How might we increase the safety of pedestrians in the City of Gooding when crossing Main Street?
By: Whitney Craythorn
Tags: Visually Impaired, Idaho, Accessibility, Ada, Accessible Design

Written by Whitney Craythorn, Dec 11, 2020

When we drive through our local cities, how often do we realize the struggles of pedestrian travel in a rural town? Today, technology and transportation have made walking and navigating on foot, rather rare unless you live in a larger populous or meet a statistic on poverty. But, what about Americans with Disabilities?

I want to take you through my personal experience and observations to help you reach a conclusion on upgrading the crossings within Gooding, Idaho to impede traffic flow for the person(s) crossing utilizing lights that flash and stop traffic flow temporarily. Along with chirping for the visually impaired. Please also consider increasing textures to allow for safer travel within the crosswalk for visually impaired persons, and possibly increase lighting near crosswalks that allow a person standing on a corner to be seen.

Image of the front of ISDB at the main entrance. Blue sign reads State Headquarters, Administration Offices, address of school, residential school, and Region 5 outreach office. Text on photo states At the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind in Gooding, Idaho.

I work at the local Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind(ISDB) that has residential campus housing for students who attend our facility from long distances. My job at the school is to teach those students independent living skills, this includes budget setting, grocery shopping, and every day navigation. However, there is a frustration that comes with attempting to cross the street near the school. Before factoring in the physical impairments some students and residents face.

Image of Brian Darcy, ISDB Superintendent, leaving a cottage bedroom on a tour with the news crew.

I recall a time I took all my residential students to Ridley’s, a local grocery store across the street from ISDB. It was October 2020 and I had attempted to walk this path with a group of students at dark. The task of crossing was tedious, as the crosswalk is poorly lit. I had to put myself out in the street crossing for cars to see our group better, before they came to a stop.

Image shows aerial view of Main Street with Ridley’s and Hardware store on left of photo and ISDB on right of photo.

Where the campus is open until 11pm for residential students, they may leave campus up to that point to go to a job, get groceries on their own, or visit with family for dinner occasionally. As long as they return by their curfew. Visually impaired students also utilize these nearby amenities like Ridley’s. These students are taught Orientation and Mobility during their school day, and they are conditioned to learn how to navigate a cityscape during these sessions. While learning these skills, the most updated crossing is an intersection of Highway 46 running North and South, and Highway 26 running East and West. This is not an ideal situation to put the visually impaired students in. This is why I propose an update of a few intersections along Highway 46, the Main Street within Gooding that has a speed limit of 25 mph.

I chose to take to the local Facebook groups for the City of Gooding, and have the residents and frequent travelers take a Google Forms survey. I wanted to understand if residents felt the same as I had about crossing Main Street, and to what extent. Then I had the pleasure of speaking with students about crosswalks in general during a technology class. We were discussing accessibility and advocacy, the students mentioned that several crosswalks could use improvements on varying degrees.

We’re familiar with the chirping/talking, well lit crossings that are taking over and improving the older red hand and white walking person symbols. Here are a few examples:

Image shows a crosswalk with lights on road and sound bars to locate opposing side.

Here is a video from Japan that shows these crosswalks in action.

This issue has the ability to bring more appeal to the potential residents of Gooding. Currently, the city is experiencing a populus decline, since 2010, of about -3.31%. What is driving residents away? The city is fairly remote. Gooding is also 11 miles from the nearest Interstate. The city also provides few amenity options to residents that are beneficial to the economy of the city. The city could create a gradual preference in design to those that are Deaf and/or Blind, this could bring the population back up. We have to start somewhere, or the city may continue to decline in population.

I went in search of the city’s analysis of traffic accidents, population records, resident opinion, and various lighting system options that other cities have provided to residents. These resources of the reports painted a picture of the need for this upgrade. The public opinion backed the cause.

A shot of the crosswalk updated at the Highway intersection below.

Image shows the intersection of University/Highway 26 with East view toward Shoshone, and Main Street/Highway 46 with North view into City of Gooding.

This is a Google Maps view of Main in Gooding below.

Image shows North view of Main Street in City of Gooding, just after Highway intersection. Sign on the telephone pole to the right reads “Welcome to the City of Gooding.”

Next is a photo of the crosswalk in question at Main and 14th. The first photo is Aug 2018, the second is Oct 2007. In 2007 the crosswalk did not have the flag holders, these were provided by ISDB shop students.

