Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Dozzi92 t1_j8re9yr wrote

Yeah, I'm not suggesting I agree with the whole practice. Personally, I think some dude who's new to construction is perfectly capable of standing and holding a flag or something for about $100 less an hour than a cop. But I also imagine that there is some benefit to having a cop doing it versus just some kid with a flag.

2

RafeDangerous t1_j8rj95x wrote

There are legal restrictions on who can direct traffic, so standing there with a flag at a roadblock might be okay but that person can't actually direct anyone to do anything unless they've been certified for it. Also, people are assholes. If they think there's no consequences for just ignoring your roadblock, they will - I've manned roadblocks during storms and had people call me an asshole, drive around me, and go straight into 5' deep flood water. Same type of roadblock with a cop at the end of it doesn't usually see problems like that. If I had a construction site going that I really really didn't want people driving into, I'd prefer to have a cop doing traffic control over a flag-man any day.

6

Dozzi92 t1_j8rk813 wrote

Yeah, agree with everything you said. The law, that can be changed, and it was like, what a decade or two ago? But at the end of the day, folks are definitely less inclined to tell a cop to fuck off.

4

STMIHA t1_j8rtfnz wrote

A cop doesn’t hold a flag. The low man on the construction totem pole does. Cops are present to prevent a pedestrian or motorist from interacting with said work/ in case something does happen. Sometimes it seems a bit much but that’s just how things are.

3