Shadowing Practice: How to design streets for everyone (Universal Design) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This video is sponsored by Brilliant.
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As someone not living with a disability, it's pretty easy for me to get around city streets, even with ones with less than stellar pedestrian infrastructure.
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But put a stroller in my hands
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and an otherwise uneventful walk becomes an exercise in frustration as I have to navigate these tall curbs.
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All of a sudden, I'm having to use driveways as curb ramps to avoid getting the kid up
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and down the curb every time.
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The truth is not all pedestrian infrastructure is created equal.
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In fact, some of it's so annoying, it's like a toddler who just learned how to say no. Do you want to ride in the stroller?
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Yeah.
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Can you please ride in the stroller?
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Now, the obvious solution in my case would be to install curb ramps so people pushing strollers, people in wheelchairs or motorized scooters,
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or people who can't make that step can cross the street safely.
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But curb ramps won't solve every problem out there.
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Is it possible to design the perfect street?
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One where all users can feel comfortable and navigate it without safety concerns?
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This is the goal of universal design and we'll learn about it more after the bike bell.
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Now I started this video talking about my experiences pushing a stroller
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because one of the key tenets of universal design is that when you make these changes it's great for everyone,
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not just for people who you think of as having traditional disabilities.
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This isn't just a discussion aimed at improving the lives of the 1 .3 billion blind
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or low vision people in the world, or the 75 million who need a wheelchair, or the nearly 500 million people with a hearing disability.
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It's for everyone because we will all likely have experiences that will make us need a better design pedestrian network.
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Maybe you'll push a stroller like me one day, or break a leg, or get old.
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In the bad old days, universal design was not a consideration in many cities.
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In 1990, the Americans with Disability Act passed
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Congress and was signed by President Bush.
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It aimed to change that.
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Broadly speaking, it prohibits discrimination based on disability, particularly in the workplace.
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But Title II of the Act focuses on public entities.
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It requires public transportation and public spaces to accommodate people with disabilities. Since 1992, the federal government has published the ADA Standards for Accessible Design
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to help communities know how to design streets for people with disabilities.
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Other Other organizations have also published best practices for universal design, and these techniques and pieces of infrastructure continue to evolve and improve.
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So what are some of the best practices in universal design?
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Let's start with a simple city street.
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Sidewalks are the obvious piece of infrastructure here.
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How wide should they be?
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At minimum, suburban residential sidewalks should be 5 feet or 1 .5 meters wide,
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and downtown sidewalks should be at least 14 feet or 4 .2 meters wide.
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The wider the better is the rule of thumb to better accommodate users of all abilities and needs.
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For example, 7 or 8 feet of width is needed to accommodate two people signing a conversation while walking.
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Wider sidewalks also allow for people to move more slowly while faster walkers can pass by comfortably.
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Good streets also have places to sit.
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Everyone has experienced a moment on a walk where a bench would be really nice.
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Maybe you need to tie your shoe, take a rest, or do some people watching.
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Ideally, these places to sit would have arms to help people sit
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and stand more easily and have shade to protect them from the elements.
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Streets can be loud and busy and full of stimulus.
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It's important to have the occasional small, quiet, and closed area for stimulus -sensitive folks, such as neurodivergent people.
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It helps them take a break.
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Street trees and groups of benches can give people that respite.
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Lighting is critically important for most people, especially for those scared of the dark work.
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More seriously, lighting can help people with low vision see where they are going and help deaf people sign clearly.
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This is a classic universal design example because while those with disabilities benefit, so too does basically everyone else.
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If you want a further discussion of street design, go check out a new video at PBS Terra.
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They profiled Atlanta, a place where there are not as many universal design streets as there needs to be.
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As a bonus, I make a cameo talking about how to design a car -centric street.
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I'll leave a link in the description.
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Okay, with streets covered, let's cross over to intersections.
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Intersections are one of the most dangerous areas in a city for people of all abilities
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because they're the primary conflict point between pedestrians and cars.
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People with disabilities are at an even greater risk.
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I've left links in the description of videos of blind people navigating intersections.
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It makes me so nervous just to watch them.
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How can intersections be made safer for everyone, especially those who cannot always see what they're stepping out into?
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Let's start simply and get more intensive as we go.
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First, you could add curb cuts, also called curb ramps.
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They help people make the transition from sidewalk height to road height and back again.
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But not all curb ramps are created equal.
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Diagonal curb ramps are better than nothing, but ejecting pedestrians directly into the center of the intersection isn't super safe.
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Perpendicular curb ramps are far superior as they point pedestrians in the correct direction.
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Detectable warning surfaces are not required in most cases, but can offer another piece of tactile feedback.
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Now that we have pedestrians easing out into the intersection using a ramp, the next thing we can do for them is to reduce crossing distances.
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This can happen using curb extensions, sometimes called bulb outs.
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They really only work where there are parking lanes because they take
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that space and reduce the crossing distance to just the car travel lanes.
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Everyone benefits from this, but in particular it helps people who need longer to cross an intersection.
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Curb extensions are also great because they prevent cars from parking too close to the crosswalk, improving visibility.
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And narrowing the intersection can naturally slow down cars, improving safety for everyone.
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What about space in between the curb extensions?
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Crosswalks.
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Regular old crosswalks help drivers see the shared space in intersections, but they don't do much else.
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Raised crosswalks take crosswalks to the next level.
