Universal Traffic Signal for Colorblind Drivers

Last year we discussed a solution in Nova Scotia that aided colorblind drivers with Shaped Signal Heads (square, diamond, circle). I recently ran across various blog posts about another shaped traffic signal.

The UNISignal, which at this point seems to be only a concept, is currently designed to use a Triangle (Red), Circle (Amber/Yellow), and Square (Green) to add information to the signal for those of us with color deficiencies.

It seems like a pretty decent idea, and it could be especially helpful for those pesky horizontally-installed signals (I'm looking at you, Texas). However, I'm not sure about the symbols themselves. It seems that the triangle might be a better fit for the green indication (as it seems to be pointing up).

The official site, www.unisignal.com, is apparently only a placeholder. We'll have to wait to find out if the UNISignal has legs.

So what do you think? Is it time for shaped signal heads? Is it the answer? Is it solving a real problem, or just a perception?

GMG - Greetings from Seattle!

After a few months of packing, selling, moving, buying, and unpacking, Grey Means Go has settled on the West Coast.

Look for content updates in the near future from the new GMG headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

New website: We Are Colorblind

Special thanks to Daniel Flück of Colblindor.com for this guest post.

Tom van Beveren from the Netherlands put together a very comprehensive site on all sorts of stuff people should know, if they want to build/design a website which doesn’t exclude colorblind visitors. Because almost 5% of all people are suffering from some form of color vision deficiency, this is something every web publisher should care about.

The site We are colorblind.com includes a lot of very interesting topics related to color blindness on the web. It is structured as follows:

Patterns for the Color Blind:A list of very useful patterns you can follow while you’re designing your web content. If you follow those patterns, colorblind people will definitely find their way around on your page.

Quick Tips: This section provides supportive information for all the patterns from the above mentioned list. If you dig into the quick tips you’ll learn more on how color blind people see the world and how you can use this information.

Color vision and web Tools: Hopefully this is an ever growing list of great tools to help you while you are building your web site or just on your way through the web.

Good and bad online Examples: The examples section gives a good overview of good solutions, which help people with color vision deficiency. The list also includes bad examples; web sites unusable by color blind visitors.

If you think about building a new web page, redesign your site or get your online content ready for colorblind visitors, make sure you visit wearecolorblind.com and follow the tips and patterns provided by Tom.

THIS is why we're here

I've been writing articles for Grey Means Go since the beginning of the year, starting with a post entitled Why are we here? In it I briefly discussed color vision deficiency and its effect on transportation safety. The answer to the "why" question was simply to elevate this discussion.

I was wrong (or at least incomplete).

What had not occurred to me was shared in an e-mail I received a few weeks ago, in response to a blog post on the new Huetility iPhone app:

Hi,

My son is colorblind and wants to be an engineer. I have been searching the internet for programs (i.e. the eye pilot) and came across this iPhone app. I know it won't help my son directly, but it brings attention to the need to know there are people who cannot see color and helps various industries design their programs so so my son isn't affected.

Thank you soooo much...It is people like you that keep my son still in the game. My son is completely colorblind and very good at math and wants to help people. I want him to be able to contribute to society and share his mathematical and scientific strengths.

Thank you again...thank you so very much...

Stacy

To be perfectly honest, this had not crossed my mind. The fact that this small effort can inspire others (particularly kids) is very cool. I'm confident that Stacy's son can contribute as much as he desires, regardless of how well he can tell red from green.

Innovative treatments on Houston's Red Line

The Red Line is a 7-mile stretch of light rail in Houston, Texas, that includes a high number of rail-highway crossings. A number of crashes have occurred on the Red Line involving cars and light-rail vehicles, with one crash resulting in a fatality. One potential cause of crashes is motorist's lack of compliance with traffic signals, partially due to limited visibility of those devices.


Houston METRO and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) are evaluating supplemental treatments to increase visibility at the signals, and hopefully reduce the number and severity of crashes. Though color vision deficiency is not explicitly mentioned in the article, the specific treatments should have a significant effect on colorblind drivers.


Red Illuminated Backplate
Light emmitting diode (LED) backplates have been added around the traffic signal heads to increase the conspicuity of the traffic signal. The difference between this application and the reflective backplates discussed on the blog (in Kentucky and Quebec) is that the red outline on the backplate is illuminated only when the traffic signal indication is red.

Illuminated Stop Bar
Similarly, a line of LED lights is placed in the pavement in front of the traditional white painted stop bar. The red pavement lights turn on when the traffic signal indication is red, and remain off at all other times.

According to the Texas Transportation Research article, early indications show both treatments having a positive effect on motorists. Additional evaluation will be conducted this year before completion of the final report.

This is yet another example of a treatment providing a significant benefit to colorblind motorists while also having a positive effect for all other drivers.

Grey Means Global: Taking the message overseas

I've been fortunate to have Grey Means Go articles published in a variety of forms over the past few weeks, both local to international.

Columbia Missourian

My hometown newspaper in Columbia, Missouri, published a recent Grey Means Go blog on the bank drive-thru experience. In addition to the paper copy, the article is available on a website they've devoted to local writers: My Missourian.

Kleurenblind

At the other end of the spectrum, a colleague from The Netherlands recently translated a Grey Means Go article to Dutch and posted it to his website, Kleurenblind. Jurjen van Bolhuis has developed a site discussing colorblind issues in his country and around the world.

Readers around the world

I took a look at the readership of Grey Means Go and discovered the site has readers all over the globe. Of the last 500 page loads, 42% came from outside the United States, from as far away as Egypt, Singapore, and Lebanon.

These recent examples have urged me to think more about the global community and content sharing across languages. It seems that expanding beyond English-speaking readers is an important step to promote growth. I am embarrassingly mono-lingual, but I hope to learn more about available tools to share the message of Grey Means Go more effectively around the world.

Bank Drive-Thrus: Bane of the Colorblind Driver

I've often run into this situation at the bank drive-thru. I pull up, look at the lights above the lanes, and I can't tell for sure if the lane I want is open or closed. At this bank on my way home from work the green light is always on the right. As long as I remember that, I'm OK.


The other work-arounds I typically use:

1. If there are other vehicles, I'll get behind one. Sure, I passed up a number of open lanes with this strategy, but I never pull up to a closed one.
2. Always, always go to the window. If the drive-thru is open, the left-most lane is always open.

But I've found a better solution.

This drive-thru near my home developed a simple sign that is easier for all to see, and provides a significant benefit for color deficient drivers.

(Note the OPEN sign is on the left at this location)

Brilliant. If we were in 1992 and I still used the bank drive-thru (vs. online banking and the ATM, neither of which is ever closed), I'd seriously consider switching banks for this reason alone. Nice work, Boone County National. You've secured my hypothetical, fourth-dimensional business.

What other everyday, driving-around-town experiences have you had like this? I tend to forget about them since I've "worked around" them for so long, but I'm sure there are other common stories. Let me know.