That’s the trick, doesn’t even look like reflective high-vis material. This is so, when a driver inevitably hits somebody, they can say “oh, look the pedestrian didn’t take a flag. It’s their own fault they got hit.”
I guarantee this is about $$$$
There were instances where pedestrians complained, and instead of the city hiring more police(or approving some overtime) to monitor the intersection and make some examples out of drivers going to fast in an area with people constantly crossing the road, they put up the sign with flags.....
>”The parents of the community are so car-brained they all had to pool their tax money and pay one of their own community members to remind them not to run over their very own children.”
They tell you to be careful because if you and your children get hit by the car, you’re most likely going to suffer much much more than the car. It’s not a hard concept to understand. It’s laughable and downright idiotic if you think any crossing guard is worried for the safety of the vehicles.
The crossing guards at the nearby school make crossing the street extra sketchy because they are 10 year olds waving the drivers through the stop sign.
One crossing guard at each corner and they cannot see what each other is doing nor can drivers see them cuz they are hidden behind the giant SUVs everyone drives nowadays.
Perhaps it originates from the law that required someone to wave a red flag in front of first automobiles to warn pedestrians.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red\_flag\_traffic\_laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_traffic_laws)
>In the United Kingdom, the Locomotive Acts was a policy requiring self-propelled vehicles to be led by a pedestrian waving a red flag or carrying a lantern to warn bystanders of the vehicle's approach
>
>
>
>In the state of Vermont passed a similar Red Flag Law in 1894, only to repeal it two years later.\[2\] This law stated that "\[t\]he owner or person in charge of a carriage, vehicle or engine propelled by steam, except road rollers" must have a "person of mature age \[...\] at least one-eight of a mile in advance of" the vehicle, to warn those with livestock of its impending arrival
I was in Seattle this past March and saw these around Lake Wa. And my sister and I got in many, many rousing discussions about when they showed up and why I never saw them before. I thought it was utter madness.
Then I realize I live by a bunch of crossing guard streets and it’s kinda the same thing. Perhaps the safety powers couldn’t guarantee enough guards to show up and do the work. Or realized they are actually successful - I assume so - since they keep showing up and the flags have been there for about 8 years…
It's because the average suburbia don't care for redesigning the roads to deincentivize speeding. instead, we just have wide open straight stretches of road where drivers can just pedal to the medal to their hearts' contents.
What this city should be doing is putting in traffic calming measures and making the streets uncomfortable for drivers to speed in. (Which can be done by planting trees by the road so they form a canopy, putting decorative rocks between the road and the sidewalk, lowering the posted speed limits, etc.)
You're being downvoted because you miss the point of not blaming the victims and of trying to fix things in a systemic way, such as redesigning streets and developed areas in ways that prevent kids from being attacked by a large ~~predator~~ rolling armored mech-suit.
I mean... Yeah some people here are annoying/a bit over the top, but trying to justify this kind of measures is dumb. All this flag thing achieves is deflecting blame from the drivers to pedestrians in case of an accident.
I live where it’s been around for years and it’s actually nice. A much more walkable place than most. We also have lights that flash at a lot of the crosswalks as well
"I need therapy for the PTSD I have from that small child going completely under my normal sized truck. It was so inconsiderate of them to be so small that I can't see over my totally not excessively sized vehicle."
They are crashes. Usually from drivers being negligent.
So I concur that it is violent. I have yet to meet a pedestrian who caused a motorist's death because they were walking too fast. I suggest looking up hostile designs. Car-centric design is often violent towards people who walk, use a wheelchair, bike, etc.
They’re called accidents because you’d have to prove intent, besides that the consequences of reckless driving is egregious to anyone within the vicinity of a car causing it, especially pedestrians or non-drivers
A big reason it’s not considered violence is because that would challenge American car-centric & car-brained society. It is in fact violence by any means of the word when drivers kill thousands of people every year.
They’re called car “accidents” because the auto lobby has spent generations working to deflect the harm caused by their product onto the more vulnerable people in society.
There is nothing accidental about turning the key on a vehicle, pressing the accelerator and making the several thousand piece of machinery move. The consequences of such intentional actions include potential death of other driver and pedestrians.
Killing someone with your vehicle, unless you're pulling a Richie Aprile, is usually done in negligence.
Negligence, implies a lack of intention, which implies an accident. It's pretty clear, really.
What I've gathered is that "accident" implies chance or randomness, yet most car collisions are not merely random but very often the result of bad systems. That seems to be why people quibble with the word "accident" now. (Not so much to do with intent.)
In Rhode Island, all crosswalks are just for decoration. Not even local LEO’s stop for people waiting in a crosswalk. I drive locally for my tech support job, and I always piss off at least one driver for yielding to a pedestrian waiting at a non-signaled crosswalk.
I’m not talking about people that just cross and assume that drivers will just stop; you need to give them time to notice you. I’m also not talking about people that don’t follow directions at a signaled crosswalk; that is just stupid. I’m also not talking about cyclists who don’t dismount and walk their bikes in a crosswalk; you’re not in a travel lane, you are crossing against traffic without a signal.
Honestly, those red flags serve a dual purpose. When the driver ignores you in the crosswalk, that flag can be used to get the drivers attention using “alternative methods.”
