Taking Traffic Direction To A Whole New Level

Street Cadet in Action in Bremgarten

I have never seen a culture embrace traffic control the way the Swiss do. I have realized that one of the reasons for the cultural obsession seems to be a program to develop talent from a very young age. They seem to pick out their high performers and really coach them to future success.

One excellent success story is the traffic control man that I see when leaving my office each day. He seems to be in his 50s. He stands duty at a busy intersection just outside my office to assist people in crossing the busy streets. Such positions are not staffed by local police units like in the US, but rather seem to be 'outsourced' to the streets department.

The pride, and grossly over animated gestures of these patrons of the pavement pale in comparison to their counterparts in the US. I'm am thinking of my experiences when I used to commute to work in Chicago and there was a CPD (Chicago police department) officer on each corner. Not so much directing traffic but rather standing on an island in the middle of the street, sometimes blowing a whistle and mostly cussing at taxis and bike messengers.

So, While in a city of 8 million like Chicago a traffic cop might make sense, and Swiss 'traffic cop' in a town of 16,000 directing a few white collar workers crossing a street to get the bus station seems like a bit of an overkill to me as an American.

Regardless, there is a job to be done, unemployment here is low, and our local traffic control staff take their job very seriously. Even if they do appear at times to be dressed like over zealous school crossing guards.