File #: Int 0320-2002    Version: * Name: Audible pedestrian signals.
Type: Introduction Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Transportation
On agenda: 12/4/2002
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to audible pedestrian signals.
Sponsors: Gale A. Brewer, Charles Barron, Tracy L. Boyland, Yvette D. Clarke, Simcha Felder, Helen D. Foster, Alan J. Gerson, Robert Jackson, Margarita Lopez, Miguel Martinez, Hiram Monserrate, Michael C. Nelson, Christine C. Quinn, James Sanders, Jr., Jose M. Serrano, Kendall Stewart, Albert Vann, G. Oliver Koppell
Council Member Sponsors: 18

Int. No. 320

 

By Council Members Brewer, Barron, Boyland, Clarke, Felder, Foster, Gerson, Jackson, Lopez, Martinez, Monserrate, Nelson, Quinn, Sanders, Serrano, Stewart and Vann; also Council Member Koppell

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to audible pedestrian signals.

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

                     Section 1.  Subchapter 3 of chapter 1 of title 19 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 19-180 to read as follows:

                     19-180.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the department shall establish a pilot audible pedestrian signaling program.  (a)  The department shall select no fewer than ten intersections at which visual signaling devices are present for inclusion in the program.  Intersections selected for inclusion in the pilot program shall include, but not be limited to, those with greater than average pedestrian and vehicular traffic and those most likely to be used by persons with visual impairments.  At each of the selected intersections, every crosswalk with a visual signaling device that indicates when it is safe for pedestrians to cross the street shall also include an audible pedestrian signal.

(b)  The audible indication that it is safe for pedestrians to cross the street shall be by tone or voice.  The tone shall consist of multiple frequencies with a dominant component at 880 Hz with a duration of 0.15 seconds and shall repeat at intervals of 0.15 seconds.  The tone or voice volume shall be measured at a distance of thirty-six inches from the pedestrian signal device and shall be 2 dB minimum and 5 dB maximum above the ambient noise level and shall be responsive to ambient noise level changes.

(c)  The department shall have at least ten of the intersections chosen for inclusion in the pilot program fully equipped and operational with audible pedestrian signals no later than one hundred and eighty days following the effective date of this local law.  Such pilot program shall expire one year following the placement into operation of the tenth audible pedestrian signal.  Within ninety days of the conclusion of such pilot program the department shall submit to the council and the mayor a report analyzing the pilot program and making any recommendations regarding how such program could be improved. 

§2.  This local law shall take effect immediately after it is enacted into law.