The city has called for the removal of bright yellow flags intended to make pedestrians more visible as they cross busy city intersections.The flags were installed by insurance company Aviva Canada as part of its new national road safety campaign “Take Back Our Roads.”However, the company hadn’t received the OK from city officials before attaching branded buckets holding the flags to light poles at nine crosswalks.“We support Aviva Canada’s efforts in enhancing road safety in Toronto, but permission was not sought from the City of Toronto before affixing flags to city-owned poles at crosswalk intersections,” city spokesperson Brad Ross said in a statement. “Any organization that wishes to share proposals with the city to improve the liveability of residents and visitors, must do so through due process.”Read more:Toronto expects 50 photo radar cameras by DecemberFemale pedestrian killed by truck downtownVision Zero 2.0 safety plan is progress: KeenanAviva Canada will be removing the flags, said company spokesperson Catherine Brown.“There was a simple misunderstanding of communication between the city and ourselves,” she said.Aviva had selected nine intersections — all downtown or midtown and near public schools — that data identified as having “the highest frequency or severity” of road safety incidents, Brown said. The flags drew the ire of some residents, including urban planner Gil Meslin, who tweeted pictures of the flags hanging off a pole at Bathurst and Nina Sts.Meslin tweeted that Aviva’s campaign makes it the responsibility of pedestrians to carry a flag when they have the right-of-way to cross a street, “further entrenching the subordination of pedestrians to the car.”“The problem here is not pedestrian visibility. It is drivers who race through yellows and run red lights to make it down the road to the next red light 30 seconds sooner,” Mes ...
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