Journal of Public Works & Infrastructure (2010)

Asset management for ADA complianceusing advanced technologies

Franz LoewenherzReceived: 6th October, 2009

City of Bellevue, Transportation Department, 450 110th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA 98009, USA

Tel: +1 425 452 4077; E-mail: [email protected]

Franz Loewenherz has more than 18 years

of transportation industry experience

working in both the public and private

sectors. In his current position as a senior

transportation planner with the City of Bel-

levue, Washington, he is involved in a

wide range of planning assignments

including the light rail route extension

from Seattle to Bellevue, the City’s pedes-

trian and bicycle master plan, and corri-

dor studies that assess land use and

transportation interactions. He is project

manager of the City of Bellevue’s Ameri-

cans with Disabilities (ADA) sidewalk and

kerb ramp inventory.

ABSTRACT

The Americans with Disabilities Act 1990(ADA), is a landmark civil rights law thatprohibits discrimination based on disability.Title II of the ADA requires state and localgovernments to make their programmes and ser-vices accessible to persons with disabilities.This requirement extends not only to physicalaccess at government facilities, programmes andevents — but also to pedestrian facilities inpublic rights-of-way. To comply with theADA, every state and local government isrequired to prepare a self-evaluation report toidentify programme access issues. From this, atransition plan is required, with a scheduleidentifying corrective measures to achieve a bar-rier-free environment. In 2008, Bellevue under-took an ADA sidewalk and kerb ramp self-

evaluation update to assess its programmeresponsibilities for existing pedestrian facilitiesin the public rights-of-way. The Cityemployed innovative technologies to documentbarriers and prioritise improvements wheremost needed. Implementation of this technologydevelopment and compliance effort involved acoordinated staffing and funding commitmentfrom the City of Bellevue, Federal HighwayAdministration and King County, with techni-cal support from Starodub Inc., an engineeringservices firm. This case study examines onemedium-sized city’s approach to conducting acomprehensive asset data inventory and pedes-trian facility condition assessment.

Keywords: ADA, sidewalk, kerb

ramp, inventory, inertial profiler

technology

INTRODUCTION[ED1]

The City of Bellevue is a community of120,000 residents. According to the 2000census, approximately 15 per cent of Belle-vue residents live with a developmental,physical and/or mental disability. Buildingpedestrian facilities now and for the futuremeans taking into consideration not onlythe reported disabilities of residents butalso the physical and cognitive changesthat many individuals experience over thecourse of their lifetimes. Looking to thefuture, an increased percentage of thepopulation with disabilities is expected as

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Journal of Public Works & Infrastructure Volume 2 Number 3

Journal of Public Works &

Infrastructure

Vol. 2, No. 3, 2009, pp. 00–00

# Henry Stewart Publications,

1755–0955

the category of citizens 75 years of age andolder is growing at a rate more than fourtimes as fast as the general population inBellevue. It is estimated that 85 per cent ofAmericans who live to their full life expec-tancy will suffer a permanent disability.The City of Bellevue has a long and dis-

tinguished history of working to addressthe transportation needs of its residentswith disabilities. On 16th November,1992, the Bellevue Council adopted Reso-lution 5586, establishing a programme topromote full participation for all peoplewho use the City’s services and pro-grammes. In April 1997, Bellevue receiveda Certificate of Appreciation from theGovernor’s Committee on Disability Issuesand Employment. The award focused onmaking facilities accessible, addressingaccess barriers to internal and external cus-tomers, and providing flexibility in theworkplace.The City of Bellevue remains com-

mitted to ensuring that the civil rights ofpeople with disabilities are preserved andthat it complies with regulations stipulatedin the Americans with Disabilities Act1990 (ADA). Bellevue’s comprehensiveplan (Policy TR-26) directs staff to:

‘address the special needs of physicallychallenged and disabled citizens inplanning, designing, implementing, andmaintaining transportation improve-ments, particularly non-motorisedimprovements, and other transportationfacilities, and in delivering transportationservices and programmes, in accordancewith the Americans with DisabilitiesAct’.

