another crossing safety idea

[roberta cameron]

Hi all,
I saw this while driving through Arlington today, and I was so excited - what a brilliant and simple idea. I am surprised I haven't seen it before. This is something low-tech that could be implemented very quickly by the City or private citizens, and does not interfere with the roadway. It would be easy to use anywhere where there are problems with crossing safety.

Crossing flags:  Two cans placed on sign or telephone posts on either side of the road. A collection of bright orange flags in each can. Pedestrians who wish to can borrow a flag from one can, hold it up to signal cars to stop, and carry it with them across the street and leave it in the other can.

[Isabel Sendao]

It will never work, It's too simple.... :) just kidding! I love the idea. I am sure the younger kids would get a kick out of carrying the flag across the street.

Isabel

Please excuse any typos this message was sent from an iPad.

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[chris daveta]

We could do that but I wonder how long the flags would be around. Similarly, I have visions of a bike-type LED flasher that someone would hold while walking across a street.

Ideally, and this would never happen here, is the City installs the LED blinking lights embedded into the roadway so that the push of a button activates the blinkers across the whole road. Logan airport employs this tech.

An early version of the embedded traffic calming was attempted at the Johnnies at Broadway and Alewife in Somerville about ten years ago, before LEDs became widespread. Each light cost about $80 and there were many of them and they didn't last all that long. However, that has all changed with LED technology.

[Alexa Mase]

Like the lights in the road at Clippership Drive? Those don't look inexpensive.

--
Alexa