Want to cross a street in North Providence? Just frantically wave a flag!

To ease concerns about pedestrian safety, North Providence city officials have added flags to a few street crossing points, which residents can now wave when they venture across. This has seemingly been in response to a growing concern for the lack of safety for non-car users, exemplified by the new school bus changes, which would require more students to walk. However, while it may already be obvious, this is another one of the many scenarios where these same city officials are demonstrating their lack of care and unfamiliarity with their own communities. Needless to say, it’s another way to pat themselves on the back without having actually done anything.

In direct response to the new crossing flags, the mayor, Charles Lombardi, stated he used the flags himself. Case closed: that makes them effective and fixes the crisis around the climbing pedestrian mortality rate problem, right? Of course not. In reality, these flags are not only degrading, they put the full onus on the victims in the situation: pedestrians. What would happen if you didn’t have a flag, crossed the street, and were hit? Perhaps you did grab one, would it be your fault for not waving it?

“The purpose of a crossing flag is not actually to make it safer to cross the road, it’s to make it your fault if you’re hit by a car while not waving a flag in front of you like an imbecile!”

Not Just Bikes

Observing the popular pedestrian condemning discourse that goes on already when someone is killed or injured by a vehicle, these questions and notions are not out of the realm of possibility.

But let’s look at it from a common sense perspective. If cars are already ignoring stop lights, speed limits, and crosswalks, what is yet another indicator going to do? More importantly, what and who is responsible for routinely maiming everyday people simply trying to cross a street? I’ll leave those answers for the reader to quickly deduce. So, for now, let’s fix the real issue, and for crying out loud, stop with the victim blaming already. The fact that this is even news shows how little care is given to pedestrians.