Direct traffic movement or warn of hazards, using signs, flags, lanterns, and hand signals.

“Direct traffic movement or warn of hazards, using signs, flags, lanterns, and hand signals.” is a core task performed by Crossing Guards and Flaggers. Among the occupation's 12 rated tasks, workers place it 8th by importance (#5 most important). About 69% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Direct vehicle traffic. in Handling and Moving Objects
• Notify others of emergencies or problems. in Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Direct or escort pedestrians across streets, stopping traffic, as necessary. · importance 4.8
• Guide or control vehicular or pedestrian traffic at such places as street and railroad crossings and construction sites. · importance 4.7
• Monitor traffic flow to locate safe gaps through which pedestrians can cross streets. · importance 4.7
• Communicate traffic and crossing rules and other information to students and adults. · importance 4.5
• Distribute traffic control signs and markers at designated points. · importance 4.3
• Report unsafe behavior of children to school officials. · importance 4.3
• Stop speeding vehicles to warn drivers of traffic laws. · importance 4.2
• Learn the location and purpose of street traffic signs within assigned patrol areas. · importance 4.1
• Record license numbers of vehicles disregarding traffic signals, and report infractions to appropriate authorities. · importance 4.0
• Discuss traffic routing plans and control-point locations with superiors. · importance 3.8
• Inform drivers of detour routes through construction sites. · importance 3.5

See all tasks on the Crossing Guards and Flaggers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-11122,
  title  = {Direct traffic movement or warn of hazards, using signs, flags, lanterns, and hand signals.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-11122}
}