They just don’t see the need.
Upper East Side community reps are complaining that plans to install “noisy” audible crosswalk signals to help blind people cross streets safely would violate the neighborhood’s peace and quiet.
“There is no indication there are that many incapacitated [blind] people using the intersections that were noted,” Community Board 8 member Michelle Birnbaum told The Post yesterday, referring to plans for the beeping signals at East 72nd, 79th, 86th and 96th streets.
“That would be very hard hearing that [beeping] all night without a proven real need.”
Board members believe the signals are fine for heavily traveled commercial neighborhoods, or residential areas with a proven number of blind residents, Birnbaum said.
The closest audible traffic signal is in front of Lighthouse International — a blind-aid center — on East 59th Street.
“Go to 59th and Park and tell me if you’d like to hear that outside your bedroom at 3 a.m.,” Birnbaum said.
The city’s Department of Transportation made the presentation to the community board last week.
The DOT is expected to present another plan in March. But for now, it has no immediate intentions to install the audio signals on the Upper East Side.
A DOT rep said the agency drafted loose plans for beeping crosswalks on the Upper East Side after CB8’s transportation committee asked the agency to make a proposal.
Carl Augusto, president of the American Foundation for the Blind, was stunned to hear about opposition to the crosswalks.
“They’re saving lives,” Augusto said of audible traffic signals.
“It only takes one blind person on 72nd, 86th, 79th or 96th — and that person doesn’t even have to live in that neighborhood — to be killed for us then to say, ‘Shame on us.’ ”