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It is possible that pedestrians in Somerville may be waving colorful flags while traversing crosswalks in hopes of making it to the other side without mishap.
By Jim Clark
While many crosswalks in the city of Somerville may be regulated by traffic signals, a good many others are not. And even when obeying the respective reds, yellows and greens, there can be instances when pedestrians fall victim to oncoming vehicular traffic due to poor visibility or inattentive drivers.
Several cities and townships across the U.S. have adopted the use of “pedestrian crossing flags” to help increase the visibility of those who cross streets properly and legally.
Such a program was brought up at the latest regular meeting of the Somerville Board of Aldermen as an order was put forward asking for the Director of SPCD to report to the Board on the possibility of installing containers of the small flags at key pedestrian crossings to aid in pedestrian safety.
Co-sponsor of the order, Ward 6 Alderman Lance Davis suggested that containers of small flags at both sides of key pedestrian crossings could help pedestrians cross the street. Pedestrians could use a flag to gain the attention of motorists.
“Some folks may have seen these up in Arlington on Mass Ave., the new sort of traffic patterns they have up there. They’ve just got little cans attached to the poles, and the little orange flags,” Davis explained. “So when you’re trying to cross the street you have a better way to get driver’s attention.”
Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang is advocating for the city to look into taking up a program similar to Arlington’s use of pedestrian crossing flags.
Davis said he didn’t know if they work or not, or if the flags disappear every Friday and Saturday night, but he felt that is is an intriguing idea that should be explored further.
Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang asked for the order to be referred to the Traffic and Parking Committee, and told the Board that he thought the program is a great idea.
“One of the most shocking statistics that I’ve heard as an alderman was in the ResiStat meetings last spring,” said Niedergang. “One of the data points that they put up was that 48 percent of pedestrians who were hit in Somerville by automobiles are hit in the crosswalks. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that. It’s a very disturbing number, and I think shows that anything that makes pedestrians more visible to drivers is a good thing. Especially short people, children, etc. So I’m very interested in pursuing this.”
The order was subsequently approved and referred to the Traffic and Parking Committee for further review and recommendations.
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Expecting people to carry flags so they can cross without getting killed only increases the sense that being on foot is somehow weird or embarrassing.
Alderman Ewen-Campen’s tests with slowing traffic via flex posts are far more interesting and relevant – speed and road design are the problem here. An orange flag isn’t going to do a thing against the large fraction of inattentive drivers on our roads.
It might work, but why don’t they simply consider putting up those gates like they do at railroad track crossings? That way someone can just push a button, the levers go down until they cross, and then go back up again. That way cars (and hopefully bikes) would have to stop to allow people to cross the street.
Second choice would be speed bumps near crosswalks to force cars and bikes to slow down.
Of course, I’m sure flags are a lot cheaper. But the city shouldn’t put a price on public safety.
This won’t help. Drivers are in a hurry and too busy texting. I almost got wrecked in a crosswalk in Union Square one day and I was wearing an orange shirt. Naturally the driver blamed me.
Sounds goofy to me. I walk all over town & while people not stopping for me in a crosswalk pisses me off and happens more than I like (leading me to yell or use my middle finger) it’s realistically just not such an inconvenience that I’m going to reach for a flag and wave it around like a lunatic the whole time I’m crossing a street…I’m just going to wait for the next car to stop, or the next.
Side comment (and likely to piss a few people off): most of those 48% of pedestrians happened because there was both a careless driver and an idiot pedestrian. You never ever ever ever step in front of a moving or turning car unless you see it stopped or stopping, or you’re nimble & have a really good exit strategy. If you see a new car approaching after starting out, you stop & wait for things to play out before continuing. It’s just walking 101, and I see a lot of pedestrians who don’t seem to have taken that class these days. Being in the right is cold comfort when you’re dead. The only people I wouldn’t include in my generalization are the elderly / disabled / anyone else who has to cross really slowly.
Problem is the aggressive driving here which has gotten much worse. And will increase as more and more construction makes people have to detour more which results in them cutting around driving even faster. Never mind how busy they are on the phone. My street is a cut through and they speed right through the stop signs trying to get around the traffic. And pedestrians waiting to cross are totally ignored a good portion of the time. I actually hate to stop to let someone cross the street as so many times the driver behind me cuts around me almost killing the pedestrian. The flags? Who knows.
How about the old saying “look both ways before you cross the street.”? My mother taught me that at 5 and that’s all I need to know. I see kids (and adults) walking to school with their heads buried deep in their phones w/earbuds and they just step onto crossing walks just assuming all cars will stop. If people looked up once in a while, I can bet that 48% would drop without having to install flags.
How many people are being paid by our tax dollars to come up with these nonsensical ideas?
So when this happens :https://www.eastidahonews.com/2017/11/car-hits-11-year-old-crossing-street-shelley/
What then?