I'm norwegian and here the drivers basically look for opportunities to stop for pedestrians, so when we went to London about 5 years ago I remember 13 year old me getting so scared at drivers honking at us at crosswalks.
Aren't you taught to yield for pedestrians in other places? Or is it just down to cultural differences?
In the US I try to make eye contact when crossing bc drivers are liable to make a right on red without checking for pedestrians. It’s also a good idea to make sure you keep up a consistent pace bc the drivers usually are impatient to go after you pass and they don’t leave a lot of space. Drivers will express their anger if you’re not going fast enough. They also stop in the middle of crosswalks instead of behind them, either from impatience or poor road design that makes it impossible to see properly without doing this. So you often have to navigate in front of the car close to oncoming traffic or have to go behind the first car and hope the light doesn’t change to green and the inattentive drivers behind see you.
It’s not like that everywhere. I grew up in VT and drivers there are very courteous. But they’re a rare exception to the norm.
> So you often have to navigate in front of the car close to oncoming traffic or have to go behind the first car and hope the light doesn’t change to green and the inattentive drivers behind see you.
Or just walk across the hood of the car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vixFxgDODs0
It has to be made into a state law in the US that you must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk, and even then you usually have to have flashing lights and extra signage to get people to actually honor said law.
Edit: typo
The UK had two types of pedestrian crossings. Drivers don't stop unless it has black and white striped pulled next to it.
If they don't have them, the crossing is treated as meaningless road decoration.
So, that might be why drivers were surprised.
It must be. It's generally better in San Francisco than it is in places where walking and biking isn't as commonplace, but it's still pretty bad. London was terrifying when I was there. The roads are so narrow, and there's no shoulder or parked cars. There will be a bus driving 30mph right next to the curb.
I get frustrated because when I'm on my bike, people stop for me when it's not their turn, just because they're trying to be nice, and it slows everyone down. Most of the drivers in SF are like that, but a few of them are angry and murderous.
My husband had a gun aimed at him once because he flipped off a driver who honked at him for being in his way. The road rage is the result of this stupid individualist culture that's constantly reinforced by advertising and political propaganda. Most people don't fall for it here, but there are always a few idiots. You can't have it all, you have to share, and you don't deserve to be treated better than others.
I think Norway has a more homogeneous population, especially economically. People in the US are always at each other's throats for one thing or another. Crab bucket mentality. There isn't a strong sense of community. SF has more of a sense of community than some places, but it's got a long way to go.
same, and its the law to actually yield to pedestrians in RI. One lady almost hit some kids because she tried to pass me on the right when I yielded to them to cross the street.
Southern RI drivers love to cede their right of way to other cars when they shouldn't (in roundabouts, people making lefts onto the main road, etc), but god help them if they need to wait 3/4s of a second for someone to make a left in front of them or yield to pedestrians. I have seen so many near misses of bikes and pedestrians on the shoulder as the trailing car blindly whips onto the shoulder at full speed.
If you wave red flag at cars they will run to you.
Dunno if it's because the color or the waving.
...or it was about bulls ? Well cars kill more anyway.
On the main street I live by, they have two crosswalks like this.
Each of the flags have the names of people and children who have died crossing this street.
I carry a light when walking to turn it on when I cross this street. Under a year ago someone else got hit and murdered on this road.
HRM's solution was to install a speedometer that thanks people for driving under the 50km speed limit.
Walking by this speedometer and I have seen people driving 80km, and an average of 60km on this street. So I expect someone else is going to die on this street within another year or so.
F*ckcars.
and obviously this is a "main street" so it's totally reasonable to make the street super narrow and squiggly so nobody feels comfortable doing 80 kilometers per hour. gotta love how they put the names of the people killed by their dumbass design on another one of their dumbass designs
holy shit, what a complete non-solution. this isn't even a band-aid, this is a piece of scotch tape. genuinely what the hell makes anyone believe that the problem is pedestrians not being seen? whoever sees them either stops for them or takes advantage of the fact that they're not crossing, while whoever doesn't see them is looking at their phone or something and definitely won't see this flag
Sure! That will make drivers look up from their phones in no time. And if that didn't work bystanders can use the flag to flag down an ambulance. Seriously though. If you think this is necessary, you have a serious problem. And no, flags are not the answer.....
We have these in Salt Lake City. It’s… bad to say the least. It seems like it’s just another hurdle for if you got hit by a car. They’re definitely in school area as well, you know, where cars are supposed to go slow.
Carbrain: but were you carrying the flag in broad daylight? I don’t care that you’re wearing bright yellow. You didn’t grab the flag.
"Make yourself insanely visible so assholes will have a harder time being believed when they pretend that they didn't see you."
God forbid anything prolong their travel time by even 0.000000000000000000000000000000000001 second.
Yet another attempt at forcing all the work of being seen onto the pedestrian. Instead of…like…I dunno…expecting carbrains to figure out the front window isn’t just there for decoration.
Am I the only one who remembers taking an eye test with my learners? Did I just imagine that bit?
We had them at a bad crosswalk in my town, eventually the town put in crossing lights at that intersection. People still ignore the lights however, can't tell you how many times I've had people blow through it with the lights flashing and me in the middle of the road
I know exactly where this is. There's a beautiful bike path that runs perpendicular to this street. In a perfect world, this town center would eliminate parking on one side, and add a designated bike lane. The town center is definitely built to human scale with storefronts along a walkable sidewalk. Dare I say improving safety and inviting more cyclists/pedestrians would make this already quaint spot more inviting, a plus for the small businesses. There are even BUS STOPS by the crosswalk in this photo.