This policy commitment is carried forwardin all phases of project and service develop-ment provision.

ADA COMPLIANCE

Accessible sidewalks enable people with

disabilities to reach their desired destina-tions in the community and to enjoy thebenefits of city services, programmes andactivities. Where sidewalks are provided,public agencies are required to ensure thatcontinuous, unobstructed sidewalks aremaintained in operable working condition.This guidance is supported by a steadystream of cases interpreting ADA provi-sions.On 22nd January, 2004, in the case of

Barden v Sacramento, the 9th Circuit Courtruled that sidewalks were a ‘programme’under ADA and must be made accessibleto persons with disabilities. Prior to thisdecision, it was commonly understood thatthe minimum requirement for achievingprogramme accessibility, in an existingpublic right-of-way that is not otherwisebeing altered, was through the installationof kerb ramps at locations where existingpedestrian walkways cross kerbs. Thecourt decision in the Barden case reliedupon the language in ADA regulationsrequiring city ADA transition plans toinclude a schedule for the installation ofkerb ramps at intersections, holding thatthis requirement would be meaningless ifthe sidewalks between kerb ramps wereinaccessible. The Barden decision madeclear that public entities are required toinvest in the repair of public sidewalks andmaintain them free from barriers, physicaldefects and other conditions that may denypedestrians with disabilities access to side-walks.Ignoring the law can be expensive now

that it is understood that pedestrian pathsfall under ADA. In 2007, the City of Chi-cago settled one of the largest ADA casesin history, agreeing to spend US$10m ayear for five years on sidewalk accessibil-ity, in addition to the US$18m it spendsannually on sidewalk maintenance.Furthermore, poorly maintained pedestrianinfrastructure can lead to expensive perso-nal injury lawsuits.

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Asset management for ADA compliance using advanced technologies

PROJECT APPROACH

In 2008, Bellevue undertook an ADA side-walk and kerb ramp self-evaluation updateto assess its programme accessibilityresponsibilities for existing pedestrian facil-ities in the public rights-of-way. The pro-ject followed a three-phased approach: (i)data collection; (ii) database analysis; and(iii) barrier ranking. As indicated in Figure1, the self-evaluation process involved thedisability community in the identificationof priorities for improving pedestrianaccessibility in Bellevue.

Phase 1: Data collection

The traditional ADA inventory process istime-consuming and imprecise. Most juris-dictions undertaking ADA sidewalk andkerb ramp inventory efforts rely on datacollectors to choose between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’response in recording ADA compliance.While this enables jurisdictions to collect

data quickly, the ‘yes/no’ clipboardapproach does not offer a precise under-standing of which areas have the mostneed.Bellevue determined that a new solution

to quickly and accurately document thetype, severity, and location of sidewalkand ramp barriers in the City would bemost efficient. A number of options wereconsidered for gathering data on its 321miles of sidewalk and 4,586 kerb rampslocations (1,041 locations lacked rampaccess), including traditional survey andlight detection and ranging. Based on earlytests, the City concluded that either ofthese approaches could cost more thanUS$1m.City staff learned about inertial profiler

systems, which have used to measure pave-ment defects since the 1970s. Profilers aretypically mounted on motor vehicles andused in both the aerospace and roadway

