Accessible Shared Streets

Notable Practices and Considerations for Accommodating Pedestrians with Vision Disabilities

This document reviews notable practices and considerations for accommodating pedestrians with vision disabilities on shared streets. It focuses on streets where pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor vehicles are intended to mix in the same space.

by Federal Highway Administration

The guide includes a description of shared streets, an overview of vision disabilities and the strategies people with vision disabilities use to navigate in the public right-of-way. It discusses the specific challenges pedestrians with vision disabilities face when navigating shared streets. It provides an overview of relevant U.S. guidance, a toolbox of strategies for designing shared streets that improve accessibility for pedestrians with vision disabilities, and ideas on how accessibility for pedestrians with vision disabilities can be addressed in the planning and design process.

It provides information from case studies of completed shared streets in the United States that highlight accessibility features and lessons learned, as well as a bibliography that includes sources specifically referenced in the body of the guide and other sources that inspired the guide content and may be useful for shared street designers.

Published October 2017

About the Author


The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), part of the US Department of Transportation, provides expertise, resources, and information to improve the nation's highway system and its intermodal connections. The Federal-Aid Highway Program provides financial assistance to the States to construct and improve the National Highway System, other roads, bridges, and trails.

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