The following report is a recommendation for a new national set of guidelines that define the details necessary to make the streetscapes in public rights-of-way accessible to all users. This report has been prepared by the Public Rights-of-Way Access Advisory Committee (PROWAAC), convened by the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the Access Board) to address access to public rights-of-way for people with disabilities. The guidelines proposed in this report do not call for a minor adjustment here and there, they ask for a dramatic change from the way public rights-of-way have been designed in the past. However, they do not require dramatic changes to streets that were built in the past. It is important to understand that the recommended standards, if adopted, will apply whenever new streets are created and whenever existing streets are reconstructed or otherwise altered in ways that affect their usability by pedestrians. Implementation of these recommendations will not require jurisdictions to rebuild existing streets solely to meet these standards.

The public right-of-way is an ancient concept, as old as the notion of owning land. The commerce of humankind requires circulation, and since the days of the earliest cities, the public street has served as the venue and vessel for the exchange of ideas, opinions, services and goods. For centuries, public rights-of-way ensured the right to passage of all users, humble or grand, on foot or by any other mode.

However, only within the latter half of the last century has serious thought been given to the right to access for those who, historically, had never been considered at all in the built environment. Within the public right-of-way, efforts to accommodate people with disabilities have been accomplished on a state-by-state basis with guidance from various code-writing organizations, but there has been no single national set of guidelines for accommodating people with disabilities in the public right-of-way.

Public rights-of-way harbor many transportation activities, including walking and rolling, bicycling, transit, freight movement, and automobile travel. They house the hardware, such as traffic signals and street lights, that supports those activities. In many cases they contain public and private utilities. With so many diverse functions to be supported, the streetscape within the public right-of-way is often created over a period of time by a variety of minds and hands.

For the individual user the streetscape must work at an intimate level. Details at the individual scale can appear seamless and coherent if they are done right. As David Sucher notes in his book, City Comforts, "An ordinary, even banal structure, can and will be transformed into a marvel if the designer and builder have thought through the users' needs and reflect those needs in the details."

The following report is a recommendation for a new national set of guidelines that define the details necessary to make the streetscapes in public rights-of-way accessible to all users. This report has been prepared by the Public Rights-of-Way Access Advisory Committee (PROWAAC), convened by the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the Access Board) to address access to public rights-of-way for people with disabilities.

The members of the PROWAAC represent a broad cross-section of design professionals, transportation industry professionals, implementing agencies, and a diverse range of advocates and users groups. This knowledgeable and representative advisory committee shared a commitment to this fundamental principle: that all users of all abilities have the right to equal access to public rights-of-way.

To that end, the PROWAAC developed a toolbox approach to defining standards which will provide that equal access to public rights-of-way. The goal of the toolbox approach is to aid implementing agencies and the designers who work in the public right-of-way to understand the needs of all users and design accordingly. Accessibility is not an afterthought. The design of a coherent corridor of accessible travel should be the starting point for every project in the public right-of-way. If these recommended standards are implemented, then over time public rights-of-way will achieve consistency and equal access for all users.

The guidelines proposed in this report do not call for a minor adjustment here and there, they ask for a dramatic change from the way public rights-of-way have been designed in the past. However, they do not require dramatic changes to streets that were built in the past. It is important to understand that the recommended standards, if adopted, will apply whenever new streets are created and whenever existing streets are reconstructed or otherwise altered in ways that affect their usability by pedestrians. Implementation of these recommendations will not require jurisdictions to rebuild existing streets solely to meet these standards.

External Links:

More Information: www.access-board.gov/prowac/commrept/index.htm