Figure 1[ed11]: Visual representation of Bellevue’s project approach

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Goodger, Parker and Guy

construction industries for measuring thesmoothness of pavement surfaces on air-craft landing strips and the highwaysystem. An interdepartmental team at theCity of Bellevue partnered with federaland regional agencies to adapt this profilertechnology to the task of inventorying andmapping the degree to which sidewalksand kerb ramps in the City’s right-of-waymeet ADA standards.The technology, developed through a

pilot programme with the Federal High-way Administration (FHWA), uses anultra-light inertial profiler (ULIP)mounted on a Segway scooter (Figure 2).The device’s displacement laser, threeaccelerometers, optical trigger, distancemeasurement instrument, and gyroscopeare designed to measure the sidewalk sur-face at a rate of 10,000 records per second.Together, these devices capture highly-accurate information about slope and small

surface variations that can make a sidewalkdifficult to navigate. A tray and handle-barmount support a notebook computer thatoffers an interactive, real-time displayduring data collection. The accompanyingsoftware produces a text file compatiblewith the City’s geographic informationsystems (GIS) asset management database.Bellevue staff worked with colleagues at

the FHWA and King County to ensurethat the resulting technology would be ofbroad benefit to federal, state and localgovernment entities. From a cost savingsperspective, the total project expense ofUS$285,000 in staffing, software and hard-ware reflects a 70 per cent saving over theamount originally estimated to conduct atraditional survey or light detection andranging approach. Specific partnershipcontributions included:

. City of Bellevue: Staff in both the trans-portation and IT departments collabo-rated in overseeing this project. Staffmanaged the three-agency partnership,field-tested the technology, verifiedresults using other measurementsystems, collaborated with FHWA andStarodub, Inc. engineers to refine thesoftware, and developed programmingscripts that synthesise ULIP data recordsinto the city’s GIS system. Thesestaffing costs were US$70,000.

. Federal Highway Administration: TheFHWA is responsible for ensuringaccess for persons with disabilities topedestrian facilities within the publicright-of-way. The Office of PavementTechnology agreed to have Starodub,Inc. fabricate the ULIP (at an estimatedcost of US$120,000) in 2006. Thedevice was loaned to Bellevue at nocost to the city. FHWA provided anadditional US$50,000 in 2007 forsoftware refinements.

. King County: As a transit operator inthe region, King County is responsible

Figure 2: City of Bellevue’s ULIP and Segway

human transporter equipment

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for the provision of ADA kerb-to- kerbparatransit service as a safety net forpersons whose disabilities prevent use ofaccessible non-commuter, fixed-routebus service. The Department of Acces-sible Services regards the data generatedfrom the ULIP technology as savingtime and money they would otherwisespend conducting accessible pathwayassessments. For the opportunity topartner in Bellevue’s researchendeavour, King County providedUS$45,000 to support the two staffmembers involved in the inventoryprocess and assisted with the publicoutreach process.

Because it was a new technology, the Cityof Bellevue sought confirmation that thedata acquired from the ULIP platformwould be reproducible and accurate.During the 2007 trial period, Bellevue andStarodub, Inc. staff undertook numeroustests comparing grade and cross-slope mea-surements from the ULIP and alternative

measurement devices, such as digitalsmart-level readings, before a decision wasmade to employ this technology citywide(see Figure 3).During the 2008 citywide inventory

effort, the city employed quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) protocol forvalidation testing of the software and hard-ware. The ULIP technology’s efficacy wasconfirmed in 2008, when two field techni-cians were able to inventory the city’sentire pedestrian system within a fewmonths’ time. One technician operated theULIP and conducted the sidewalk inven-tory (321 miles), and a second technicianrode a bicycle and used a Topcon GMS-2handheld GPS receiver to conduct thekerb ramp inventory (4,586 locations).The National Cooperative Highway

Research Program’s ADA Compliance atTransportation Agencies: A Review of Prac-tices identifies the technical precisionoffered by Bellevue’s approach as a bestpractice. The report notes that ‘efforts suchas those at the City of Bellevue, Washing-

Figure 3: Validation testing graph showing very good agreement between the ULIP (four runs) and

smart-level data

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ton, that rely on the collection of largedatasets at extremely fine spatial and tem-poral disaggregation levels have the poten-tial to significantly automate theidentification of non-compliant locationsin the field’.1