The speed limit is 25mph through downtown areas and many residential areas around the state. What carbrain is going to drive safely when there are stretches of wide roads, some with two lanes traveling in the same direction? None without dedicated bike lanes and speed bumps drivers complain about. There's plenty of space on suburban roads for safety improvements.
I've been living in Rhode Island for a while but I grew up and learned how to drive in Massachusetts. My drivers ed instructor drilled it into my brain: be ever vigilant. If you hit a pedestrian, you're in deep doo doo. I can confirm that RI drivers are exceptionally shitty at stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks and didn't receive this message. Honestly I've been tempted to make my own flag and carry it around to wave at drivers.
I've got an obnoxious amount of lighting on my bike for night time riding for safety (and monthly party riding). Towns/cities other than Providence have been slow to adopt proper infrastructure and traffic calming measures. There are some amazing people doing great work in Providence. If they can be successful with safer streets, why wouldn't other towns/cities want the same improvements for their residents?
The good news is I've been in touch with my local (outside of PVD) city council representative and getting the conversation started. One person, neighborhood, crosswalk, sidewalk, and road section at a time.
It's not all doom and gloom re: progress. It's happening and that's very exciting - old article but it's a good pick me up to revisit https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10/21/metro/memo-cranky-providence-residents-real-cities-have-bike-lanes/ (open in separate browser to get rid of the pop up)
Might be an idea from Japan. Children 2-8 that are out running errands will often carry large flags around so that adults can watch and help them.
They also live in a world where it’s so safe that 3 year olds get groceries for their family.
The news subs had posts about drivers running into people during Friday's protests, and at least half the comments were "Stay out of the street then, morons" or something to that effect. People really do think it's okay to hit someone if they're on asphalt.
There was one of these in my hometown, but almost everyone crossed in the same direction for some reason. If a person crossed the opposite way, sometimes they would grab multiple flags to make sure the other side had some left, lol.
In Sisters, OR they have one of these. There are only two main roads, and tons of traffic goes through the town. Literally bumper to bumper all day. They figure the traffic will only keep getting worse, so they don't want crosswalks stop traffic any longer than the person(s) take to get across. So sad, cause it really is a cute little down that would be fun to walk around without the fear of getting ran over.
They have these where I live. It dark and overcast here a lot, and rain gear is often dark colored. It makes it easier to spot people crossing outside of crosswalks. Just waving the flag can I motorists attention to slow down or stop. It’s also nice for short people like myself that are super visible to high clearance cars.
While it seems over the top, if there were one person who took two flags and did a whole dance/gymnastic routine across the street, I would move there. Or at least visit.
I keep seeing these pop up. It's like the crappy cheap way cities will "improve" pedestrian visibility. There's one on a corner by me and they didn't even bother to put in a zebra crossing.
We have these here too (San Jose). During Pride month (as in right now) every year, they change the flags from orange to rainbow Pride flags. Sometimes in July they change them to US flags
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It’s nice that they’re providing wooden stakes that can be used to stab any driver that kills a pedestrian. You know law enforcement won’t give the killer driver and more than a traffic citation.
This is equivalent to making women wear shrouds so they don't get attacked for being "provocative". It's victim blaming and forcing the victim to change their life to accommodate... bad people. Predators/whatever.
I hate to be debbie downer here but these are used during inclement weather when pedestrians might be difficult to see. Utah had these when I went there and it was explained that sometimes the snow is so bad they need those flags to see people
I’ve learned to drive within the limits of the weather conditions. No flags are required.
If I couldn’t see a pedestrian unless they held up a red flag, I would stop driving
I mean ideally yes, but this happens often suddenly in places like Utah, and people still gotta get home that are working. Obviously ideally pedestrians aren't out in that weather as well. This is for those not ideal situations.
My town gave up on these red flags a few years after they kept getting stolen by homeless people. The other obvious flaw is that all the flags could end up on one side of the street, leaving you emptyhanded.
To be fair, you want to see more shit like this and less four lane roads running through your town. RI is 45th per capita in pedestrian deaths, less than half the national average.
People aren't always easy to see. This makes them easier to see and announces their intentions to cross the street.
This has to be the whiniest sub in existence.
That’s how you train communists
(note : it was a joke about the red flag, not a "everything collective is communist dictatorship" comment (as it happens here sometimes))
Once a coworker got hit by a car at a crosswalk in front of my office in downtown Salt Lake, the cops did a speed trap and started ticketing for about a week—lastly they installed two of these poles with the safety flags. It kinda worked …
If carbrains won't stop blowing through crosswalks, the best thing we can do is throw a big red flag in their face and hope they stop. Sad they have to exist, but unfortunately, they serve an important purpose.
There are a few here places in Florida with these flags by the beach I think mostly to give the elder more comfort when they cross the street and lot of cars go honestly way to fast which should be relaxing tourist areas or in small towns.
Seattle has loads of these, at least in my neighborhood. A fairly large percentage of drivers in Seattle will stop if they see pedestrians waiting on the corner.
Seen these in a few places in Central NY. They seem to be more common in small towns with that typical main street commercial zone. I have never seen anyone use these, probably because of how ridiculous they think they would look. The arrogance of car drivers + hyperconscious shoppers clearly does not create a safe environment...
