BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Metro Transit says its architects and engineers always keep accessibility in mind, but says sometimes it takes someone who walks the platforms to know how to improve designs.
Someone like Annie Young. She was active duty in the military and served in the Minnesota National Guard for 10 years. Today, she's a community volunteer and full-time artist.
"The things that I paint, they come to me in a dream," Young said.
Young has been using public transportation for over 15 years now, due to adult-onset blindness.
"It's just a hereditary eye disease," she said. "I don't have any usable vision."
Whether the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority or Metro Transit, Young says drivers tend to look after her.
Still, for years, she struggled to get through the Mall of America Transit Center that leads to the Mall of America, where she shops. For one, the benches were too close to the curb, she says.
"I would hit it right on my shin," Young said. "Or if I hit a person, I felt so bad because I would, you know, hit them in the ankles or hit them in the shin. It was just never a good situation."
According to the city of Bloomington, the Mall of America station is the busiest transit station in Minnesota.
Young says it was also difficult to navigate a diagonal crosswalk going from the platforms to the building, as most crosswalks are perpendicular. She used her cane to walk alongside a median in traffic to get to the building instead.
"I was trying to find, like, cracks in the cement," she said. "Well-intended passengers grabbing at me … wanting to make sure that I don't run into benches or to help me avoid pillars, things like that."
But enough was enough. Young reached out to Metro Transit, offering suggestions on how to make the station safer.
Outreach staffer Doug Cook took the lead, working with the engineering and facilities department to install white textured paths throughout the station, and a brown textured strip alongside the diagonal crosswalk. A spokesperson says the pathways were made with 3M™ Stamark™ Pavement Marking Tape, and the crosswalk guides were done with an abrasive waterjet and steel plate masking.
The pathways also include decision squares, which are like a map on the pavement. Drivers are encouraged to drop off riders like Young right in front of these squares so they know where to go.
"If I need to go this direction, this lets me know there's another path, I can find another bus route," Young said. "Or, since I want to go to the Mall, this leads me to the Mall."
As for those pesky benches, they were moved further away from the curb. And late last month, all of the improvements were ready for Young and others who are visually impaired.
"It's just amazing what they've done," Young said. "The tactile surface has made it so much easier for me to get safely off the bus."
Young says she knows of a number of places that could use similar improvements, including stops at the Minnesota State Fair and a Veterans Affairs building she frequents.
Engineers now plan to visit the V.A. with Young to get her ideas on making that area safer, according to senior communications specialist Laura Baenen.
"Other facilities would benefit from either the tape wayfinding or the water-blasted wayfinding stripes," Baenen said. "Metro Transit may consider incorporating these enhancements in new construction as well."
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