Flags to cross Calgary Streets

[Joel_D]

When i first read this, i thought it was an April fools joke. WTF, has it really come to this?


Putting flags in buckets for pedestrians to carry as they cross the street at many of Calgary’s roughly 3,000 signed crosswalks could cheaply and easily reduce collisions, says the city’s leader of traffic safety operations.

http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/1204294/calgary-considers-simple-solution-for-pedestrian-safety-have-them-carry-flags/

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Mixalot27]

The next step in the plan is to require anyone who wants to walk outside to play a certain number of hours of the classic video game "Frogger".

[top_speed]

Lol how is this any safer? they should just hire people to petrol the crosswalks and hold there hand when Pedestrian are crossing the road. The only think that will work is if they put up pedestrian lights at all crosswalks.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[speedog]

Ungh and my councillor thinks it's a good idea - go figure, eh.

[lilmira]

name tag is next

[topmade]

This will go perfect with the 9:00pm school and playground zones when kids are playing in the dark.

[firebane]

Might as well just give everyone a complimentary helmet and bubble wrap because that is where society will be headed if shit like this keeps happening.

[theken]

Maybe people should not walk in front of cars or cross when the hand starts flashing, wait your turns like we should

[frizzlefry]

ok, devil's advocate here. If this is only at crosswalks not controlled by intersection lights (as I gather it is) it may be a good idea implemented poorly. Personally I don't cross unless I make eye contact and everyone is stopped. I have even stuck my arm out to indicate I'm crossing if need be.

I think they are trying to work around the fact that 70% of the time people approach a controlled crosswalk the lights are flashing but the pedestrian has already gone through. The lights keep flashing because they need to account for elderly or slower folks. So drivers become desensitized the the flashing lights and drive right on through. I know I do honestly. I look and if I see someone close by walking on the sidewalk my first reaction is to think they crossed and I can ignore the lights. I slow down anyways but I EXPECT the crosswalk to be clear.

Flags won't work but the system could be designed better.

[schocker]

When do we get our high visibility vests from the city?

[codetrap]

The school taught my daughter to stick her arm out to announce her intention to cross. Seems like a good idea to me. The arm, not the flag. The flags is a bad idea and they will soon end up as another flying trash when the hooligans get ahold of them.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by codetrap
The flags is a bad idea and they will soon end up as another flying trash when the hooligans get ahold of them.

Or when the homeless use them as toilet paper.

[kaput]

.

[firebane]

Originally posted by frizzlefry
ok, devil's advocate here. If this is only at crosswalks not controlled by intersection lights (as I gather it is) it may be a good idea implemented poorly. Personally I don't cross unless I make eye contact and everyone is stopped. I have even stuck my arm out to indicate I'm crossing if need be.

I think they are trying to work around the fact that 70% of the time people approach a controlled crosswalk the lights are flashing but the pedestrian has already gone through. The lights keep flashing because they need to account for elderly or slower folks. So drivers become desensitized the the flashing lights and drive right on through. I know I do honestly. I look and if I see someone close by walking on the sidewalk my first reaction is to think they crossed and I can ignore the lights. I slow down anyways but I EXPECT the crosswalk to be clear.

Flags won't work but the system could be designed better.

Come into my neighborhood.. There are two unlit crosswalks and at night people like to cross these crosswalks without checking for traffic or even bothering to look causing people to slam on their brakes.

If these crosswalks were lit up even a remote bit better people would be MUCH safer.

[revelations]

Originally posted by kaput
This is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

:werd: Is there a FB page or TW feed to the city council? This lack of common sense for a city council is absurd.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by revelations


:werd: Is there a FB page or TW feed to the city council? This lack of common sense for a city council is absurd.
@nenshi

[FullFledgedYYC]

Nothing surprises me anymore. Drivers are worse now than ever. This is proven by the fact that everyone NEEDS forward collision mitigation, blind spot monitoring, back up cameras, area view, and an in-car system to make sure they can use their phone to it's full potential.

[duaner]

I was a crossing guard in grade 6. I would do it again for 80k+.

[AG_Styles]

Easy to spend money when it's the public's money. Just say it's for "safety".

[Canmorite]

Ya, all those flags will be missing/stolen within a few weeks. Why not just cross when it's safe?

I cross Centre St everday after getting off the bus, and in the dark it is quite hard to see people at unlit crosswalks. Driving Centre at night is sketchy too as people dart out and hope the cars will stop. Doesn't surpise me seeing three car/pedestrian accidents in the last few years on Centre :nut:

EDIT: Centre St between 20th ave and 32nd ave NW for reference.

[ganesh]

They have this in place in Kirkland- Seattle. When I first saw this there I thought what a stupid idea but it works as long as every one buys into it. I spoke to some local people there and they told me that it had reduced the accidents in that city.

[Lex350]

Our society has dumbed down so much that we now consider it a challenge to cross the street. What ever happened to teaching your children how to cross the street. Evolution is going backwards now because we aren't allowing Darwinism to do its job. :banghead:

[Lex350]

This should also be good for adding an additional raise to property taxes. ;)

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by AG_Styles
Easy to spend money when it's the public's money. Just say it's for "safety".

The City in a nutshell. Find a way to make it a "green initiative" as well and there's no limit to the money The City will throw at it.

[jwslam]

Great idea. But people need to drive slow enough to see these flags. So let's drop all speed limits in the city to 30kph and playground/school zones to 10kph.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[flipstah]

BAN ALL CARS.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by flipstah
BAN ALL CARS.
If there's no roads for people to cross, there's no danger. BAN ROADS!

[Kg810]

Scrolled down to the comments and saw a post from YYC-Transportation

It appears that it was just a discussion for schools and communities and not city-wide.


YYC Transportation • 2 hours ago
Just a point of clarification - the crosswalk flags are not an active initiative being considered by The City at this time. They were discussed in a committee meeting yesterday in acknowledgement to a comment by a Councillor.

The flag concept is one of several potential tactics that could eventually be used by communities or schools to help improve safety – but we see this as a community-led
and community-owned initiative, rather than something that would be implemented
city-wide.

We often work with Community Associations and schools to provide educational materials and shared resources to help improve safety at crosswalks. The flags could eventually be presented as a possible tool for individual communities – but that is very much dependent on the findings from other municipalities already trialing this initiative

[finboy]

Has there been a statistical uptick in car to pedestrian related collisions? Where is everyone getting this opinion that being a pedestrian in calgary is as dangerous as walking through the streets of fallujah? Calgary is a great city to walk through, I don't see where these initiatives are coming from. What kind of lives are these people living that they are terrified of roads?

[triplep]

Simple solution

Vehicle > Person

So why don't we give vehicles right of way, to many people don't even look before crossing the street, if we got rid of that there would be far less collision.

[lilmira]

How about implanting flags onto stupid people? That way I can just avoid them.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by lilmira
How about implanting flags onto stupid people? That way I can just avoid them.
http://www.quickmeme.com/img/10/108ee1d47b49fab5cea1a0d48f3bd856c8bda69e9ed3b7a8f377e6a560249a26.jpg

[speedog]

Originally posted by lilmira
How about implanting flags onto stupid people? That way I can just avoid them.
That wouldn't be fair to scat.

[Quizzes]

What are you gonna do if all the flags end up on the other side of the crosswalk? :nut:

[duaner]

Originally posted by Quizzes
What are you gonna do if all the flags end up on the other side of the crosswalk? :nut:
Why did the chicken cross the road....?

[kaput]

.

[max_boost]

^^
:werd: trying crossing the road in se Asia.

only in yyc. flags to cross the road lmao