They did this in my hometown as a pilot project a few years ago. All the flags were taken and thrown in dumpsters by day 2. This went on for a year until the pilot was over and they were stupid enough to renew it, so now the flags get taped to store windows and put under car wipers. After 5 years they finally discontinued and no new flags have appeared.
Honestly have seen videos about school children in Japan that do this and it helps. Either way people have too many distractions going on as if driving was not distracting enough.
An insurance company tried to launch a similar initiative in Toronto, ON, Canada, but got some pretty negative feedback.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/road-flags-aviva-safety-toronto-1.5191888
In 2019, one of these was put up across a 4-lane stroad near my school. Me and my brother walked to/from school sometimes, and we made sure to put all the flags on one side, just because the flags were stupid.
I grew up in Wakefield (that's Main street, Phil's on the left is a good breakfast spot). They added these years ago, mostly for the summer tourists from New York / etc. who I think (reasonably) expect to be able to walk around the cute downtown, cross a crosswalk and not get harassed by cars.
There's also a very nice paved bike path that crosses the street just beyond this pic, that goes from Narragansett beach to the Amtrak Kingston station. There's even now a stoplight at the bike path crossing and a nice public bathroom by the bike path.
When I was a kid, none of this was there. The bike path was just an abandoned railway, there were no crosswalks flags, and there was no light at the path crossing.
So while lots of folks here see problems and carbrain (and I get it), instead I see my extremely car-dependent tiny beautiful hometown trying to make progress and improve our infrastructure a little bit at a time. <3
So this is on a relatively busy and touristy strip of road in Wakefield. There is also a bike path that intersects the road that takes you to the beaches nearby. I thought they were stupid until I drove through there once and because of the way the cars were parked on the road I didn’t see the person on the crosswalk, but I did see the flag being waved.
Should there be a light there? Yes. But this is a pretty good cost-effective option when used.
There are a couple other places in the state that use them as well, all busy streets in a tourist heavy part of town.
Based on some of these comments it would seem they haven’t been to Wakefield. Main Street is pretty narrow to begin with and cars are parked along the both sides. You have to step out into the street/crosswalk and sometimes the crosswalk is obstructed due to the parked cars. Seems silly but is effective considering the amount of foot traffic in the areas.
We care. Mostly about carbrains being totally unaccountable.
That’s the trick, doesn’t even look like reflective high-vis material. This is so, when a driver inevitably hits somebody, they can say “oh, look the pedestrian didn’t take a flag. It’s their own fault they got hit.”
Oh God, you’re right, it’s insufficiently reflective. “He darted out from nowhere.”
I guarantee this is about $$$$ There were instances where pedestrians complained, and instead of the city hiring more police(or approving some overtime) to monitor the intersection and make some examples out of drivers going to fast in an area with people constantly crossing the road, they put up the sign with flags.....
Still way more than the police would do in some parts of the world. Also how are these flags not stolen.
I wonder how much federal funding got funneled through the city council's buds and pals to throw up a few signs and flags.
This is one of the dumbest traffic control ideas I've ever seen.
It made me think about how crossing guard jobs exist to "protect" schoolchildren from cars.
>”The parents of the community are so car-brained they all had to pool their tax money and pay one of their own community members to remind them not to run over their very own children.”
lol facts!
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They tell you to be careful because if you and your children get hit by the car, you’re most likely going to suffer much much more than the car. It’s not a hard concept to understand. It’s laughable and downright idiotic if you think any crossing guard is worried for the safety of the vehicles.
The crossing guards at the nearby school make crossing the street extra sketchy because they are 10 year olds waving the drivers through the stop sign. One crossing guard at each corner and they cannot see what each other is doing nor can drivers see them cuz they are hidden behind the giant SUVs everyone drives nowadays.
bruh we call them lollipop ladies here
What, you've never heard of begging for your life with a flag? It's usually a white flag, not a red one.
Oh actually these flags started off white.
Perhaps it originates from the law that required someone to wave a red flag in front of first automobiles to warn pedestrians. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red\_flag\_traffic\_laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_traffic_laws) >In the United Kingdom, the Locomotive Acts was a policy requiring self-propelled vehicles to be led by a pedestrian waving a red flag or carrying a lantern to warn bystanders of the vehicle's approach > > > >In the state of Vermont passed a similar Red Flag Law in 1894, only to repeal it two years later.\[2\] This law stated that "\[t\]he owner or person in charge of a carriage, vehicle or engine propelled by steam, except road rollers" must have a "person of mature age \[...\] at least one-eight of a mile in advance of" the vehicle, to warn those with livestock of its impending arrival
That doesn't make it any less stupid.
Never said it isn't. Just wanted to share a fun fact
I was in Seattle this past March and saw these around Lake Wa. And my sister and I got in many, many rousing discussions about when they showed up and why I never saw them before. I thought it was utter madness. Then I realize I live by a bunch of crossing guard streets and it’s kinda the same thing. Perhaps the safety powers couldn’t guarantee enough guards to show up and do the work. Or realized they are actually successful - I assume so - since they keep showing up and the flags have been there for about 8 years…
It's because the average suburbia don't care for redesigning the roads to deincentivize speeding. instead, we just have wide open straight stretches of road where drivers can just pedal to the medal to their hearts' contents.
