06/04/97 -- Copyright (C) 1997 The Washington Post [Article 285533, 68 lines]

           Metro Adopts New Safeguard For Blind on Subway Platforms
                                 By Alice Reid
                         Washington Post Staff Writer

       After spending $3 million and three years testing high-tech equipment
designed to warn blind riders away from Metro station platform edges, transit
officials have abandoned the troubled infrared system and now plan to install
bumpy tiles along the busiest platforms.
     The 24-inch-wide ceramic tiles, with bumps large enough for blind riders
to feel with their canes or feet, would be similar to the rubber strips that
federal regulators told Metro to install six years ago to conform with the
Americans With Disabilities Act.
     Metro officials balked, saying it could cost up to $30 million to install
the rubber strips. They later got permission to test an infrared warning
system, whereby blind riders would wear beeper-like devices that would vibrate
when they got close to sensors on platform edges.
     Metro spent $3 million installing and testing the system in nine Yellow
Line stations. But blind riders who tested the devices during April and May
complained that they were too cumbersome and often unreliable.
     "It's a shame that they wasted so much money," said Raymond Keith, who
was in a group that tested the system. "It was pretty abysmal."
     Metro General Manager Richard A. White defended the experiment, saying
that "it could have been a significant breakthrough. . . . We gave it a shot,
and what it did was show us the technology wasn't there yet."
     And so, Metro officials now will spend about $11 million doing pretty
much what federal regulators wanted them to do in the first place: install
bumpy tiles on platforms.
     Transit officials say the ceramic tiles will be placed in 45 of the
system's busiest stations -- as federal regulations require -- and the nine
stations still to be opened. Metro currently has 74 stations.
     The tiles would run alongside the existing 18-inch-wide granite edges in
each station. Thus, Metro officials say, blind riders will have advance
warning, even before they reach the granite, that they are approaching a
dangerous zone in which they could fall onto the tracks, nearly four feet
below.
  The danger of falling from subway station platforms has long been a concern
for the estimated 2,500 blind people who ride Metro each day.
     Since Christmas, at least eight blind riders have fallen onto tracks in
stations; two suffered broken bones.
     In 1990, a blind man was killed at the Arlington Court House station when
he mistakenly stepped between cars, instead of going into an open train door,
and the train pulled away. Officials acknowledge that a bumpy platform
probably would not have prevented the Arlington incident.
     "If it passes the test of acceptability, the tiles are a win, win, win
solution," White said. "A win for the visually impaired community in that we
can show there are greater protections for them. . . . Architecturally a win
because it will be nicely integrated. And it's also a win as a cost-effective
solution."
     Metro has been ordered by federal regulators to add something to its
granite platform edges, which regulators say are not rough enough to indicate
that the platform's edge is nearby.
     The Federal Transit Administration has ruled that the granite edges do
not conform with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
     Metro officials rejected the rubber warning strips used in many transit
systems for the more expensive and more durable ceramic tiles. The tiles will
be more cost-effective in the long run, White said.
     Safety also is a factor. Rubber strips can come unglued and become a
tripping hazard to all riders, officials said.
     Before the ceramic tiles can be installed, the Federal Transit
Administration must approve the solution and public hearings must be held.
White estimated it could be up to two years before workers can begin laying
the tiles, which must be ordered and manufactured to Metro's specifications.
  Similar tiles are used in some Maryland commuter rail stations, as well as
rail systems in Boston and Dallas.
  Tiles envisioned by Metro designers would come in two colors. The six-inch
border next to the granite would match the stone. The remaining 18 inches of
the borders would be red to match the tile that is predominant in Metro
stations.