Our local school is right across the street from a busy arterial and we lost our only crossing guard a few years ago (he retired, as a retiree already, and no one wanted the min wage job). I still let him cross alone because he is 9 now (8 when he started walking alone) and there are lots of kids and adults around when school starts and ends, and we aren’t known for lots of SUVs (although delivery and work trucks aren’t uncommon). It still puts me on nerve a bit.
It’s too bad the district no longer lets middle school or high school students do crossing guard jobs anymore.
Would not make more sense to install a traffic light with a button, press button, goes red for cars, kids cross. They could also have the button deactivated at school hours and work with a time counter.
It's important to have good sound engineering along with the lights.
* https://old.reddit.com/r/bluey/comments/1qc7iz1/listen_close...
* https://www.youtube.com/shorts/smSqEI3aG38
They have cross walks that have lights when pressed, but not traffic lights, just the warning orange ones.