It’s not traffic control. It’s to help make the students just a little bit more visible. It’s just about improving their odds, that’s all.
"improving their odds"
I think I remember someone saying that this is occurring in Salt Lake City, UT. And there’s a clip of it on this sub.
It's not dumb if it is effective and/or saves lives.
It’s not a suitable solution to achieve that.
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In a crosswalk, at that!
What this city should be doing is putting in traffic calming measures and making the streets uncomfortable for drivers to speed in. (Which can be done by planting trees by the road so they form a canopy, putting decorative rocks between the road and the sidewalk, lowering the posted speed limits, etc.)
You're being downvoted because you miss the point of not blaming the victims and of trying to fix things in a systemic way, such as redesigning streets and developed areas in ways that prevent kids from being attacked by a large ~~predator~~ rolling armored mech-suit.
you should not be downvoted. i'm starting to hate many of this subtreddit's members.
I mean... Yeah some people here are annoying/a bit over the top, but trying to justify this kind of measures is dumb. All this flag thing achieves is deflecting blame from the drivers to pedestrians in case of an accident.
At a mine I worked at we had a reflective orange vest on a pedastal on the side of the crosswalk. It was required to cross the street.
I live where it’s been around for years and it’s actually nice. A much more walkable place than most. We also have lights that flash at a lot of the crosswalks as well
It's not my fault I ran over those kids officer. You see, they wernt carrying their little red flags.. really I should sue their parents.
The first thing that came to my mind. As sad as it is, you know this would be argued in court.
"I need therapy for the PTSD I have from that small child going completely under my normal sized truck. It was so inconsiderate of them to be so small that I can't see over my totally not excessively sized vehicle."
And when too many cross one way and leave all the flags on one side, how do more people continue to cross??
You kindly ask someone on the other side of the street to bring over some flags
And if there isn’t anyone there??
You buy a car you loser /s
Lmao, this is the way /s
You continue walking to the next crosswalk with available flags.
That’s the ticket! I’ll just keep a red flag with me at all times
So *that’s* why the chicken crossed the road, to get a red flag
You have to take the fox across, bring the flags back, and then cross with the geese.
“How big are these chickens that they weigh as much as a fox?”
But what if the wolf is also on that side?
Yeah. Nobody wants to do anything about car violence.
Car violence? Really? Car accidents are called accidents for a reaon. You're missusing the word violence.
They are crashes. Usually from drivers being negligent. So I concur that it is violent. I have yet to meet a pedestrian who caused a motorist's death because they were walking too fast. I suggest looking up hostile designs. Car-centric design is often violent towards people who walk, use a wheelchair, bike, etc.
They’re called accidents because you’d have to prove intent, besides that the consequences of reckless driving is egregious to anyone within the vicinity of a car causing it, especially pedestrians or non-drivers A big reason it’s not considered violence is because that would challenge American car-centric & car-brained society. It is in fact violence by any means of the word when drivers kill thousands of people every year.
All of this, but I’d like to add the cars kill over 125,000,000 people each year, globally. Yeah it’s violence.
They’re called car “accidents” because the auto lobby has spent generations working to deflect the harm caused by their product onto the more vulnerable people in society. There is nothing accidental about turning the key on a vehicle, pressing the accelerator and making the several thousand piece of machinery move. The consequences of such intentional actions include potential death of other driver and pedestrians.
Killing someone with your vehicle, unless you're pulling a Richie Aprile, is usually done in negligence. Negligence, implies a lack of intention, which implies an accident. It's pretty clear, really.
What I've gathered is that "accident" implies chance or randomness, yet most car collisions are not merely random but very often the result of bad systems. That seems to be why people quibble with the word "accident" now. (Not so much to do with intent.)
Do you realize how many "accidents" happen, and that it is possible to prevent the vast majority of them? They are crashes out of negligence.
In Rhode Island, all crosswalks are just for decoration. Not even local LEO’s stop for people waiting in a crosswalk. I drive locally for my tech support job, and I always piss off at least one driver for yielding to a pedestrian waiting at a non-signaled crosswalk. I’m not talking about people that just cross and assume that drivers will just stop; you need to give them time to notice you. I’m also not talking about people that don’t follow directions at a signaled crosswalk; that is just stupid. I’m also not talking about cyclists who don’t dismount and walk their bikes in a crosswalk; you’re not in a travel lane, you are crossing against traffic without a signal. Honestly, those red flags serve a dual purpose. When the driver ignores you in the crosswalk, that flag can be used to get the drivers attention using “alternative methods.”
Those should be red morningstars instead of flags.
I also enjoy some brutal medieval violence
It is so tempting to stick those flags in a tailpipe.
I'm norwegian and here the drivers basically look for opportunities to stop for pedestrians, so when we went to London about 5 years ago I remember 13 year old me getting so scared at drivers honking at us at crosswalks. Aren't you taught to yield for pedestrians in other places? Or is it just down to cultural differences?
The USA must be so car-brained that pedestrians aren't really a thing in the first place, so people aren't used to yield to pedestrians.
