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A crossing guard (United States and Canada), a school crossing patrol officer (United Kingdom), school crossing supervisor and sometimes guard (Australia) or school road patrol and guard (New Zealand) is a traffic management volunteer who is normally stationed on busy roadways to aid pedestrians. Often associated with elementary school children, crossing guards temporarily stop the flow of traffic so pedestrians may cross an intersection. Crossing guards are known by a variety of names, the most widely used in the United Kingdom and Australia being "lollipop lady/man", a reference to the large signs used that resemble lollipops. ==Australia and the United Kingdom== In Australia and the United Kingdom, a school crossing supervisor or school crossing patrol officer is commonly known as a lollipop man or lollipop lady, because of the modified circular stop sign he or she carries, which resembles a large lollipop. The term was coined in the 1960s when road safety awareness programs were rolled out in schools throughout the UK and the crossing patrols were introduced by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967.〔(Road Traffic Regulation Act 1967, sections 24–25 )〕 Ventriloquist John Bouchier visited schools nationwide with his ventriloquist dummy to help make children more aware of road safety. During these visits John's main character, a young boy named Charlie, referred to crossing patrol officers as "Lollipop men" for the first time. The term became widely used very quickly and has crossed into popular culture, both in the folk world (the common morris-dance tune "The Lollipop Man" has lewd lyrics in one tradition), and in the pop world (see the song by the band Sweet). In Australia, school crossing supervisors are employed by state government transport authorities and are posted at crossing sites by government officers. The exceptions to this rule are Victoria, where local councils employ crossing supervisors through their local laws department, and Western Australia, where supervisors are known alternatively as Police Traffic Wardens, and are employed by the traffic management unit of the WA Police. Supervisors in WA use handheld neon stop-flags instead of the traditional lollipop. Under UK law it is an offence for a motorist not to stop if signalled to do so by a patroller. In the past patrollers only had the authority to stop the traffic for children. However, the Transport Act 2000 changed the law so that a patroller had the authority to stop the traffic for any pedestrian.〔Section 270, (The Transport Act 2000 ), HMSO, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.〕 In the UK, the stop sign has the word "STOP", a strip of black, and an international symbol for children (the symbol is sometimes replaced with the written word "CHILDREN"). The black strip is used to record, with chalk, the registration numbers of motorists that do not stop.〔(Times Online | Lollicams - the latest weapon in the battle against bad drivers. ) Retrieved on 2008-05-01.〕 The patrollers are employed by local authorities, but there is a greater degree of standardisation of the system across the country than in the US. They are often older people who have retired from full-time employment. They may be based at a pelican crossing, a zebra crossing, or just an ordinary point on the road widely used as a crossing. Due to an increase in abuse, threats and other aggressive behaviour from some drivers, signs with built-in hi-tech cameras are being introduced to record offenders, cars and registrations. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Crossing guard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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