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PedApp has the potential to help people with visual impairments feel more independent in their daily lives, says Mohammad Ali, the Saskatchewan advocacy program lead for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and a consultant on this latest accessibility initiative.

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Navigating the city can be difficult when there are disruptions, from bad weather to construction, that make it tougher to find the button for activating a pedestrian signal while also impeding its audio cues, says Ali, who is blind and uses a cane.

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“An app like this really has the potential to be a game changer as it relates to safely crossing the street,” he said.

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Technological advances

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PedApp is a product of Polara, which manufactures traffic-management electronics, including accessible pedestrian signals (APS).

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Of Regina’s 245 traffic intersections, 140 are already equipped with APS, many of which come from Polara, according to the city.

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Other centres, such as Calgary and Montreal, have installed some Polara technology at intersections, but Regina is believed to be among the first in Canada to roll out the app.

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Still, Boyd says attentive drivers are needed to ensure pedestrians can feel confident crossing the street.

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“All the best tools are not as good as having good drivers,” Boyd added. “To the drivers of the world: just please be cautious, be careful, take a minute, look at the corners, make sure there’s not someone standing there with a cane … because you could save someone’s life by taking those couple (of) extra seconds.”

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