dogs can get to know the local area and can work on auto pilot[1], but they are very well trained and can work just as well in an unfamiliar city.
Modern cities have a lot of stuff in them that us sighted people may not notice, but which are very useful to the visually impaired. Take for example this street in Doordrecht:
The tactile paving allows someone with visual impairment to find their way along the street and to the various junctions. The problem is this is not universal, and that can make it harder.
To my untrained layman's eye, quite simply the bike lane is in the wrong place - which leads to the existence of this non-problem. Put the bike lane in the road and unfloat the bus stop.
Where else would it go? To a Dutch person this is exactly the right place for a bus stop. They are so pervasive it's the normal. The only reason it's not to you is you're not used to it.
I'll see if I can find a visually impaired Dutch person who's brains I can pick on the subject.
J
[1] David Blunket's guide dog once caused him to vote the wrong way when it lead him through the wrong lobby in the hosue of commons.