Phase 2: Database analysis

The City of Bellevue’s ADA sidewalk andkerb ramp database provides geographicdata with both positional accuracy — thedigital representation of how a barrier con-forms to the actual location found in thefield (better than what is possible withstreaming GPS); and attribute accuracy —the digital representation of a barrier isrepresented in a manner consistent withactual conditions found in the field (per-centage running slope, percentage cross-slope, inches of vertical separation, etc).Defining the window size (travel lengthfor computing representative measure-ment) for data processing was a critical

first step in arriving at these site-specificcalculations.During the data-processing step, the user

specifies the grade and cross-slope windowsize in feet to be applied in a moving aver-age computation to the ASCII text filesfrom the ULIP data acquisition. Figure 4shows the resulting grade ranges corre-sponding to ten window sizes. As indi-cated, the most pronounced sidewalkprofile values are noted when the windowsize is in the 300–600 mm (1–2 ft) range.In this test site, one can see that with a300–600 mm (1–2 ft) window size, thegrade value approaches 8 per cent. Thelarger the window size value, the moredampened out the features of the sidewalkprofile. So, at a 15 m (50-ft) window size,the test site appears to have a flat gradeprofile.Guidance in defining the window size

over which to assess the data was found inthe FHWA’s Designing Sidewalks and Trails

Figure 4: The effects of different grade windows on data output values

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for Access. This report advises that gradeand cross-slope ‘should be measured over2-ft [600 mm] intervals, the approximatelength of a wheelchair wheelbase, or asingle walking pace’.2 Adherence to theFHWA interpretation of features in thedata set provided quality assurance in theattribute accuracy of the resulting database.Once the field data collection and valid-

ity checks were performed, it was neces-sary for the raw data to be processed sothe data could be stored in the City’s cen-tralised GIS database for analysis andreporting. To facilitate the data conver-sion, Bellevue staff created Python scriptsand tools using linear referencing to pro-cess ULIP raw data into a useful GIS form.Automating the process with scripts andcustom interfaces was important both tolimit manual efforts and to allow for daily

review of data.GIS played a pivotal role in the project

from data acquisition (organising the mil-lions of data points generated during thestudy) to creating a web-based mappinginterface for asset management and com-pliance monitoring. The resulting ADAsidewalk and kerb ramp self-evaluation isdocumented on the City’s intranet. Thisinternal web interface maps all non-stan-dard data points related to kerb ramp loca-tion and compliance rating — at theblock-face level — including sidewalkobstructions, heaving, running slope andcross-slope (Figure 5). Additional function-ality of this geospatial database includes theability to search and/or turn off certainbarrier types and generate reports of thebarrier information.The ADA viewer interface creates a

Figure 5: City of Bellevue’s web-based ADA mapping viewer interface

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platform from which staff can retrieveinformation on ADA barriers in the publicright-of-way, informing the followingaccessibility programmes:

. New development: New development orredevelopment projects must includesidewalks and kerb ramps.

. Citizen request programme: Citizenssubmit requests to have a new kerbramp installed or have an existing kerbramp repaired at any location withinthe City.

. Annual installation, repair, and mainte-nance programme: The City’s transporta-tion department repairs sidewalks andinstalls new kerb ramps annually as partof routine maintenance.

. Street-related capital improvement projects:Sidewalks and/or kerb ramps areinstalled and/or repaired in all street-related capital improvement projects (egstreet widening or other streetupgrades).

. Overlay construction projects: The Cityincludes the installation of kerb rampsas part of street overlay projects.

. Sidewalk maintenance and repairprogramme: The streets divisionpersonnel clear vegetation and debrisfrom sidewalks adjacent to arterialstreets, inspect sidewalks for damage,and when needed, repair walkways.

