ADA-Compliant Temporary Traffic Control Devices & Accessories

Plastic Safety Systems Creates Innovative Products for Pedestrians

Plastic Safety Systems added to our "Innovators" bona fides when we introduced our first ADA-Compliant Pedestrian Barricade, SafetyRail, in 2009.  We burnished that reputation further with the introduction of our second ADA-Compliant Barricade, SafetyWall, in 2011.      

In a few short years, PSS has become a recognized authority not only in ADA-Compliant devices, but in "Accessible Work Zones".  (More on that topic a little further down.)  

We started to build our knowledge base in 2004, when we attended the very first FHWA workshop for ADA-Compliant Traffic Control Devices for pedestrian work zones.  At that workshop, and subsequent ones, traffic control device manufacturers displayed their products for review by pedestrians with limited vision or with mobility issues.  The evaluators rated each device for safe guidance, by hand or walking cane; for continuous guidance; for any inherent tripping hazards. 

As an example, the picture, below right, from the 2007 workshop, shows an evaluator tapping the bottom guide rail of our Navigator Barricade.

Evaluators' scores and comments were compiled and published, so that manufacturers and the sponsoring agencies could better understand pedestrians' needs.

Over the next several years, FHWA incorporated standards for compliant pedestrian devices in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).  Similarly, US Access Board developed "Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines", or PROWAG, the latest draft of which you can see in the Federal Register here.

For more information about FHWA ADA guidelines, we suggest you start here or here.  Those responsible for pedestrian work zones should find FHWA Pedestrian Road Safety Audit information useful. Find it here.  

For  US Access Board programs, visit their web site here.

We Design the First True ADA-Compliant Barricade

At the 2004 workshop, confirmed at the 2007 workshop, we determined that no product in our line (or anyone else's line) would suffice. The needs of pedestrians with limited vision or mobility issues demanded new devices.    

No design criteria for ADA devices, much less product standards, existed in 2004.  Naturally, we as a manufacturer modified existing devices to meet the perceived needs of pedestrians.  Witness the picture above, where we featured an off-the-shelf product, Navigator Barricade, at the workshops.  

However, with PROWAG draft guidelines, and proposed MUTCD revisions, design criteria for ADA-Compliant devices soon emerged.

We determined that the design criteria is:    

•  devices provide continuous, safe guidance
•  individual devices also interlock, with no gaps
•   smooth upper surface for hand-trailing
•  bottom guide  rail for walking devices
•  minimal gap at bottom to prevent trapping of canes
•  no tripping hazards  

Visit  those pages, or follow the links below, for more  information.. 

 

Our ADA-Compliant Barricades Meet or Exceed MUTCD Standards

Not too surprisingly, then, our ADA-Compliant Barricades.meet several MUTCD guidelines and standards. To read those guidelines yourself, visit MUTCD "Part 6, Temporary Traffic Control", here.

Major MUTCD Guidelines are:

Section 6F.63, Lines 4 and 5, Standards:

"Devices used to channelize pedestrians shall be detectable to users of long canes and visible to persons having low vision.  Where channelizing are used to channelize pedestrians, there shall be continuous detectable bottom and top surfaces to be detectable to users of long canes."

Section 6F.63, Line 7, Guidance:

"Where multiple channelizing devices are aligned to form a continuous pedestrian channelizer, connection points should be smooth to optimize long-cane and hand trailing."  Our SafetyWall, shown below, complies with 6F.63.