Pedestrian Flags

Another cool thing that I noticed in Japan are these little yellow flags that are stored near busy road crossings. They are called pedestrian flags and they are used by children that are crossing the street alone.

Living in America, children are taught to never cross the street alone, but in today's world with both parents working, sometimes that is a little unrealistic.

How does it work? Well, the plastic yellow flags are usually collected in a metal bin that is attached to a telephone pole at the location of busy crossing areas. The child grabs one of the flags and holds it up while watching the traffic. Motorists are educated to come to a stop when they see a yellow flag being held up (plus, it should just be common courtesy to do so) and allow the pedestrian to cross the street. After the child reaches the other side, there is an identical metal bin for him or her to place the flag in.

Now I have never seen anything like this in the Tri-State area, but researching online I have found that some cities in the US are equipping their busy intersection in the same way. I am not sure why all cities don't do the same. Looking at the numbers, it cost around $200.00 to outfit an intersection with pedestrian flags, whereas to implement other ways for safe crossing (like crossing signals) can cost upwards to $326,000.00, but seeing as how all that money is probably going to a construction company with government affiliations, you have your answer.

I asked my wife what the Japanese writing on the flags say and she told me "pedestrian crossing" which, to me, was kind of anti-climatic. You know if these things made it to New Jersey, bad kids would be scrawling horrible messages on these innocent yellow flags.

Imagine driving up to a crosswalk and seeing a little boy happily holding up a pedestrian flag that says "you suck."