Fort Lauderdale is putting out buckets of neon orange flags at one of its busiest intersections, asking people trying to walk across those streets to wave them and warn drivers away to improve traffic safety. Because there’s nothing like feeling as if you’re signaling the start of a race/surrendering every time you need to cross the street.
In all seriousness though, city officials say they’re simply testing the project to see if it can help to make pedestrians more visible to cars, reports the Miami Herald.
The plan is for people to grab a flag, step into the crosswalk and make eye contact with drivers heading your way, before waving the flag as you cross.
So far it doesn’t seem to be catching on quite yet — the Herald reports that most people ignored the flags or used the button that turns on yellow flashing lights instead. It could catch on, though.
“It feels a little weird having to carry around a flag, but it’s kind of cute. I think it’s working,” said one pedestrian.
This isn’t the first time city officials have tried waving the orange flag — St. Paul, Minn., Berkeley, Calif. and Seattle have all used similar programs in the past. But because a lot of people just stole the flags and there wasn’t a huge amount of success, Seattle and Berkeley both dropped the system.
So far three of the four flags in Fort Lauderdale have been stolen, and replacement flags have gone into circulation. That doesn’t have city officials waving the white flag just yet, Vice Mayor Romney Rogers explained.
“The idea of adding the flags was to add another element of safety and it’s a minimal cost to the city,” Rogers said. “It’s all part of the process of changing people’s ideas about transportation.”
Fort Lauderdale asks Las Olas pedestrians to wave safety flags at drivers [Miami Herald]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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