A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of traveling to Salt Lake City as a member of the pep band, while our basketball competed in the NCAA Tournament. Although the outcome of the game was undesirable, I enjoyed three beautiful days in the mountains. While away from home, I was astounded at the number of subtle, cultural differences existed between Utah and Pennsylvania.
For one thing, pedestrians carry flags when they travel through cross walks. The flags are located on poles on either side of the street, and pedestrians pick up a flag, hold it while walking, and deposit it at the receptacle at the opposite sidewalk. Obviously, these flags are in place to promote pedestrian visibility during dark hours. But not only are the pedestrians visible; they are warned. For the pavement at either end of a crosswalk encourages pedestrians to 'LOOK' for traffic!
My first thought upon noticing these visual cues was 'Wow, the Utah population is seriously concerned with pedestrian safety.' This was quickly followed by 'I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall in the City Council meeting where these ideas were brought up.' But the realization I am left with is 'This street safety wouldn't last five minutes in Oakland.'
Let's be honest here. Have you ever tried to cross Bigelow Boulevard and nearly become roadkill in the pedestrian crosswalk? Have you ever tried to drive straight through a green light, only to find a person walking casually in front of your vehicle? And furthermore, could you imagine little baskets of orange flags remaining in Oakland for more than a day without being stolen? Our urban college campus isn't full of rude, inconsiderate people. And Salt Lake City isn't limited to kindhearted, patient folks. Rather, there seems to be a general consensus of social cues that varies from city to city. How do these variations on manners come about? Every American knows that it is polite to say 'please' and 'thank you', but some cities value traffic laws while others value arriving at work in a timely manner.
This concept of social cues varying with geographical location has been touched upon time and time again over the course of the semester. Mattie, John Grady, Charles Eastman, and Junior all seem to notice different levels of social interaction as they move from place to place, but in most cases these differences were attributed to social class or race. How can the disparity in manners be explained when it pertains to cities of similar social classes, in a day in age where race is considered irrelevant?
Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer for this one. It doesn't make sense that people within the same nation come to different unspoken agreements concerning traffic laws, manners, and the like. However, after spending three days in a city where cars stopped for red lights, refrained from blocking intersections, and pedestrians waited for the walk sign to cross the street, it was a dash of reality to return to Oakland, where driver and pedestrian alike have a mindset of 'My turn!' But rather than being sad to return to a land devoid of orange pedestrian flags, it was comforting to cross the invisible border of mannerisms and return to Pittsburgh, where it's okay to arbitrarily cross the street when I'm running late for class.
This is a very interesting post! I have never heard of anything like the red flag while crossing the street! That would be awesome, although, like you said, that would never happen here in a college town. Unfortunately the flags would be stolen, but more than that, I do not think that anyone would use them. People tend to just run across the street when there are only a few seconds left and I do not think that many people are going to go out of their way just to grab the flag. One major reason that it would be good for our city is due to the bus lane. It is tragic that people get killed in the bus lane, so perhaps these flags would stop that from even happening again. But, it has to deal with how much the bus drivers actually care and pay attention as well. It is interesting to think of why different manners and such as accentuated in different parts of the world, but I think it just comes along with custom and the way of the town. Perhaps the flag custom will eventually make its way to Pittsburgh and we can truly see how it works out in the end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kylee! This is a very intriguing concept and I am curious if it has been implemented in cities other than Salt Lake. I also am in agreement that this flag idea would probably not be well-recieved in Pittsburgh. This regional difference reminds of the ways in which problem-solving and confrontation varied between Arnold's reservation and his high school. It was an extreme and shocking wake-up call to learn that at Reardan if you have an issue with someone you would not immediately engage them in a physical fight, where as on the Spokane reservation, even the smallest insult is grounds for a fist-fight. Considering all the violence and death Arnold encounters, there is good reason to believe that the Indian community needs to reevaluate their attitude towards fisticuffs.
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