Various Traffic Women quotes and excerpts

1. The China Car Times
   The Traffic Girls of Pyongyang
   Published by Ash February 16th, 2008 in North Korea.
   We like Chinese cars, but sometimes we have to have a nosey glare into the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea - thats North Korea to you. It seems the North Koreans dont do ‘traffic lights’ like the rest of the world, and seem to enjoy the employment of well dressed young girls in crisp uniforms to guide traffic in place of said traffic lights. You can see a video of them on the Gadling site
   www.gadling.com/media/2007/12/5-girl-2_thumbnail.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
   The ‘traffic lights’ uniform is actually pretty similar to the one worn by Chinese train conductors on the old style of trains (not the new bullet trains). Its a shame that China doesn’t have pretty police girls out giving instructions, instead we have male policemen that like to curse and abuse those who do not follow their commands.
   http://www.chinacartimes.com/2008/02/16/the-traffic-girls-of-pyongyang]source
   
   
   
2. The Washington Post
   What the capital does have -- at least when the New York Philharmonic is in town -- is female traffic cops. They were all gorgeous -- and they were all gorgeous in exactly the same way.
   They wore powder-blue uniforms with fur-lined hats. With bright red lipstick and dramatic eyebrows, they looked as if they had been made up for the stage. They directed the city's sparse traffic with robotic arm movements. They looked fit and happy and often smiled at the traffic.
   "They are the faces of the road, and they are chosen for their beauty and their height," a minder explained. "They cheer us up and clarify our minds."
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022803954_pf.html
   
   
   
3. BBC News
   Human traffic lights
   Pyongyang's streets are broad and empty, its lawns and bushes manicured, the pavements spotless. Little Korean women in turquoise uniforms pirouette like manic clockwork dolls in the middle of road junctions, their lips painted and arms popping in and out, directing traffic that so rarely comes their way. Human traffic lights.
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1311706.stm
   
   
   
4. Worldhum
   Writes Woodburn: “Dolled up in crisp, blue and white uniforms that are rumored to have been designed by Kim Jung Il himself, the immaculately coifed women work the middle of intersections throughout Pyongyang. Every Traffic Girl is beautiful, young, shapely, and sexy in a uniform-wearing sort of way….Armed with just a whistle and baton, the girls are a one-person show beautifully orchestrating the flow of traffic with patented, choreographed moves that are crisp, robotic, and out of this world.”
   http://www.worldhum.com/travel-blog/item/gadling_goes_to_north_korea_20071213/
   
   
   
5. Blogspot - Ari On The Web
   Thankfully there are some cars on the road, since it justifies the existence of the PyongyangRoboTrafficCopWomen (PRTCW, which they will now be known as in the absense of anything catchier). These women are dressed in a sobering police uniform and wear heavy white make up. PRTCW stand in a small painted circle in the middle of an intersection, and direct traffic with complete and utter humourlessness, robotically moving their arms and rotating their bodies to guide the occassional vehicle through the intersection. The PRTCW seem to be universally respected by motorists and pedestrians alike, and are some of the few women in NK with any sort of power or authority. Sadly, the days of the PRTCW may be numbered, with traffic lights already installed at some inner-city intersections, although none of the traffic lights were yet functioning. Thankfully
   
   http://www.ariontheweb.blogspot.com/2005/02/streets-of-pyongyang.html
   
   
   
6. A Year In Pyongyang
   A particular source of fascination and Pyongyang's number one tourist attraction was the traffic conductresses in their gorgeous kingfisher blue uniforms (except in summer, when they exchange their blue tunics for white). There are traffic conductors as well, but they are far outnumbered by the female of the species and are far less interesting. These invariably stunninglooking girls stand in the middle of the road at every major junction and imperiously direct the traffic rotating with stylised movements like welldrilled guardsmen and pointing with their red and white striped batons, like miniature barber's poles, that turn luminous at night. It may be that this occupation carries high prestige. It is fairly obvious that they are selected partly for their good looks and physical grace. For whatever reason, these young women seemed to have taken the great leader's dictum about adopting the attitude of masters of society more to heart than any other distinguishable group of workers. Even away from their posts, they strode the pavements of Pyongyang with all the poise and assurances of millionairesses in Knightsbridge.* (*It will be a sad day when traffic lights become the norm in Pyongyang. Already they have some in place, but as yet they cannot afford the electricity to run them.)
   http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang_1.html
   
   
   
