By Natalie Musick, RCPC Board
All too often, cars zoom past on Claremont Avenue, perhaps seeing the five-signal crossing with College Avenue as a dare to speed up rather than a caution to slow down. After the tragic death of a pedestrian in the 6000 block of Claremont near College in February of this year, however, there have been plenty of community calls for increased traffic safety.
One of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to start is to use the orange, high-visibility pedestrian flags. Starting November 21, those flags — courtesy of RCPC — will be placed at busy intersections around Rockridge, with more to come.
“We hope this project will encourage more people to join in on more ambitious projects in the future, and help us make our streets safer, for everyone,” said Robbie Tasker, RCPC board member and head of its mobility committee.
Pedestrian flags, while not officially considered a form of traffic control by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, (which states they are more “similar to the concept of placing retroreflective material on clothing”) have been implemented in other parts of California.
Hirsch Elementary in Fremont, California, sponsored the installation of pedestrian flags at school crossings in 2022, and Sequoia Elementary in Oakland followed suit a year later. Much earlier, in 2014, Bridgeport (also in California) started a pilot program to install flags at three key intersections crossing a busy state route that splits the small but mighty town in two.
Research and public opinion are divided on whether flags work. A 2006 report by the Transit Research Board found that flags were about 75% effective at getting cars to stop on posted low-speed roads.
Other cities, however, showed less-than-ideal results. A pedestrian safety program started in 2001 in Berkeley had a great deal of public support, but shut down after three short years due to claims of high levels of flag theft (over 8,000 misplaced), low use (just 2% of street-crossers), and the incident of a flag-waving pedestrian getting hit only a week after program kick-off. A plaque commemorating the long-gone pilot can still be found at Claremont Boulevard and Russell Street.
Still, when I visited Bridgeport over Labor Day weekend on my way to the Sierra, I was pleased to see their flags were not only present but actively in use. In a 15-minute span, as I sipped coffee and aimlessly people-watched one morning, I saw no fewer than three separate people using the flags to cross the road. The flags program in Bridgeport is going strong after 12 years. Who knows? Maybe Rockridge will follow Bridgeport’s example, and that flags will come to be a permanent, proven, well-used resource with time.