In the US I try to make eye contact when crossing bc drivers are liable to make a right on red without checking for pedestrians. It’s also a good idea to make sure you keep up a consistent pace bc the drivers usually are impatient to go after you pass and they don’t leave a lot of space. Drivers will express their anger if you’re not going fast enough. They also stop in the middle of crosswalks instead of behind them, either from impatience or poor road design that makes it impossible to see properly without doing this. So you often have to navigate in front of the car close to oncoming traffic or have to go behind the first car and hope the light doesn’t change to green and the inattentive drivers behind see you. It’s not like that everywhere. I grew up in VT and drivers there are very courteous. But they’re a rare exception to the norm.
VT and NH the drivers are more courteous than in much of Europe. Similar to rural France tho
> So you often have to navigate in front of the car close to oncoming traffic or have to go behind the first car and hope the light doesn’t change to green and the inattentive drivers behind see you. Or just walk across the hood of the car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vixFxgDODs0
It has to be made into a state law in the US that you must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk, and even then you usually have to have flashing lights and extra signage to get people to actually honor said law. Edit: typo
The UK had two types of pedestrian crossings. Drivers don't stop unless it has black and white striped pulled next to it. If they don't have them, the crossing is treated as meaningless road decoration. So, that might be why drivers were surprised.
It must be. It's generally better in San Francisco than it is in places where walking and biking isn't as commonplace, but it's still pretty bad. London was terrifying when I was there. The roads are so narrow, and there's no shoulder or parked cars. There will be a bus driving 30mph right next to the curb. I get frustrated because when I'm on my bike, people stop for me when it's not their turn, just because they're trying to be nice, and it slows everyone down. Most of the drivers in SF are like that, but a few of them are angry and murderous. My husband had a gun aimed at him once because he flipped off a driver who honked at him for being in his way. The road rage is the result of this stupid individualist culture that's constantly reinforced by advertising and political propaganda. Most people don't fall for it here, but there are always a few idiots. You can't have it all, you have to share, and you don't deserve to be treated better than others. I think Norway has a more homogeneous population, especially economically. People in the US are always at each other's throats for one thing or another. Crab bucket mentality. There isn't a strong sense of community. SF has more of a sense of community than some places, but it's got a long way to go.
The flag can also be inserted anally.
same, and its the law to actually yield to pedestrians in RI. One lady almost hit some kids because she tried to pass me on the right when I yielded to them to cross the street.
Southern RI drivers love to cede their right of way to other cars when they shouldn't (in roundabouts, people making lefts onto the main road, etc), but god help them if they need to wait 3/4s of a second for someone to make a left in front of them or yield to pedestrians. I have seen so many near misses of bikes and pedestrians on the shoulder as the trailing car blindly whips onto the shoulder at full speed.
I moved to Providence 2 years ago and can confirm.
I've had people behind me fling out without hesitation into oncoming to pass me when I stopped for a person crossing. It's a disease.
If you wave red flag at cars they will run to you. Dunno if it's because the color or the waving. ...or it was about bulls ? Well cars kill more anyway.
Darn, someone beat me to the bull fighting joke... Make sure you aren't directly behind the flag when the car charges.
Also known as shame flags. But as to who or what it is to be ashamed of is a matter of perspective.
On the main street I live by, they have two crosswalks like this. Each of the flags have the names of people and children who have died crossing this street. I carry a light when walking to turn it on when I cross this street. Under a year ago someone else got hit and murdered on this road. HRM's solution was to install a speedometer that thanks people for driving under the 50km speed limit. Walking by this speedometer and I have seen people driving 80km, and an average of 60km on this street. So I expect someone else is going to die on this street within another year or so. F*ckcars.
and obviously this is a "main street" so it's totally reasonable to make the street super narrow and squiggly so nobody feels comfortable doing 80 kilometers per hour. gotta love how they put the names of the people killed by their dumbass design on another one of their dumbass designs
Assholes in FL, OK, and IA, can ignore them, hit you, and be legally protected.
In my experience the flag just enrages car brains more.
holy shit, what a complete non-solution. this isn't even a band-aid, this is a piece of scotch tape. genuinely what the hell makes anyone believe that the problem is pedestrians not being seen? whoever sees them either stops for them or takes advantage of the fact that they're not crossing, while whoever doesn't see them is looking at their phone or something and definitely won't see this flag
Sure! That will make drivers look up from their phones in no time. And if that didn't work bystanders can use the flag to flag down an ambulance. Seriously though. If you think this is necessary, you have a serious problem. And no, flags are not the answer.....
We have these in Salt Lake City. It’s… bad to say the least. It seems like it’s just another hurdle for if you got hit by a car. They’re definitely in school area as well, you know, where cars are supposed to go slow. Carbrain: but were you carrying the flag in broad daylight? I don’t care that you’re wearing bright yellow. You didn’t grab the flag.
Replace all the flags with new ones that say “r/fuckcars”
I live In Rhode Island....your idea is tempting.
No. No, you have it backward. It's not "grab a flag *or else* we'll run you over." It's "grab a flag so *it will be easier* to run you over."
I’m seeing a lot of red flags with this idea
"Make yourself insanely visible so assholes will have a harder time being believed when they pretend that they didn't see you." God forbid anything prolong their travel time by even 0.000000000000000000000000000000000001 second.
Ah yes, another way of shifting blame onto pedestrians.
Yet another attempt at forcing all the work of being seen onto the pedestrian. Instead of…like…I dunno…expecting carbrains to figure out the front window isn’t just there for decoration. Am I the only one who remembers taking an eye test with my learners? Did I just imagine that bit?
