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A crosswalk-safety measure that was in the slow lane at City Hall for years has grown in popularity across many parts of the municipality.Â
Right now there are 74 crosswalks in HRM with pedestrian-safety flags. Six months ago, the flags were only available at 36 crosswalks.
Use of the flags was introduced several years ago as a result of the persistent work and lobbying done by local crosswalk-safety advocate Norm Collins. It’s a community-driven initiative that council has officially endorsed, though it stopped short of bankrolling the program which places small buckets containing hand-held orange flags at eye level on poles on each side of a crosswalk. A user pulls a flag out of the container, and, when safe to do so, walks across the street carrying the eye-catching flag, which has a reflector strip, extending it ahead. Then the item is deposited in the bucket on that side of the road.
The system isn’t the only answer to improving pedestrian safety and reducing road accidents in crosswalks, supporters say, but it’s one way of increasing the visibility of a crosswalk user when drivers are approaching. Â
Collins, a Dartmouth resident who operates a website dedicated to crosswalk safety and is a founding member of the fledgling Crosswalk Safety Society of Nova Scotia, said the flag program is financed by community supporters. The cost is $200 per location. This amount covers two flag buckets and 30 markers.
A spokesperson for the municipality says staff have been assessing crosswalk flag usage at a number of locations.
“There will be a report coming soon to regional council that outlines some of that data,” says Jennifer Stairs in an email.
“Right now, crosswalk flags can be installed at…marked crosswalks [without] a traffic-control device, such as traffic signals, stop signs or yield signs,” she says.
There are no crosswalk flag locations in the downtown core.
The evolution of the crosswalk flags in Halifax was slow and marked by roadblocks put up by city hall’s bureaucracy. They began as a pilot project in 2008 on Waverley Road, which was met with resistance from the city’s then-manager of traffic and right-of-way services.
Staff reports were usually anti-flag, as former traffic manager Ken Reashor always maintained the minuses outweighed the pluses. He more than once advised council that the utilization of the brightly coloured flags would give pedestrians in crosswalks a “false sense of security.” Reashor died in 2014 after a battle with cancer.
Collins acknowledges most pedestrians don’t use the flags when available to them, but the flags still have considerable value even when they’re not being used, “being visible [upright in their containers]…and thereby sensitizing drivers to the existence of the crosswalk.”
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This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2016.
the paper calls this a success. Other than the fact that this program is expanding, is there any evidence that more people are walking, that those walking are safer and that drivers are less likely to hit pedestrians in general? Until this is evidenced nothing about it speaks to ‘success’ unless the goal was to have buckets with flags in them.
As a program geared to promote pedestrian safety generally, I think this is a clever idea. It puts a little more control in the hands of the vulnerable party – pedestrians. However, I’m concerned that this program is being used in place of crossing guards at crosswalks near schools. Can anyone speak to this? The crosswalk on North Street near Oxford school has these flags in place but I didn’t notice a crossing guard when I passed the area on a day and time when kids were on their way to class.
I think this program is absolutely brilliant. Whether stand alone in a marked unlit crosswalk or in conjunction with crossing guards and lit crossing system, it’s another tool to help pedestrians cross ever busier and more aggressive streets. I think it’s awesome that they seem to have popped up more in the last year, especially after 2015’s winter where it was very hard to be seen at crosswalks. The statement that it gives pedestrians a “false sense of security” is idiotic, I think all people would just inherently know that the flags are to “flag cars down”, not go toe to toe somehow with a car charging crosswalks. I think at the cost (only $200 per crosswalk) it’s an absolute f—ing steal! If the entire program saves JUST ONE LIFE, or even keeps ONE PERSON out of the hospital, it has done it’s job and PAID FOR ITSELF. Any naysayers, honestly, can go stuff it, seriously, go away, especially if it’s council. All they need to do is throw in some money for this amazing community initiative and then f— right off. What would be the cost of one of these things if it was the city that was doing it? 4674.39? Some ridiculously arbitrary number? They’d get it done at the same speed as they get the traffic lines painted? I think sometimes absolute empirical evidence isn’t required when it caters directly to perfectly COMMON SENSE… I believe this program is working and you dont have to show me the stats and pies to prove it.
Now if we can just get pedestrians to take off their headphones and stop looking at cell phones and stop talking on cell phones as they walk into traffic, we’d have even more success. Flags are a great step- but attention to traffic is more important.
As a driver, this sounds great to me. I can blast down the street, barely paying any attention at all until I see one of these highly visible flags.