Pedestrian crossing flag
 | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (October 2023) |
A pedestrian crossing flag (PCF) are flags that are used by pedestrians to increase visibility and alert drivers of their presence while they cross the street.
History
[edit]The first pedestrian crossing flags were used around 2000 at pedestrian crossings in Salt Lake City.[1][2] The flags are meant to be used by crossing pedestrians to alert drivers of their presence while crossing to avoid being hit by a car. The program started by promoting 100 crosswalks.[3] Texas Tech University reported that the flags made cars yield 74% of the time at four sites.[4]
The flags started being used by other cities in the United States. Cities such as Kirkland, Washington, McCall, Idaho, Berkeley, California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Cupertino, California[5] and Seattle, Washington had sponsorships for pedestrian crossing flags at crosswalks.[2][6] Seattle ended the program in 2008 after not much usage by pedestrians.[3]
On April 1, 2024, a campaign began in Granville Island, with bricks being placed at pedestrian crossings, as opposed to flags.[7] Other such crossings were implemented in Arlington, Texas.[8]
Criticism
[edit]Bloomberg News described the use of pedestrian crossing flags as "demeaning", and make pedestrians feel embarrassed for needing to carry a flag for walking.[9]
A statistic from Berkely says that only 2% of pedestrians used the crossing flags.[2] Multiple collisions still occurred after the flags were installed into cities; the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut investigated eleven crashes involving thirteen people walking, with one case resulting in death. The flags also tend to be stolen.[10][11] The flags are moved by which direction pedestrians walk by, which can cause the flags to end on one side with none on the other.[12]
Gallery
[edit]- Pedestrian crossing flags
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Box of orange pedestrian crossing flags in Grand Marais, Minnesota, 2017 -
Box of yellow pedestrian crossing flags in Japan, 2013
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References
[edit]- ^ "Pedestrian Safety". Transportation. Archived from the original on 2024-08-10. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ a b c Davies, Alex. "U.S. City Thinks Having Pedestrians Carry Flags Will Keep Them Safe". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ a b "Pedestrian Crossing Flags – Transportation | seattle.gov". www.seattle.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ Wei, Dali; Xu, Hao; Wesley, Kumfer; Liu, Hongchao; Wang, Ziyang. "Vehicular Traffic Capacity at Unsignalized Crosswalks with Probabilistic Yielding Behavior" (PDF). Texas Tech University Press.
- ^ MYLLENBECK, KRISTI (9 December 2016). "Cupertino: Bright orange flags for pedestrians placed at 5 intersections". The Mercury News.
- ^ Clark, Sheila; Coughenour, Courtney; Bumgarner, Kelly; de la Fuente-Mella, Hanns; Reynolds, Chantel; Abelar, James (January 2019). "The Impact of Pedestrian Crossing Flags on Driver Yielding Behavior in Las Vegas, NV". Sustainability. 11 (17): 4741. doi:10.3390/su11174741. ISSN 2071-1050.
- ^ Thayaparan, Arrthy (2 April 2024). "Granville Island crosswalk users urged to pick up a brick". CBC.ca. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
- ^ Kaplan, David (2024-09-16). "Arlington resident uses fake bricks to call for safer crosswalks". FOX 5 DC. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
- ^ "Can Waving Orange Flags Really Make Pedestrians Safer?". Bloomberg.com. 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ Lofton, Shelby (8 June 2023). "Pedestrian crossing flags 'disappearing at alarming rate'". KSL-TV.
- ^ Skahill, Patrick (2014-06-18). "City of Bridgeport Pilots New "Crosswalk Flag" Program". Connecticut Public. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- ^ "Pedestrian Flag Pilot Program | City of Hastings, MN". www.hastingsmn.gov. Retrieved 2023-10-22.