Transport: Traffic Zebras

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Organized sports have given us the image of black and white striped uniforms being used for referees, people enforcing rules. The image is so strong that in a famous Budweiser commercial aired during the 2003 Super Bowl, a black and white striped zebra ruled on a game being played by the brand's Clydesdale horses.

The advertising agency that came up with that ad may not have been drinking the product they were advertising. It turns out that the idea of zebras as rule enforcers dates from at least as early as 2001 in Bolivia. As reported by Independent Television News and the Christian Science Monitor, the city of La Paz, Bolivia has been using "Traffic Zebras" to help make its streets safer for more than eight years.

The program was started by the La Paz Foundation for Youth with Social Problems, who wanted to give troubled youths a chance to turn their lives around. They were given zebra suits and told to help people cross the street, and with time the respect they are given by drivers has apparently increased. It probably doesn't hurt that they pull antics like laying--as if dead--on the hoods of automobiles that violate traffic laws, nor does it hurt that they have authority to cite offenders. In fact, the Monitor even reported that the normal police are concerned that the zebras may be encroaching on their normal police duties.

I honestly don't know how "Traffic Zebras" would be received in automobile-dominated North America. This is the continent where Boston's well-publicized Walk This Way campaign was about getting pedestrians to obey traffic laws, not vehicles. (And, of course, as best I could tell the last time I visited Boston, it didn't work.) Somehow, I doubt Mayor Mumbles (er, Menino) will give it a try, nor will any other mayor in the United States or Canada.