Image shows a crosswalk at the edge of ISDB property and Ridley’s on Main Street and 14th, to cross East and West. Image from Aug 2018 via Google Maps.

Image shows a crosswalk at the edge of ISDB property and Ridley’s on Main Street and 14th, to cross East and West. Image from Aug 2018 via Google Maps.

Word Cloud with approx 160 words, explained in story.

Finally we’ll see a few data analysis chart depictions that allow for a clear understanding of the information from the survey that had 58 participants. A larger group sampling would have been more ideal.

First is the word cloud (pictured left) that I put together of all the popular words that participants of the survey provided in the comments section of the survey.

Image of sunburst chart explained below.

Then I created a sunburst chart of information above that shows the college vs age level of each person that participated in the survey. This is to reflect some of the people that care about the improvement of their city.

Tree chart of varying box sizes put together to create a rectangle of popular answers ranging from largest on left to smallest on right.

Another visualization (to left) that shows the popular vote of which intersections need upgraded. Main & 14th are largest, Main & 7th second and varying sizes and intersections down to none needing changed.

Ring of survey results explained in story.

This image (left) shows a ring that depicts the survey results of participants when asked “Is there a need to change crosswalks?” 72% yes, 23% maybe, and 5% no of the 58 participant responses.

Chart explaining travel traffic within Gooding from participants explained in story.

This image chart (left) shows the Live and Travel versus Walk and drive of those that are frequently in the City of Gooding. Travel Often shows Walk as 1 vote, and drive as 5 votes. Live shows Walk as 4 votes, Drive as approximately 38 votes, and Both as 1 vote.

These charts show that there is a want for improvement from survey participants, the traffic research shows that there is a need to improve.

With 184 crashes in total in Gooding alone in 2017, that’s about 6 crashes per 1,000 people according to studies.

An astounding 12 persons were killed in 2017 in Gooding due to a traffic accident.

Idaho US Hwy 26 has a daily vehicle count of 3,250, and had a total of 171 crashes in 2017 and a fatality rate of 1.31.

Idaho State Hwy 46 has a daily vehicle count of 2,480, and had a total of 48 crashes in 2017 and a fatality rate of 3.87.

Nearly 3 times higher fatality on Hwy 46, where 2.28 miles are set at 25mph.

Image shows county sections of District Four in Idaho, Gooding included. The legend paints a picture of fatal accidents in the large area in 2017. Box reads 36 fatal crashes and 40 people killed. Gooding county shows approximately 6 fatal crash locations alone.

.007% of all crashes in Idaho happen in Gooding, approximately 33 are distracted driving related. And 1.5 of those accidents involve a pedestrian.

None of these figures include close calls, it’s time to do something!

I propose the City of Gooding provide better lit crosswalks from both sides of the street. Each major intersection, including Main and 14th, also need to take a page from Moscow, Idaho and start transitioning the importance of resident pedestrian’s safety.

Their total plan was estimated at $24.3 million to complete with ramped entries, sidewalk updates and finishing, and signaled crossing poles and lighting. $108,000 dedicated to signaled crossings, this covered 17 intersections within Moscow. Moscow applied for grants, and budgeted city funding to obtain their goal in 3 years (2014–2017).

So I urge you, if not for Gooding, do it for your local cityscape, for the sake of children, the elderly, and the impaired.

Reach out to local officials and residents to seek further insight and advocate for yourself as well as your neighbors. If you are familiar with Gooding, Idaho and would like to participate in the survey or contact local officials, please mail in your grievances or concerns to:

City of Gooding

308 5th Ave West

Gooding ID 83330

Phone: (208) 934–5669 Fax: (208) 934–5425

8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Monday — Friday

Thank you for reading! Please note that none of the opinions expressed in this article reflect ISDB opinions or stances on the issue addressed.

Resources linked throughout story. Please see resource links at milanote.com

Meet the author

Whitney Craythorn, 29, Idaho

Started working for ISDB in Aug 2020. Working toward her Bachelor Degree at BSU in Multidisciplinary Studies and an emphasis in Communication Management. She currently holds an Associates Degree through BSU with an emphasis in Anthropology, and a certificate in User Experience Design Research.

Her goal is to bring students together to advocate for themselves and their cultures and communities. This is her start to a long road of understanding change and the effect that it can have on a small community, once a person or group take the initiative.

Thank you for reading! Please note that none of the opinions expressed in this article reflect ISDB opinions or stances on the issue addressed.