Phase 3: Barrier ranking

The ADA guidelines indicate which fea-tures in the public rights-of-way are non-standard but do not say which of thesenon-standard features should be replacedfirst. After determining which facilities donot meet standards, the City developed aprioritised list of improvement require-ments in conjunction with the disabilitycommunity (Figure 6).Bellevue’s GIS-based barrier ranking

analysis results in a combined activity andimpedance score for every sidewalk andkerb ramp in Bellevue. A high activityscore is representative of areas wherepedestrian activity (especially among per-sons with disabilities) is likely to be great-est, based on demographic, land use andtransportation conditions. A high impe-dance score is representative of areas where

Figure 6: Criteria influencing the barrier ranking scores. Bellevue used GIS to overlap data layers,

each representing one of several characteristics, and determine the cumulative intensity of all

characteristics throughout the city.

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the quality of existing pedestrian infra-structure is poor for persons with disabil-ities, based on barriers documented in thesidewalk and kerb ramp inventory. Thekey principle here is to assign a high rank-ing on a needs basis, not necessarily to thesidewalks and kerb ramps in the worstcondition but rather to those that wouldprovide the most benefit to people withdisabilities.The point values assigned to the various

non-standard features in the impedancecalculation arose from consultations withmembers of the disability community inBellevue. The outreach effort included sur-veys, focus groups, public meetings andconversations with residents at sidewalkand kerb ramp locations.

RESULTS

Bellevue’s pedestrian facilities are evaluatedagainst a number of ADA standards in theCity’s sidewalk and kerb ramp self-evalua-tion report. The following are the gradeand cross-slope accessibility considerations:(i) maximum grade is 5 per cent on con-tinuous runs; (ii) sidewalks adjacent toexisting roadways may follow grade ofroadway; and (iii) cross-slope shall notexceed 2 per cent. As reflected in Table 1,32 miles (82 per cent) of non-standardgrade measurements are found to haveprofiles of 5–8.33 per cent. Below aresome of the findings on grade and cross-slope from the inventory effort (more

detailed information on these and otherADA considerations can be found athttp://www.bellevuewa.gov/accessibility-reports.htm):

. Sidewalk cross-slope: As indicated inTable 2, over 50 per cent of Bellevue’scross-slope measurements 8 per cent areattributable to driveway aprons. Thisnumber increases as cross-slope valuesincrease, with 70 per cent of cross-slopemeasurements 10 per cent attributable todriveway aprons. Overall, 19 per cent ofall non-standard cross-slope measure-ments are attributable to drivewayaprons constructed like ramps, withsteep, short side flares (Table 2).

. Sidewalk grade (running slope): Accordingto ADA Accessibility Guidelines(ADAAG), the sidewalk grade shouldnot exceed 5 per cent. However, gradesare often too difficult to control in thesidewalk environment because sidewalksfollow the path of the street and thenatural topography of the area. Belle-vue’s GIS database played a pivotal rolein determining which of the non-standard sidewalk grade profiles weredeemed technically infeasible due totopographic roadway factors. Bellevuestaff developed a GIS script that enabled acomparison of every non-standardsidewalk segment to the grade of theadjacent roadway. Adjacent roadwaygrade profiles were derived from a digitalelevation model, a representation ofground surface topography. Criteriawere then used to filter out 95 miles ofnon-standard sidewalk grade locationsdeemed technically infeasible. Bellevue’sdecision to screen profile data is consistentwith currently recommended bestpractices from the US Access Board andFHWA to make allowances for thesidewalk grade of the associated roadway.

. Kerb ramp panel grade and cross-slope:Table 3 reflects the combined grade and

Table 1: Results of sidewalk cross-slope ana-lysis

Grade category Length (miles) %

5–8.33% 32 828.34–10% 4 1010.01–12.5% 2 512.5%+ 1 3Total 39 100

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cross-slope statistics for Bellevue’sexisting 3,511 kerb ramps. As indicated,502 (14 per cent) kerb ramps in Bellevuewere found to have both a standardrunning slope (<8.3 per cent) andstandard cross-slope (<2 per cent). Atthe opposite end of the spectrum, 593(17 per cent) kerb ramps in Bellevuewere found to have both high runningslope (>10 per cent) and high cross-slope (>4 per cent). Feedback from thedisability community indicates that‘warp’ (the combined effect of high crossand running slopes) negatively impactsaccessibility.