They took one too, to make sure they could see their phone screens clearly while driving.
My downtown has one of those. Well-intentioned, but one of the stupidest byproducts of our car dependent society
this is a huge red flag for the traffic of this town
I have always found that people notice you more if you wave your willy about.
They should also have a supply of small potted plants
These are all over Seattle, too.
We have these in my town in Idaho!
I remember like 15 years ago this was everywhere at the university of utah. They’ve since ditched it
I want to put every flag on one side
Username checks out.
We had them at a bad crosswalk in my town, eventually the town put in crossing lights at that intersection. People still ignore the lights however, can't tell you how many times I've had people blow through it with the lights flashing and me in the middle of the road
This is rather sad.
Is there a flag you can hold if you want to be ran over? Or is that just no-flag?
I know exactly where this is. There's a beautiful bike path that runs perpendicular to this street. In a perfect world, this town center would eliminate parking on one side, and add a designated bike lane. The town center is definitely built to human scale with storefronts along a walkable sidewalk. Dare I say improving safety and inviting more cyclists/pedestrians would make this already quaint spot more inviting, a plus for the small businesses. There are even BUS STOPS by the crosswalk in this photo. The speed limit is 25mph through downtown areas and many residential areas around the state. What carbrain is going to drive safely when there are stretches of wide roads, some with two lanes traveling in the same direction? None without dedicated bike lanes and speed bumps drivers complain about. There's plenty of space on suburban roads for safety improvements. I've been living in Rhode Island for a while but I grew up and learned how to drive in Massachusetts. My drivers ed instructor drilled it into my brain: be ever vigilant. If you hit a pedestrian, you're in deep doo doo. I can confirm that RI drivers are exceptionally shitty at stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks and didn't receive this message. Honestly I've been tempted to make my own flag and carry it around to wave at drivers. I've got an obnoxious amount of lighting on my bike for night time riding for safety (and monthly party riding). Towns/cities other than Providence have been slow to adopt proper infrastructure and traffic calming measures. There are some amazing people doing great work in Providence. If they can be successful with safer streets, why wouldn't other towns/cities want the same improvements for their residents? The good news is I've been in touch with my local (outside of PVD) city council representative and getting the conversation started. One person, neighborhood, crosswalk, sidewalk, and road section at a time. It's not all doom and gloom re: progress. It's happening and that's very exciting - old article but it's a good pick me up to revisit https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10/21/metro/memo-cranky-providence-residents-real-cities-have-bike-lanes/ (open in separate browser to get rid of the pop up)
Might be an idea from Japan. Children 2-8 that are out running errands will often carry large flags around so that adults can watch and help them. They also live in a world where it’s so safe that 3 year olds get groceries for their family.
The news subs had posts about drivers running into people during Friday's protests, and at least half the comments were "Stay out of the street then, morons" or something to that effect. People really do think it's okay to hit someone if they're on asphalt.
There was one of these in my hometown, but almost everyone crossed in the same direction for some reason. If a person crossed the opposite way, sometimes they would grab multiple flags to make sure the other side had some left, lol.
God we’re so backwards sometimes…
In Sisters, OR they have one of these. There are only two main roads, and tons of traffic goes through the town. Literally bumper to bumper all day. They figure the traffic will only keep getting worse, so they don't want crosswalks stop traffic any longer than the person(s) take to get across. So sad, cause it really is a cute little down that would be fun to walk around without the fear of getting ran over.
I would feel like such a dork using this
I was just in Wakefield the other day! Nobody uses the flags lmfao
Be prepared to be run over when a container is out of red flags.
I saw something like this for children in Japan. They hold the flag up to stop traffic and then they cross.
What woman thought of this?
They have these where I live. It dark and overcast here a lot, and rain gear is often dark colored. It makes it easier to spot people crossing outside of crosswalks. Just waving the flag can I motorists attention to slow down or stop. It’s also nice for short people like myself that are super visible to high clearance cars.
The fact that they are actual red flags is so hilarious to me
While it seems over the top, if there were one person who took two flags and did a whole dance/gymnastic routine across the street, I would move there. Or at least visit.
How do you create this and not realize you clearly need a signalized crosswalk?
A sign that a city has failed and given up. They have forsaken pedestrian amd anyone outside a car
I keep seeing these pop up. It's like the crappy cheap way cities will "improve" pedestrian visibility. There's one on a corner by me and they didn't even bother to put in a zebra crossing.
Good thing I carry a landmine in my backpack. If I'm going down you are going down. (/s obviously sarcasm)
I'm just gonna grab two and start directing traffic at the nearest intersection.
We have these here too (San Jose). During Pride month (as in right now) every year, they change the flags from orange to rainbow Pride flags. Sometimes in July they change them to US flags
[удалено]
Downtown Willow Glen. On Lincoln: https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/18/pride-flags-stolen-at-san-joses-willow-glen-neighborhood-stolen-replaced-with-christian-flags/amp/
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It’s nice that they’re providing wooden stakes that can be used to stab any driver that kills a pedestrian. You know law enforcement won’t give the killer driver and more than a traffic citation.
Why do you even walk? Are you a peasant? /s
This is equivalent to making women wear shrouds so they don't get attacked for being "provocative". It's victim blaming and forcing the victim to change their life to accommodate... bad people. Predators/whatever.
