"Joint responsibility" my butt. When was the last time a pedestrian struck a car and killed the occupants? When was the last time someone was "walked over" by a person? The one with the vastly superior lethality has the greater responsibility.

The stupidest thing in the world. A big orange admission that our streets aren't safe for pedestrians and that we refuse to make them so. Until we recognize this, keeping the cars moving will always be more important than the safety of people on foot.

Actually this does work. I live in Dartmouth, NS and some of the community got together and put flags at the intersections. You can see those flags way before you get near the intersection. A big problem here is that the city replaced the street lights with energy efficient ones and we have had over 200 crosswalk accidents since January. The community just put those flags in place about 2 weeks ago and I think they are awesome. It makes not only the pedestrians aware, but also the drivers.

Flags are like band-aids, if band-aids were laced with a mild poison. Sure, it'll stop the immediate bleeding, but it won't address why the cut formed in the first place, and it'll make the lasting infection worse.

Streets are dangerous for pedestrians because we have decided to prioritize cars instead. Telling people to carry flags to walk sends the message the walking is abnormal, which discourages people from walking at all, which means more of them drive instead, which pushes our streets to become even more car-oriented and thus dangerous to pedestrians.

This is a terrible and counterproductive idea. It solves an immediate problem at the cost of making the actual long term problem worse.

If the flags save one life or serious injury - then it's worth it.

No. Because they'll be responsible for indirectly killing more people than they save, by virtue of their role in increasing car-dependence.

so what is your solution?

Street design that priorizes pedestrians instead of cars. Rather than designing streets primarily around cars and merely accommodating peds, do it the other way around.

Yes, that would mean everyone would have to drive slower. It would also mean a lot more people would walk for a lot more trips.

That's ok for places like Calgary that continue to have an urban sprawl; however, in the city areas of Halifax - it cannot work. In my city, Dartmouth, we have 26 lakes within the city limits. Homes have long been built and the streets were put in during the horse and wagon time. This is one of the oldest cities in Canada and there just is not the space to change the current infrastructure. However, in places like Calgary that are building out -- I would agree that planning should be focused adequately for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

They might as well be white flags of surrender that we've given up even trying to get people to drive safely. Words cannot express what a terrible idea this is.

better than flags would be police enforcement blitzes with fines and loss of points.

If drivers paid more attention, if pedestrians made sure cars were stopped before stepping out into the street... well, if wishes were horses then beggars could ride. I'm all in favour of improving safety, but this seems kind of weird. Reminds me of elementary school, when we stuck our arm out straight in front to indicate we wanted to cross. Maybe we should save the expense of flags and just go back to sticking our arms out!

Really? I think someone needs to be fired for this loonie tune idea. Here's an idea stick a camera at cross walks and anyone whose license plate they catch violating traffic law looses their license for a year. However if they did that drivers would scream that it violates their privacy. Not like the camera would be in their bedroom and taking pictures of them shagging their girlfriend unless they consider their car their bedroom and if that is the case then they need to rethink their life choices...

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.

What if more people cross the street one way and all the flags end up on the same side?

"When I get older I will be stronger. They'll call me 'Freedom' just like a wavin' flag."

People need to teach their kids to make eye contact with the driver before they cross the street. And adults need to start making eye contact. If a car doesn't see you, then its a pain in the butt to stand there and wait, but at least if you wait until a driver sees you and you KNOW they saw you since you made eye contact, then you wont get hit. Now a days people just walk out in the middle of the street and expect a car to stop all of a sudden. Unfortunately its a car, a very heavy moving object that can't stop at the drop of a hat...and when its a pedestrian vs. a vehicle, the pedestrian has to be the defensive one - because they are the ones who will get hurt.

I'd suggest looking to Victoria, BC for inspiration. I'm not sure if this is the case in the entire province or just the city, but at all the crosswalks, cars could proceed unless there were pedestrians waiting to cross. It worked really well - even where cars crossed a bridge into the city at a pretty high speed (40 or 50km I'd estimate). Bulb-outs (basically, sidewalks extending to where the parked cars are) made pedestrians visible so cars could stop to let them cross. No flashing lights, no flags. Simple and effective.

Flags don't really address the problem: that the road design is flawed.

Flags? I just wave $100 bills in the air and traffic comes to a deadening stop.

The first word that came to mind was politically incorrect. I'll just call it dumb. I'm not a preschooler or a construction worker. It's just a bandaid solution for the fact that the city is too cheap to put up lights where they are needed. Yet they are blowing millions of dollars on a film studio.

As if they won't get stolen on people's drunken nights out. Sober nights, even. They will probably all get stolen.

