Editing Roundabout (section)

=== Vision-impaired pedestrians ===
Poorly designed walkways increase risks for the vision-impaired, because it is more difficult than at a signalised intersection to audibly detect whether there is a sufficient gap in traffic to cross safely. At a signalised intersection, traffic comes to a stop, and an audible sound can be generated to indicate that it is time to cross.<ref>Pedestrian Access to Modern Roundabouts: Design and Operational Issues for Pedestrians who are Blind [http://www.access-board.gov/research/roundabouts/bulletin.htm, retrieved 6/26/2010 access-board.gov] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331234233/http://www.access-board.gov/research/roundabouts/bulletin.htm |date=31 March 2012 }}</ref>

This issue has led to a conflict in the United States between the vision-impaired and [[civil engineering]] communities. One solution is to provide manually-operated pedestrian crossing signals at each entry. This increases construction and operation costs, and requires some way to disrupt traffic long enough for the pedestrian to cross (such as a [[HAWK beacon]]) that defeats the purpose of the roundabout. Signalisation also increases delays for most pedestrians during periods of light traffic, since pedestrians need to wait for a signal to change before (legally) crossing.<ref>Bill Baranowski, P.E., [http://www.teachamerica.com/roundabouts/RA057A_ppr_Baranowski.pdf Pedestrian Crosswalk Signals at Roundabouts: Where are they Applicable?]</ref>

Signalised pedestrian crossings are normally used on large-diameter roundabout interchanges rather than small-diameter modern roundabouts.