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They eliminate the need for curb ramps entirely, slow traffic, and make it crystal clear to everyone, particularly blind pedestrians, where the crosswalk is.
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Cities can take this concept even further and raise the entire intersection.
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This signals to drivers that they are intruding on a pedestrian realm.
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It sort of reverses the balance of power in an intersection.
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Typically, pedestrians have to sink to the level of cars to pass through, but a raised intersection forces cars to slow down to pedestrian -friendly speeds.
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Finally, we can't forget about the traffic signals.
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Pedestrian countdowns are recommended to help people judge the time they have to cross.
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For blind pedestrians, audible walk indicators help them know when it's time to get moving across the intersection.
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There are a variety of sounds used in the U .S., but the recommendation is a rapid tick sound.
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Speech walk indicators can be used where it's otherwise unclear about which street's walk sign is on.
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The push button to activate the walk sign must have a raised directional arrow
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so blind pedestrians can feel the direction of the crosswalk.
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The tactile arrow should vibrate to help blind and deaf pedestrians know when it is time to cross.
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One common thread that connects these changes, both on streets and in intersections, is that they are in response to cars.
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It's no secret that they're noisy, fast, and take up a lot of space.
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They make it harder for everyone to be a pedestrian.
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Cars are sort of the universal foil to universal design.
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And some streets go beyond what we've talked about so far to eliminate the car.
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Of course, they can be removed entirely, and I've made a video or two about that scenario.
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But shared street concepts like the Dutch Woonerf prioritize people over cars and can be safer for people of all abilities.
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Cars aren't eliminated, but are made to feel like guests in a space designed at a human scale.
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Now it's probably impossible to design the perfect street, even if you follow all the advice in this video.
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But all streets can be made better.
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Better for people in wheelchairs, better for people on the autism spectrum, better for people with hearing disabilities.
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And certainly better for people like me who push a stroller on a daily basis.
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When we design streets for everyone, everyone wins.
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A lot of what we talked about in this video is in the realm of civil and traffic engineering.
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If you're someone who loves engineering and problem solving, then you're going to love the challenges over at Brilliant.
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They have these weirdly addicting courses on topics like engineering, logic, math, and scientific principles.
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They can help you level up your critical thinking and observation skills and make you better observers of the urban environment.
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And they have this great daily challenge feature so you can learn wherever you are.
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Each daily challenge provides you with the context and framework
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that you need to tackle it so that you'll learn the concepts by applying them.
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And if you choose the wrong answer to the challenge, like I did right here,
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there's a really handy explanation that tells you how to get to the correct answer.
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This is the kind of thing you can do during your commute on transit
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or even during a walk on a universal design sidewalk.
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To take your problem solving and observation skills to the next level and learn more about Brilliant,
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go to brilliant .org slash city beautiful and sign up for free.
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And also the first 200 people that go to the link will get 20 % off the annual premium subscription.
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So go check it out.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to design streets for everyone”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pedestrian, design, intersection, curb, universal. This video has 39 sentences and 1704 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:11. The speaker talks fast, about 186 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 9 of its 39 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pedestrian noun | /pəˈdɛstɹiən/ | A walker; one who walks or goes on foot, especially as opposed to one who uses a vehicle. |
| intersection noun | /ˈɪntəɹˌsɛkʃən/ | The junction of two (or more) paths, streets, highways, or other thoroughfares. |
| curb noun | /kɝb/ | A concrete margin along the edge of a road; a kerb (UK, Australia, New Zealand). |
| universal adjective | /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/ | Of or pertaining to the universe. |
| disability noun | /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/ | A condition characterised by a significant limitation in a person's physical or intellectual powers or ability. |
| sidewalk noun | /ˈsaɪdwɔk/ | A paved footpath located at the side of a road, for the use of pedestrians. |
| infrastructure noun | /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/ | An underlying base or foundation for a building, organization, or system. |
| extension noun | /ɪkˈstɛnʃən/ | The act of extending; a stretching out; enlargement in length, breadth, or time; an increase. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| eliminate verb | /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/ | To completely remove, get rid of, put an end to. |
| accommodate verb | /əˈkɑməˌdeɪt/ | To render fit, suitable, or correspondent; to adapt. |
| wheelchair noun | /ˈ(h)wilt͡ʃɛɹ/ | A chair mounted on large wheels for the transportation or use of a sick or disabled person. |
| navigate verb | /ˈnæv.ɪ.ɡeɪt/ | To plan, control and record the position and course of a vehicle, ship, aircraft, etc., on a journey; to follow a planned course. |
| bench noun | /ˈbɛnt͡ʃ/ | A long seat with or without a back, found for example in parks and schools. |
| arrow noun | /ˈæɹəʊ/ | A projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| get around verb | To move to the other side of (something, such as an obstruction) by deviating from a direct course or following a curved path. |
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
| take up verb | To pick up. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Let's start with a simple city street.
- I'll leave a link in the description.
- Finally we can't forget about the traffic signals.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is sponsored · is created · was signed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has published · have also published · has experienced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who can · people who you · those who cannot |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, can't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, width /ˈwɪtθ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intersection /ˈɪntəɹˌsɛkʃən/, extension /ɪkˈstɛnʃən/, observation /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: intersection /ˈɪntəɹˌsɛkʃən/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, disability /dɪsəˈbɪlɪti/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, eliminate /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pedestrian, intersection, curb.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.