Pedestrian Safety Flags to Be Replaced

Remember the pedestrian flags this city put in bins at four busy intersections, in hopes that walkers would wave them as a safety precaution? All 3,000 have walked off, so the city is ordering replacements.

The new ones will cost $1.25 each--that’s $3,750 to replace the stolen ones.

Peter Hillier, Berkeley’s assistant city manager of transportation, said there are no plans to cancel the program--but it will be studied before any expansion.

“We’re doing before-and-after studies of the effectiveness of the flag program,” Hillier said. “We really need to know the impact of the flags.”

Berkeley implemented the plan in December.

Pedestrians were supposed to pick up one of the bright flags, hold or wave it while crossing the street, and then put it back in the bin when reaching the other side.