PROWAG – Milestone or Mirage?

Avenue Update #6

On August 9, 2023, the U.S. Access Board issued the final rule on Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG). PROWAG establishes standards for making pedestrian spaces safer and more accessible for people with disabilities, including those who use mobility devices, people who are blind or have low-vision, and those who are deaf or hearing impaired.

What PROWAG Covers

New PROWAG standards address a number of elements impacting the overall accessibility of pedestrian spaces including: sidewalks and other pedestrian access routes, curb ramps, pedestrian signals, on-street parking, and the design of transit stops and stations. Here are just a few of PROWAG’s most significant standards:

• Sidewalks must be at least 5 feet wide and have at least a four-foot wide clear path of travel. This standard will help to ensure that people using mobility devices, those using walkers or canes, and those who travel with service animals can navigate within their communities with greater ease and safety. It will also benefit anyone pushing a stroller or dragging a wheeled suitcase or brief case. Think “Universal Design.”

• Crosswalks must be at least 6 feet wide and have detectable warning surfaces at both ends. This will help those who are blind or have low-vision, and other pedestrians, more easily recognize the locations of crosswalks, which means safer streets for everyone.

• To ensure that curb ramps are wide enough to be navigated and not too steep for people using mobility devices or parents pushing strollers, curb ramps should have a slope of no greater than a ratio of one inch of rise per eight inches of horizontal distance. Hooray for fewer runaway grocery carts!

• When pedestrian crossing devices are installed or replaced, new ones must include audible and visual cues so that blind and low-vision, deaf and hearing impaired people, as well as those who may be focused on their mobile devices can more safely cross streets.

• On-street parking spaces for people with disabilities (now referred to as “accessible parking spaces” must be at least 8 feet wide and have a clear path of travel and have a five-foot wide clear pathway so people using mobility devices can get to and from them.

• Transit stops must have accessible boarding areas, and if shelters are provided, they must be designed to be usable by people using mobility devices. These sheltered areas can also come in handy for people with strollers, shopping carts, and others who cannot easily occupy shelter seating.

• Street furniture such as newspaper stands, bike racks, and those ever-present electric scooter parking stalls must be placed in a way that does not block safe access for other pedestrians.

Potential Benefits of PROWAG

If fully implemented, PROWAG could significantly improve the accessibility of pedestrian facilities for people with disabilities. This could lead to a number of benefits, including:

• Increased independence and mobility for people with disabilities

• Improved access to jobs, education, and other community services

• Reduced risk of accidents and injuries

• Improved quality of life for people with disabilities and their families

Another huge benefit would be pedestrian spaces that work better for everyone else. As mentioned earlier, accessibility improvements tend to benefit other people, including parents pushing strollers, people pulling wheeled suitcases and backpacks, people who are better able to hear spoken announcements or read signs with larger and more visible messages, and all of us who find it easier and more enjoyable to navigate pedestrian spaces that are less cluttered and free from overhanging tree branches, signs and other protruding objects. The concept (called “universal design” is based on the premise that when we design anything to be accessible for some, it is better for all, and if adopted, PROWAG will strengthen the universal design within many communities.

What About the Challenges?

Implementing PROWAG will not be quick or simple. First, it has to be finalized and adopted by two federal agencies—a process described in greater detail below. Once that happens, the real work begins. Accessibility of pedestrian spaces is not owned or controlled by a single agency or even a single type of agency. Pedestrian spaces belong to whoever owns the streets and land around them. Cities, towns, counties, state Departments of Transportation, other state agencies, public transit agencies, federal agencies, and private entities all own and control different parts of the country’s pedestrian environment, and in some cases, there are also private landowners and tenants who also have a say in how these spaces are used. This means that implementing PROWAG will require coordination among a myriad of federal, state and local government entities and an entire host of other stakeholders.

In addition to the efforts required to coordinate a response to PROWAG, there will be a significant cost for implementing these new rules. One approach that the newly adopted PROWAG includes is a basic premise that requires accessibility to be incorporated as pedestrian spaces are built, replaced or (in some instances) repaired. This approach makes the incorporation of accessibility features less expensive, and it spreads out the cost. But it also means that people with disabilities may need to wait years or decades to see improvements that were sorely needed yesterday, last week, last year, and for a long time before that. And this approach for implementing PROWAG only as infrastructure is updated and replaced is one reason that organizations representing people with disabilities may actually speak out against at least some aspects of the new PROWAG standards.

Finally, given the complexity and cost of implementing PROWAG, there is a real risk that regulators and agency leaders may drag their feet on adopting and then enforcing PROWAG. This risk will be especially high if the public at large does not gain a better understanding of how important PROWAG will be for helping to make America’s pedestrian spaces more accessible for people with disabilities and nicer to use for everyone. Accordingly, it is critically important that those individuals, organizations and agencies who will benefit from the accessibility improvements that PROWAG offers, take a leadership role in the public education and engagement efforts that will need to happen before PROWAG can be fully adopted and then implemented.

From Standards to Law

The U.S. Access Board is charged with creating accessibility standards for the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 (ABA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). But the Access Board does not have the authority to turn those standards into laws or to enforce those laws. That authority rests with two other federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Transportation (the DOJ and DOT, respectively). Therefore, the only way to ensure that these new PROWAG standards ultimately become enforceable parts of the ADA is for the DOJ and DOT to formally adopt them.

In the coming months, the DOJ and DOT will undertake what is referred to as a “rule making process” where each agency publishes the PROWAG (either as issued by the U.S. Access Board, or with changes that further strengthen PROWAG) so that any agency, organization, or member of the public can provide comments and recommendations about the proposed new PROWAG requirements. Once that process concludes, the two agencies will review the comments they receive, make any final adjustments to PROWAG, and then issue it in its final form.

When will these rule-making efforts begin? – This is to be determined, but given the upcoming 2024 national elections, it is expected that the DOT and DOJ will work to complete the rule-making process before the end of August, 2024. If the DOJ and DOT fail to hit this time frame, this step may be delayed until after the 2024 elections—maybe much later.

For More Information

To learn more about PROWAG:

• Read the entire Final Rule from the U.S. Access Board at the following link to the Federal Register: https://www.access-board.gov/news/2023/08/08/u-s-access-board-issues-final-rule-on-public-right-of-way-accessibility-guidelines/

• A plain text fact sheet about PROWAG is available on the Access Board website at this link: https://highways.dot.gov/safety/pedestrian-bicyclist/safety-tools/r3062-public-right-way-accessibility-guidelines-prowag.

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