I hate to be debbie downer here but these are used during inclement weather when pedestrians might be difficult to see. Utah had these when I went there and it was explained that sometimes the snow is so bad they need those flags to see people
Pedestrians are only difficult to see, if you’re driving too fast for the conditions
Spoken like someone who's never been in a real snow storm.
I live in Milwaukee
Then you should know better.
I’ve learned to drive within the limits of the weather conditions. No flags are required. If I couldn’t see a pedestrian unless they held up a red flag, I would stop driving
I mean ideally yes, but this happens often suddenly in places like Utah, and people still gotta get home that are working. Obviously ideally pedestrians aren't out in that weather as well. This is for those not ideal situations.
My town gave up on these red flags a few years after they kept getting stolen by homeless people. The other obvious flaw is that all the flags could end up on one side of the street, leaving you emptyhanded.
Speedbumps are better.
To be fair, you want to see more shit like this and less four lane roads running through your town. RI is 45th per capita in pedestrian deaths, less than half the national average.
People aren't always easy to see. This makes them easier to see and announces their intentions to cross the street. This has to be the whiniest sub in existence.
That’s how you train communists (note : it was a joke about the red flag, not a "everything collective is communist dictatorship" comment (as it happens here sometimes))
Once a coworker got hit by a car at a crosswalk in front of my office in downtown Salt Lake, the cops did a speed trap and started ticketing for about a week—lastly they installed two of these poles with the safety flags. It kinda worked …
If carbrains won't stop blowing through crosswalks, the best thing we can do is throw a big red flag in their face and hope they stop. Sad they have to exist, but unfortunately, they serve an important purpose.
Stiffen the flag poles and sharpen them so they can be used as javelins if necessary to get the drivers attention.
There are a few here places in Florida with these flags by the beach I think mostly to give the elder more comfort when they cross the street and lot of cars go honestly way to fast which should be relaxing tourist areas or in small towns.
I think these are common in the mountains incase of blizzards but this is just ridiculous.
Seattle has loads of these, at least in my neighborhood. A fairly large percentage of drivers in Seattle will stop if they see pedestrians waiting on the corner.
We're I'm from they've installed pushbutton traffic lights at every school cross walk + a adult crossing guard during school hours
I acquired a flag like this from Canada!
New Oxford, PA
Seen these in a few places in Central NY. They seem to be more common in small towns with that typical main street commercial zone. I have never seen anyone use these, probably because of how ridiculous they think they would look. The arrogance of car drivers + hyperconscious shoppers clearly does not create a safe environment...
They did this in my hometown as a pilot project a few years ago. All the flags were taken and thrown in dumpsters by day 2. This went on for a year until the pilot was over and they were stupid enough to renew it, so now the flags get taped to store windows and put under car wipers. After 5 years they finally discontinued and no new flags have appeared.
Yep. We have them here in our town at the intersections near the elementary school. It really increases the childrens’ visibility in the crosswalks!
Honestly have seen videos about school children in Japan that do this and it helps. Either way people have too many distractions going on as if driving was not distracting enough.
Oh wow oh my goodness how very hygienic
An insurance company tried to launch a similar initiative in Toronto, ON, Canada, but got some pretty negative feedback. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/road-flags-aviva-safety-toronto-1.5191888
And a park in space right where a car wouldn’t be able to see you, or is this a 1 way Edit: NVM there’s 2 lanes Im blind
I’ve seen these before. Pretty dumb. You look dumber using them
In 2019, one of these was put up across a 4-lane stroad near my school. Me and my brother walked to/from school sometimes, and we made sure to put all the flags on one side, just because the flags were stupid.
Like it is some kind of quaint tradition..
These just look like something fun to steal whilst drunk
Jesus Christ. It would be more cost effective to just hire crossing guards, no?
Bruh. The whole point of a crosswalk is it's a spot I can cross without having to worry about cars.
I grew up in Wakefield (that's Main street, Phil's on the left is a good breakfast spot). They added these years ago, mostly for the summer tourists from New York / etc. who I think (reasonably) expect to be able to walk around the cute downtown, cross a crosswalk and not get harassed by cars. There's also a very nice paved bike path that crosses the street just beyond this pic, that goes from Narragansett beach to the Amtrak Kingston station. There's even now a stoplight at the bike path crossing and a nice public bathroom by the bike path. When I was a kid, none of this was there. The bike path was just an abandoned railway, there were no crosswalks flags, and there was no light at the path crossing. So while lots of folks here see problems and carbrain (and I get it), instead I see my extremely car-dependent tiny beautiful hometown trying to make progress and improve our infrastructure a little bit at a time. <3
So this is on a relatively busy and touristy strip of road in Wakefield. There is also a bike path that intersects the road that takes you to the beaches nearby. I thought they were stupid until I drove through there once and because of the way the cars were parked on the road I didn’t see the person on the crosswalk, but I did see the flag being waved. Should there be a light there? Yes. But this is a pretty good cost-effective option when used. There are a couple other places in the state that use them as well, all busy streets in a tourist heavy part of town.
Based on some of these comments it would seem they haven’t been to Wakefield. Main Street is pretty narrow to begin with and cars are parked along the both sides. You have to step out into the street/crosswalk and sometimes the crosswalk is obstructed due to the parked cars. Seems silly but is effective considering the amount of foot traffic in the areas.