Everything was done and dusted, except for the female figures on the traffic lights…

Voices

 

The Minister of Transport, Alexis Vafeadis, and the Commissioner for Equality, Josie Christodoulou, proudly announced on TV the installation of female figures on pedestrian traffic lights. Six crossings in all cities will get the new icons, a small change with a big message, they say, one that supposedly reinforces equality and tells people of all ages that women belong in public spaces.

Fine. Stamatis (STOP figure) puts on a skirt and becomes Stamatina, Grigoris (FAST figure) becomes Grigoria. Great. Now what? Have the real problems facing pedestrians, especially people with mobility challenges, been addressed? The ones that concern road safety? The non-negotiable value that Cyprus seems to ignore. In the past six years, 49 pedestrians have been killed on our streets.

Walking on a sidewalk, if it exists, to reach a crossing is often like an obstacle course: cars, motorcycles, broken pavement, trash, trees, animal droppings, you name it. And yet, authorities are more concerned about symbolic figures than basic safety.

The time pedestrians are given at most traffic lights is another joke. On Nicosia’s main artery at the Gavriilidi lights, pedestrians get less than ten seconds to cross three lanes. That is barely enough for a fit young person in sneakers, let alone an elderly person, someone with a disability, a pregnant woman, a family with a small child, or a woman in heels. Is this the equality we are promoting? Are we truly breaking stereotypes when our city streets actively exclude some people from moving safely?

At most intersections, only one crossing point is light-controlled. The rest require luck or divine intervention to cross safely. With no timers on the few camera-equipped lights, the public’s outrage over these symbolic gestures went viral on social media, and rightly so.

We need meaningful change. The Minister of Transport chairs the Road Safety Council. He has the authority to make streets safe for everyone, not just to put women on traffic lights. True equality means sustainable cities where everyone can move freely and safely, not just symbolic nods to gender.

If we really want to promote gender equality, there are countless areas in public and private life where real progress can and should be made. But for now, let us focus on the basics: sidewalks that are passable, crossings that are safe, and a road system that treats all pedestrians as equal. Only then will symbolic gestures mean anything at all.