A bus groans through the crossing of Allen Street and College Avenue as a cluster of pedestrians wait to dart across the borough's busiest intersection.

Most pedestrians watch the signal to know when to cross.

Cary Supalo, who is blind, just listens.

"You're literally just stepping out there, waiting till you think it's safe and then going for it," Supalo (graduate-chemistry) said.

But at this intersection, he said, the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus stop makes it especially difficult for the visually impaired to hear the flow of traffic.

"I've had instances where I've walked out crossing the street, and in less than half a second, there's a car right there," said Supalo, who is president of the Happy Valley Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Pennyslvania.

That prompted him to send a letter to the State College borough at the end of October requesting signals for the intersection that speak the street's crossing status at the press of a button, he said.

Supalo also requested audible signals for the crossing at the Greyhound Bus Station, where the depot's parking lot intersects with Atherton Street.

He said he usually catches a cab to get past the crossing because there isn't a steady stream of traffic driving out of the parking lot for him to judge when to cross. "I shouldn't have to do that," he said. "Paying five or six dollars for a cab to get across that intersection's kind of crazy."

Mark Whitfield, the borough's public works director, said he's working to get the signals installed by spring.

"I don't think it'll be a problem getting these in," he said. "We're going to take a look at what it costs and see if we can't get them in ASAP."

Whitfield didn't have a cost estimate for the signals but said they wouldn't cost a significant amount of money.

He said the borough would first install four at the Allen Street and College Avenue intersection, then two at the Atherton Street crossing. The audible signals made their first appearance in the borough in November, when four were installed at the intersection of Allen Street and Beaver Avenue.

Those signals, along with four visual signals that count down the last seven seconds pedestrians have to cross the street, were added to accommodate increasing pedestrian traffic brought by the new Schlow Centre Region Library, 211 S. Allen St., Whitfield said.

Supalo said he and his organization typically view the audible signals as excessive. Only in certain circumstances, like at the two intersections he pointed out, are they actually helpful, he said. "Most of them, they're not necessary," he said. "I sort of view the Allen Street intersection as one that's very easily crossible without them. I very rarely hit those buttons myself."

Council member Elizabeth Goreham said she thinks adding signals to two more intersections is a great idea, especially where buses are pulling in and out. "Where there's public amenities being offered, that's where we should put these audible signals first," she said.