NEXT STEPS

Bellevue’s ADA sidewalk and kerb rampself-evaluation report is a comprehensiveanalysis of the city’s existing sidewalk and

kerb ramp facilities. Data collected fromthis assessment enable city staff to: (i)determine if a sidewalk or kerb rampmeets intended design specifications andguidelines; (ii) catalogue feature and main-tenance information; (iii) identify portionsof sidewalks needing accessibility improve-ments; (iv) quantify the extent of the workrequired; and, (v) add pedestrian informa-tion to the City’s GIS database. The barrierranking analysis used in this process wasthe product of a public consultation pro-cess, which the City believes reflects theinterests of Bellevue residents and respondsto the stated needs of people with disabil-ities in the community.The development of Bellevue’s ADA

transition plan update relies heavily on thebarrier identification and rankings con-tained in the sidewalk and kerb ramp self-

Table 2: Results of sidewalk grade analysis

Cross slope within Cross slope withoutCross slope Total length Driveway Buffer Driveways % Attributablecategory (miles) (miles) (differences) Driveways

2–4% 134 18 116 134–6% 49 9 41 176–8% 15 5 10 318–10% 7 4 3 54

10%+ 7 5 2 70Total 212 40 172 19

Table 3: Results of kerb ramp grade and cross-slope analysis

Ramp running slope

<8.3% 8.3%–10% >10%Ramp cross slope (Standard) (Non-standard) (Non-standard) Totals

<2% (Standard) 502 (14%) 224 (6%) 369 (11%) 1,095 (31%)2%–4% (Non-standard) 459 (13%) 209 (6%) 338 (10%) 1,006 (29%)>4% (Non-standard) 564 (16%) 253 (20%) 1,300 (37%) 1,410 (100%)Totals 1,525 (43%) 686 (20%) 1,300 (37%) 3,511 (100%)

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evaluation. Transportation staff have beenworking to complete the department’stransition plan update process by Spring2010. To do this, key assumptions regard-ing barrier prioritisation, corrective actioncosts, programming, and supportive poli-cies need to be evaluated and documented.Once completed, the transportationdepartment’s transition plan update for thepublic rights-of-way will be integratedinto the citywide transition plan thataddresses the other key areas of ADAaccessibility: access to public facilities andto city programmes and services. Comple-tion of the update to the citywide transi-tion plan is anticipated in 2010.The relationship between the self-eva-

luation report and the ADA transition planis illustrated in Figure 7.

LESSONS LEARNED

The following information is intended toassist other local government agencies

approaching their ADA compliance pro-gramme:

. The ADA provides comprehensive civilright protection to individuals withdisabilities. ADA Title II requires everystate and local government to prepare aself-evaluation plan to identifyprogramme access issues. From this, atransition plan is required showingpolicies and practices to achieve abarrier-free environment. Failure tomanage ADA compliance properly hasprompted action by the Department ofJustice and proven costly to many citiesthroughout the country due to anincreasing amount of litigation.

. Public works departments are facingincreased pressure to determine cost-effective and efficient methods forcompliance with ADA accessibilitystandards. Because agencies at all levelsare required to respond to ADA

Figure 7: The relationship between the self-evaluation report and the ADA transition plan

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mandates, developing partnershipsincreases the cost-effectiveness ofcompliance efforts. The coordinatedstaffing and funding commitment fromthe three participating agencies(FWHA, King County and the City ofBellevue) made it possible to undertakeBellevue’s proposal to assess the applic-ability of inertial profiling technologyin identifying existing facilities thatlimit access for persons with disabilities.

