City Hopes For Better Pedestrian Safety With Flag System
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The City of Chicago is hoping to improve pedestrian safety at certain unprotected street crossings with brightly-colored flags that people can use to be sure cars know they are there.
As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, the flags are in what basically amount to buckets hanging from streetlight poles on either side of the street.
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Pedestrians can take one of the several orange flags from a bucket, and wave it as they make their way across the street. At that point, the flags are placed in the identical bucket on the other side of the crossing.
At 64th and Western Avenue Friday morning, there was no one attempting to cross with the flags.
One must also wonder how long the flags will last before someone walks off with them.
Last year, the city says there were more than 3,000 vehicle versus pedestrian incidents, and 32 pedestrians were killed.
