Vilnieta was perplexed by the sight in Kaunas: invisible ghosts walking through the walls

“I came from Vilnius and invited my relatives to meet and have lunch in Kaunas, near the Cathedral. I was confused by the sight I saw. People with visual impairments are classified as ghosts who walk through walls. Once upon a time, I photographed the blind path to the wall and the bus stop on Konstitucijos Avenue in Vilnius. I was there a long time ago, maybe it has already been fixed. It looked very effective there”, – the reader wrote a letter to the editors with this observation.

She sent the photos taken at the intersection of Gediminas and Kęstutis streets in Kaunas and asked if the infrastructure for the blind is being built just for the sake of a plus.

Reader’s photo/Guide lines for the blind in Kaunas

Indicates the direction

This reader’s note 15min commented Aloyzas Pakalniškis, Head of the City Management Department of the Kaunas City Municipality Administration. According to him, a visually impaired person, when walking on the sidewalk, orients himself according to the facades of buildings.

“Guide pads warn that it is possible to change the direction of movement in the specified place, that is, they lead towards the pedestrian crossing,” he assured.

According to A. Pakalniškis, the cobblestones with “bumps” visible in the photo additionally warn that there is an obstacle in the direction of movement, in this case a bicycle path. Behind it, the guiding surface is extended in the direction of the passage.

There is where it leads to the panel

15min addressed to the Lithuanian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired (LASS) for comment, whose communications manager Nerija Kaulakienė told about the situation in Vilnius, when a track led blind people to an electrical panel. The blind then joked among themselves that the electrician working in the switchboard is apparently blind, so the track just takes him to the workplace.

Even a bad landmark is a landmark.

Visually impaired Vytautas Gendvilas, LASS Information Environment Specialist, commented on the situation in more detail. After showing him the photos sent by the reader, the interviewer assured that the evaluation lacks context, that this space should be seen from below.

“I understand that it is a difficult place designed there, because there are many trees, road signs, traffic lights, a bicycle path – a real maze for the blind. The logic is not to walk around the corner of the house like a ghost,” he pronounced the verdict.

Two types of tiles

As V. Gendvilas explained, the system of invisible tactile guiding surfaces consists of two types of tiles: one with balls, the other with solid dashes, guiding tiles.

According to him, the tiles with bubbles in the place captured by the reader are made to warn the blind that, if you are careful, you may fall into the bike path. Such tiles are placed in two places: when you want to warn that there is some kind of danger, and in places where you need to make a decision.

For example, there is a large area that is difficult to navigate and where two guiding lines intersect. Then the intersection is marked with bubbles so that the blind can feel and know that they can change direction here with a cane or foot.

123RF.com photo/Nergys

“The task of the leading lines is to either pass through a more difficult place, a large space (for example, a square) in order to hit the door after crossing, or to indicate the direction,” the interlocutor emphasized. – I think that in that photo, the tiles with solid lines placed across the direction of walking warn you that if you go to the left you can get to the passage, to the right – a wall (if you come along the other sidewalk, vice versa – under the right passage, under the left – a wall). So it guides you to the crossing so you don’t pass it, helps you set the angle.

It will not be marked, so when a person approaches the street and the crossing, in order to turn left, he will have to go back a bit, orient himself so as not to hit the cyclist. The second time he goes, he’ll know.”

Saw another problem

V. Gendvilas sees only one “evil” in this place captured in the photos – that the problems of cyclists are solved at the expense of pedestrians. A bicycle, as he reminded, is a means of transport, but paths for them are often planned at the expense of pedestrians rather than streets.

Žilvinos Pekarskos / 15min photo/Bicycle path

“The city very often solves everything at the expense of the sidewalk: it builds public transport stops, kiosks, advertising poles, road signs, containers, scooters drive on it, trees grow on it. When there are no bicycle paths, they are built through a pedestrian crossing. It doesn’t make it so uncomfortable for the person driving the car that he spits in the car and sits on the bike, but he thinks it’s better for the pedestrian to move away when the cyclist is riding on the sidewalk,” the interviewer said.

He drew attention to another problem: there are no marked crossings for pedestrians on the sidewalks. What would happen if a pedestrian was hit by a bicyclist while walking toward the sidewalk in such a bike lane? How does he get to the sidewalk safely?

Facades are not knocked

According to V. Gendvilas, the person who wrote the letter to the editors is a fan of indignation, he is not completely right, – the designers do nothing just to make fun of the blind, but the municipality’s statement that the blind walk around rattling the facades is also not completely correct.

Apparently, when a blind person finds a corner of a house or a garbage can, everything will be clear to him.

“Yes, the facade helps to orientate, if the sidewalk – through the cane bridge. It is better to rattle the walls of the house, not through the cars parked on the sidewalk. Depends on the specific location and situation. So I cannot agree with the opinion of the representative of the municipality just because of that.

Here, on Jonava Street, there is a recently built farewell house. There in front of them is a space where that lead line is somehow led into the wall of the building. In order to find the entrance, the door, you have to walk along the wall, and after all, in winter, mountains of snow are pushed right next to it, so that line is no longer there either,” assessed the LASS representative.

123RF.com photo/Associate photo.

He also noticed that Laisvės al. some lead lines lead to the corner of the house, others lead to the trash can. Apparently, when a blind person finds a corner of a house or a garbage can, everything will be clear to him, – joked V. Gendvilas, adding that the power line on Laisvės al. can also work for the visually impaired who walk around looking at phone screens.

Better to do it this way than not at all

The representative of LASS said that the Bible was written almost 2 thousand years ago. years, but we still have many interpreters on Sundays, and the Construction Technical Regulation, which obliges to follow several ISOs, which contain recommendations on how blind people should be, is only valid from 2019.

“In the past, accessibility for the blind was left to design, and the designer is a genius who can’t always be told that something is missing in his genius.” So legally, not so long ago, everything was consolidated.

Thank you for doing, for thinking about the blind. It is better to do it imperfectly than to wait for it to be done perfectly right away. Even a bad landmark is a landmark,” assured V. Gendvilas.