tactile tiles 復習

目の不自由な人が電車の線路に落ち、電車にはねられ亡くなるという事故がまたしても起きてしまいました。

Blind man killed after falling on train tracks in Osaka Prefecture

A blind man was struck and killed by a train after he fell off a station platform here on Oct. 16, the latest tragedy involving visually impaired people tumbling onto railway tracks.

Tsunehisa Kondo, 40, from Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, was hit by a limited express train at 11:10 a.m. at Kintetsu Railway Co.’s Kawachikokubu Station on the Osaka Line, according to Osaka prefectural police.

Kondo, blind in both eyes, fell near the southern end of the platform.

The central part of the platform is about 8 meters wide, but it tapers off to about 2 meters on both the northern and southern ends, according to the Kashiwara Police Station and Kintetsu Railway.

Tactile tiles that alert visually impaired passengers to the nearby platform edges are used at the station. However, safety gates have not been installed there.

The driver noticed a collapsed person on the tracks and slammed on the brakes, but the train could not stop in time. None of the 70 passengers on the four-car train was injured in the accident.

以下省略

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201610170062.html

今回取り上げる表現は “tactile tiles” です。tactileを『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版　研究社）で調べますと、形容詞で「（格式）触覚の（を有する）」という意味が見つかりました。LDOCEには “relating to your sense of touch” と定義されております。意外だったのは2つ目の意味として、“a tactile person likes to touch people, for example when talking to them” とも説明されており、「人に触れる癖のある」という意味もあるようです。
本文に戻りますと、記事内の “tactile tiles” は「点字ブロック」を表していると考えられます。

この表現は過去にも取り上げられておりました。（aqua）
tactile - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から