Street Furniture/Obstacles
Furniture on the street? Like a couch? Not quite!
Street furniture refers to a range of permanent installations and objects found in public spaces. These include benches, trash bins, road signs, water fountains and more.
These are often strategically placed to make our urban areas better in two ways: functionality and aesthetics! They’re there to make our lives easier and more comfortable when we’re out and about.
For our data collection, street furniture/obstacles can also include things such as bushes or trees that get in the way of the footpath, usually because it has become overgrown.
Whether intentional or unintentional, these items and objects can sometimes turn from street furniture into street obstacles for some and for that reason we refer to this category as Street Furniture/Obstacles. Often times these overgrown trees or rubbish bins can present a barrier for those in wheelchairs or with visual impairments, affecting their accessibility and mobility. It is crucial to recognise these barriers to best collect data so that individuals are aware when planning their journey.
The following images are examples of what street furniture could look like. Keep in mind it is not limited to just these.
Can you imagine not being able to see and have to try and get around all of these obstacles? It would most likely be very tricky.
Or take a look at this image. There are a few street furniture/obstacles in this image. Can you spot them? This would be extremely difficult for both a wheelchair user and those who are blind/low vision to get around.
It is important to note that with the image above, there are different types of Street Furniture/Obstacles. Two are permanent; the post and the electrical box. The scooters and the cones are temporary. This can get a bit tricky, as it wouldn’t make sense to drop a pin for the scooters that may not be there when a user passes through. However, if it seems to be a common place to park scooters, it would be worth noting this. With temporary obstacles such as e-scooters and construction sites or anything else you are unsure of where to place it, categorise it under Street Furniture/Obstacles > Other. The Other subfolder under Street Furniture/Obstacles is a catch all category for when you are unsure about where to place something. It is important that you write a short description about the feature you have identified to help clarify.
So for the image above, you’d drop 4 pins. One for the post (under the Post subfolder), one for the electrical box (under the Other subfolder), one for the scooters if that spot seems to be a common spot (also under the Other subfolder) and one for the construction cones (also under the Other subfolder).
Trying to figure out which Street Furniture/Obstacles, posts in particular, can be very tricky.
Let’s think about it in terms of someone who is blind/low vision. The key is consistency. Often times a long a footpath there are multiple lights. If they are consistently the same distance apart and in the same space (preferably off to the side), then a blind/low vision person can predict this. However, if it is inconsistent and maybe random, then it will be hard for someone who cannot see to predict this. This will be when you might need to collect.
Ideally, there should be about 2 metres (width) of space along the footpath to be ok.
Let’s look at some examples of what you WOULD collect:
The first image speaks for itself. It is directly in the middle of the footpath and does not appear to be consistent.
The second image looks like it may be off to the side but is actually directly in front of the pedestrian crossing.
The third image…
Examples of ones you might NOT collect might look like this:
See if you can spot the street furniture in this video!
You can see in this picture that the poles seem to be regular down the footpath. However, from the picture it is difficult to tell the width of the footpath. If you come across a situation like this and the poles are off to the side and the footpath is wider than 2 metres, you do not need to collect. Particularly as in this case the poles are also closer to the roadside. If the footpath was less than 2 metres, you would need to collect them.
Some of these examples may be more for lighting, rather than Street Furniture/Obstacles, but the principle is still the same. Each of these examples, while BY the footpath are not ON the footpath, and therefore will not need to be collect.
And lastly, some borderline examples:
You can see in this picture that the poles seem to be regular down the footpath. However, from the picture it is difficult to tell the width of the footpath. If you come across a situation like this and the poles are off to the side and the footpath is wider than 2 metres, you do not need to collect. Particularly as in this case the poles are also closer to the roadside. If the footpath was less than 2 metres, you would need to collect them.
Time to see if the information stuck!
This is possibly the trickiest category to catch on to, so don’t worry! If you still do not understand, then please reach out to your supervisor to provide more guidance!