Follow the... Yellow-Striped Road?
I took the pictures for this post while I was in Tokyo, but I have been keeping it ready and written it for a rainy day. Or a slow day. Either way.
I don't know if this is a normal thing to Europeans, or maybe just people from large cities in general, but when I first got here, I had no idea why there these yellow tiles in a 
bizarre network across the entire city.
The reason they're there is so that people who can't see can navigate around more safely. Those patches with the dots mark intersections and terminating points, and are different enough from the ones with the straight lines that you can feel the difference through shoes without too much of a problem. I imagine it would be much easier with a little practice.
The weird thing is that I've never seen a single person using these. I know blindness isn't a really common thing, and you wouldn't expect to see people who can't see wandering around the city much. The thing is, I've seen a couple of blind people wandering near these things, but I've never seen anybody but me using 'em.
I think they're cool anyway.
In addition, it's fairly often that you will here a repeating doorbell-like noise that helps the visually impaired to find entrances to buildings, the subway, and whatnot.
I don't know if this is a normal thing to Europeans, or maybe just people from large cities in general, but when I first got here, I had no idea why there these yellow tiles in a 
bizarre network across the entire city.The reason they're there is so that people who can't see can navigate around more safely. Those patches with the dots mark intersections and terminating points, and are different enough from the ones with the straight lines that you can feel the difference through shoes without too much of a problem. I imagine it would be much easier with a little practice.
The weird thing is that I've never seen a single person using these. I know blindness isn't a really common thing, and you wouldn't expect to see people who can't see wandering around the city much. The thing is, I've seen a couple of blind people wandering near these things, but I've never seen anybody but me using 'em.
I think they're cool anyway.
In addition, it's fairly often that you will here a repeating doorbell-like noise that helps the visually impaired to find entrances to buildings, the subway, and whatnot.
posted by William at
9/05/2008 01:38:00 AM
4 Comments:
That reminds me of some sci-fi book I read quite some time ago, where everyone found their way by following colored lighted stripes to various places.
Pretty cool, that.
That theme's been used in a number of different settings, but you're likely thinking of the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card.
The trick to making it work was that in addition to various colors, there were various patterns.
Either way, it's something I look forward to with assisted reality.
I kind of wish they'd used the 'follow the lights' more often on the Star Trek series (happened on TNG once, I believe)
Well, since I am both an Ender's Game fan and a Star Trek NG fan, likely I have those in my head, as well as I recall something similar in at least one other setting, which had something to do with pattern or texture, also, so it is the random one that is baffling me. I like it that they use that sort of thing in Tokyo. I don't know why it makes me happy, but it does.
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