Crossing guards at intersections

[umop]

What's the point of having a crossing guard at an intersection with functioning lights and pedestrian signals?

I usually see one at an intersection near my place and I've seen a few others around the city.

I've even seen them walk out onto the street and hold up their sign when no one's crossing, which can (and sometimes does) prevent cars from making left and right turns.

[Whitedart]

What's the point of having a crossing guard at an intersection with functioning lights and pedestrian signals?

Does it really need to be explained?

1) Miller likes to waste your tax dollars on crossing guards.

2) All drivers pay attention to all rules of the road, and yield the right of way to children that need to cross busy intersections.

/sarcasm

[Lulz]

They are only there for 1 thing.
To add additional layer of protection to keep kids safe.
You wouldn't belive how many people drive their cars, and then start thinking about something, and totally ignore red light and drive right through (assuming of course the road that driver is crossing doesn't have any cars and is empty).

Crossing Guard acts as a second traffic light because you don't want to take chances when it comes to safety of children. It's much harder to go past red light when there is Crossing Guard with STOP sign on the road as it's near impossible not to see him, while it is possible to not notice a red light

[cheapmeister]

Difficult to cross 4 lane roads that have trucks etc. Hard for drivers to see kids cause they are short and snow banks are tall.

[_Allan_]

I've been a crossing guard, and I can tell you, crossing guards are there for an extra layer of protection.

I've seen Cab Drivers go around the corner, when kids are still there. I've seen a City of London sewage truck ATTEMPT to pass me, but I stepped in front of the drive, turned my back, and made sure the 20 kids were accross the road.

There were times, when there were guards on each corner of specific corners to give drivers a reminder - DO NOT TURN RIGHT WHEN CHILDREN ARE AROUND. If a guard is there, and you go by him, that is the exact same as going through a red light or stop sign, and is punishable by a $150 fine.

[gman]

Because many drivers these day do not stop on red or stop sign anymore.

[Hunter316]

Drivers often don't pay attention to sidewalks when they are in a hurry or otherwise distracted. I was hit by a car on a crosswalk when I was younger and suffered a knee injury which I luckily recovered from. The drivers excuse was that he did not see me.

[Magoo]

Crossing guards are great! They protect the kids from the idiot drivers who don't pay attention. On the flip side, I see a lot of lazy crossing guards who just flip up the STOP sign and don't even bother to walk out onto the road... quite annoying.

There is this one lady outside my home... she will walk onto the big road and flip the STOP sign... but on the small side of the road she just sticks up the sign and thinks she's doing a great job.... that I don't understand.

[Meleras]

Some smaller children don't walk as fast and can't make it across before the signal changes.

[HBP]

Right turns. On both green and red.



As a side note, right turns should be illegal on red lights in the downtown core. Like Montreal. Man, I've seen so many pedestrians almost get smoked by some douche driver who wanted to get to his location 15secs eariler.

[Rishi]

As a side note, right turns should be illegal on red lights in the downtown core. Like Montreal. Man, I've seen so many pedestrians almost get smoked by some douche driver who wanted to get to his location 15secs eariler.
Some drivers are just stupid. I almost get run over by an idiot driver trying to turn left from McCaul onto College on a daily basis.

[Magoo]

Many drivers forget that pedetrians have the right of way... I am a driver myself and I make sure I give pedestrians plenty of space.