. As a new technology, the City ofBellevue sought confirmation that dataacquired from the ULIP platform wererepeatable, reproducible and accurate.Numerous tests were carried outcomparing grade and cross-slopemeasurements from the ULIP and alter-native measurement devices (eg digitalsmart-level readings). Bellevue andFHWA staff undertook a rigorousreview of the data before a decision wasmade to employ this technology in acitywide inventory effort. During thecitywide inventory effort, the cityemployed QA/QC protocol for valida-tion testing of the software/hardwareequipment.

. After several years in development,Bellevue’s ULIP is the first technologyof its kind that enables jurisdictions tocomplete an ADA condition assessmentinventory quickly and accurately. Belle-vue’s project — identified as a bestpractice in Asset Management Approachesto ADA Compliance — is distinguishedfrom the efforts of other jurisdictionsbecause actual values for running slope,cross-slope and vertical separation arecaptured along sidewalk block-facesrather than by field staff quickly traver-sing a sidewalk network, determiningcompliance through a simplistic ‘yes/no’evaluation.

. Bellevue’s self-evaluation report andtransition planning efforts wereinformed by an extensive public

outreach effort that provided a widerange of stakeholders from the disabilitycommunity with improved access tothe decision-making process. Thisapproach to community engagement isconsistent with ADA Title II guidancerequiring governmental entities to‘provide opportunity to interestedpersons and groups to participate inself-evaluation leading to transitionplan’.

. GIS played a pivotal role in the projectfrom data acquisition (ie organising themillions of data points generated duringthe study) to project prioritisation (iedetermining priorities for improve-ments and displaying the correspondinglocations on a variety of mapping inter-faces). The result is a mapping interfaceon the City’s intranet that documentsall non-standard data points related tosidewalks and kerb ramps. The ADAviewer interface creates a platform fromwhich city staff can retrieve informationon barriers in the public right-of-way,informing the City’s correctivemeasures on where to make repairs tosidewalks and kerb ramps.

. The City is using the data from the self-evaluation inventory to programneeded implementation resourcesthrough the ADA transition plan timehorizon. A number of mechanisms arein place to make sidewalks accessible topeople with disabilities, includingsidewalk maintenance, kerb rampretrofit and pavement overlayprogrammes. In addition, the City isincorporating ADA improvements intoits capital projects and as permit condi-tions for development.

. The rewards of ADA compliance comein many forms, not least of which isestablishing an accessible communitythat provides the public, includingpersons with disabilities, with access tothe transportation network and

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independent mobility regardless of age,physical constraint or income. Pedes-trian facilities are an essential part of thecommunity infrastructure that indivi-duals use to gain access to the goods,services and social contacts that supporttheir day-to-day existence and qualityof life. People with disabilities are betterable to participate in the community ifsidewalks and kerb ramps are accessiblebecause it is easier for them to reachtheir desired destinations.

REFERENCES1 National Cooperative Highway Research

Program (2008) ‘ADA Compliance atTransportation Agencies: A Review ofPractices’, NCHRP 20-07 Task 249, Trans-portation Research Board, Washington,DC, available at: http://www.trb.org/NotesDocs/20-07(249)_FR.pdf (accessed16th December, 2009).

2 Kirschbaum, J. B. et al. (1999) ‘DesigningSidewalks and Trails for Access’, FederalHighway Administration, Washington,DC, available at: http://www.fhwa.dot.-gov/environment/sidewalks/ (accessed 16thDecember, 2009).

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appropriately cited in the text (NB Figs 7-9 renumbered as tables, as per journalstyle)

2TS: Figure 1 near here3TS: Figure 2 near here4TS: Figure 3 near here5TS: Figure 4 near here6TS: Figure 5 near here7TS: Figure 6 near here8TS: Table 1 near here9TS: Table 3 near here10TS: Figure 7 near here11Hi-res jpgs required for all artwork

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Career

Journal of Public Works & Infrastructure (2010)