I carry a bike light and to illuminate myself when crossing roads at night but it never seems to work. Pointing on the ground, on my body, in a plastic bag like a lantern, nothing works. Solid or flashing, I'm often just inches away from a car when crossing legally.

This will not help, if a driver does not see a person how the hell is a flag going to help.
Drivers and pedestrians need to put down the cell phone and pay attention to each other.

I commute every day for work and see many drivers run red lights, stop signs, cut through the wrong way on one ways, text while at stop sign and red lights, or while driving.

Pestirians I mean pedestrians who don't wait for traffic to stop before crossing the road, run into traffic thinking cars have to stop for them, people who cannot look up from their phone for more than 2 seconds to look around.

We cannot fix stupid people, it is a tragedy when accidents happen...but is it an accident if it could have been prevented by one of the two parties looking away from their phone, opening their eyes, being aware of the surrounds, stopping rather than thinking "I got time to make it before they are in my lane".

I avoid crosswalks in Halifax unless there is a set of traffic lights above it, the button that has flashing lights above it at a gamble at best if people will stop.

Not a bad idea, but they should change the design. Make it bigger, and write "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME I HAVE CHILDREN" on it.

It makes little sense. I am sure the idea is suggested and shared by those who use vehicles, not by pedestrians.There is a power at play here where more responsibility is placed on pedestrians. I can compare this to the thinking where we keep dolling out tips for women to be safe on the streets.

So what happens when the bucket of flags on one side of the street is empty because they are all over in the other bucket on the other side of the road? Who monitors the 'flag ratio' between buckets to make sure that there is always a flag available for a
pedestrian to use? Let me guess…we going to spend more tax paying dollars to
create a new job to be the "Flag Bucket Ratio Supervisor".

Additionally I can almost guarantee with certainty that the flags WILL be stolen on a REGULAR basis- and that more money will be funneled into this stupid flag fund to maintain the ridiculous idea. What’s next?! Pedestrians having to wear reflective safety vests and a helmet with a flashing siren light on the top to cross the street?

The problem is the SMART phone. Drivers as well as pedestrians permits themselves to be distracted, as if it was an entitlement

It's better than what they have now. It's insane how many people I
almost run over at a cross walk behind our office in Calgary because the
crosswalk isn't marked and barely visible since it's on a bend in the road.
Doesn't help people can't park properly and pedestrians just walk out into
traffic without looking. If they had a flag or some sort of sign it
would be a big help and I bet there are plenty of crosswalks like it.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I was taught to look both ways before crossing the street in kindergarten... and "unbelievably!" I'm still alive today. Are we just looking for ways to foolishly spend money at this point?

Just go ahead of any positive ideas, and let stats tell the pros and cons afterwards, which is better than baby wailing.

Sounds like Roland Stanley's 'Slugging'.

The majority here seem to think the flags are a bad idea and this despite having heard from some in places that have tried the crossing flags with good success. I think the concern really is; "how would I look crossing the road with a flag in my hand?" instead of admitting that using them would indeed be a safer way to cross a busy street. I do see the humour of a person holding a flag which has an image of a person holding a flag though...

Yes, because the big yellow flashing light at (some) cross walks now are clearly not enough to get drivers attention to stop. Neither are stop signs and red lights in a lot of cases. I shouldn't have to wave a flag to get someone to stop, drivers should be more aware of their surroundings and police should do more to fine people that do not stop for pedestrians (when the pedestrian has the right of way).

NOW WHAT WILL THIS COST TAX PAYERS???

Cool beans!

This would be helpful sure. But why not make the pedestrian walkway more visible? By using bright colours and a big PEDESTRIAN written on the road? I have seen in small towns that are off main highways with "SCHOOL SLOW" or something along those lines. Same goes for playgrounds. a big PLAYGROUND ZONE painted on the road as you enter it would be MUCH better than extending the times to well into the dark. Let's make these things more visible and actually do things that will effectively save lives. Not just extending the times for these zones, which imo is only going to increase revenue for the police. Lets do something that will work.

Anything written on the road is useless when it snows and the ice is not plowed for months. These flags don't appear to be florescent an probably will not catch the eye of distracted drivers. Maybe pedestrians should carry strong flashlights to make sure they can make eye-contact with the drivers

If this were true then all the lines on the road would be useless as well. Yet for some reason they paint them on the roads.

Feet 1st Calgary https://www.facebook.com/pa...

Besides I think most people that get hit want to get hit. Just look both ways I was told that when I was a kid.

Andy, Next time take the plane to work instead of your car, if your in that much of a hurry.

SMART phone / DUMB people