7. Virtural Tourist
   Some junctions (intersections)in Pyongyang do have traffic lights but these didn't seem to be working when I was there. Instead, Pyongyang is full of rather attractive, young traffic ladies dressed in a blue skirt with a white uniform jacket and hat. They hold out a red and white baton that glows at night and stand in a circle in the middle of the junction. They wave the baton in the direct that the traffic wants to go in. They do almost robotic like movements with their heads to look at what traffic is approaching from each direction and then swivel themselves around to face the oncoming traffic. An Icelandic guy on my tour got quite carried away by taking pictures of them from our bus and we pointed them out to him as we passed.
   
   http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/9780e/689/4/#1912094
   
   
   
8. Time
   And every kilometer or so, there stood in the middle of the road a female traffic cop. Each wore an aqua-blue uniform and a fur-lined hat, stood ramrod straight and wielded a baton to point the way to drivers; all of them seemed tall, young and attractive — "a James Bond fantasy come to life," cracked one colleague on our bus. Whoever they were, they had one of the world's easiest jobs, because there was no traffic to direct.
   http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1717910,00.html
   
   
   
9. The Scotsman
   The traffic that skims through nearby Kim Il-Sung Square, past the enormous portraits of Marx and Lenin, comprises mainly government-issue cars, trolleybuses and bicycles. At every major crossroads, a young woman in pristine white uniform - always pretty, always stern - directs the traffic with a series of robotic arm movements. Without exception, the cars are clean: in fact, any driver returning to Pyongyang from outside the city limits must dust his vehicle down or risk punishment.
   http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=30452003
   
   
   
10. The Huffington Post
    There are very few traffic lights at intersections to regulate the few cars on the road. There are, however, a multitude of attractive female traffic directors who stand in a small circle at key intersections to do manage the traffic flow. And they do it with precision arm movements that are a delight to watch.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-rosen/letter-from-north-korea-_b_88413.html?view=screen
    
    
    
11. An American Tourist in North Korea, 2007
    Contrary to what I'd read about a bicycling ban in Pyongyang, I see many cyclists, including one being given a ticket from a female traffic cop on a motor scooter. While there isn't exactly a crush of traffic during the day, on some streets at least there are enough cars to occupy the female traffic cops stationed at intersections. We're told they work in two hour shifts during the day, and then at night the traffic lights take over.
    http://www.aboutnorthkorea.com/
    
    
    
12. KFA Forum
    A friend of mine told me that on one occasion when he was in Pyongyang filming a documentary on the DPRK he actually managed to get for himself a big smile from a traffic police girl who was on duty directing traffic at a busy intersection. I don't know how he managed to do this but he considered it quite an achievement as those young ladies are somewhat austere. I suggested that he should tuck that smile into his memory and he told me that he already done just that.
    http://www.korea-dpr.com/cgi-bin/simpleforum.cgi/simpleforum.cgi?fid=04&topic_id=1229767381
    
    
    
13. Virtural Tourist
    There are no traffic lights in North Korea, which makes sence because there is hardly any traffic and power cuts are frequent. But the most busy street corners in Pyong Yang have female traffic police to direct the few cars and buses. Their movement pattern were that of uniformed robots on a military parade but I must say that they were all very pretty, without doubt selected on their looks. One of them even gave me a smile.
    Of course we had to ask our Korean guides if we were allowed to take photographs.
    
    http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/North_Korea/Things_To_Do-North_Korea-BR-2.html
    
    
    
14. Lonely Planet
    Traffic has been increasing on the once-empty streets of this extraordinary capital. That said, little else has changed in Pyongyang (‘flat land’) over the last couple of decades. The city remains an eerie, unchanging place of wide streets, endless grey and white Soviet-style blocks, vast monuments to the party and an all-female team of fetishistically-clad traffic wardens manually directing traffic with domineering zeal.
    http://www.lonelyplanet.com/north-korea/pyongyang
    
    
15. The Daily NK
    As our bus passed through an intersection, a pretty woman traffic police officer suddenly came up gallantly. The guide said every main road has a traffic agent who directs traffic. Traffic police job is a good job which is stable and highly paid. Woman traffic police officers should be tall, pretty and single. So the competition rate is so high.
    
    http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?num=1147&cataId=nk00100
    
    
16. Timesonline
    The culture of conformity is meant to ensure the regime’s survival. The only permitted exception is Pyongyang’s female traffic police. Stern-looking women in short blue skirts, swinging white batons and blowing whistles, they direct cars. Their schoolmistress sex appeal is probably lost on a people bullied for decades.
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1159732.ece?token=null&offset=12
    
    
17. virtural tourist
    Particularly in the city center of P'yongyang you will pass Police Women in the intersections directing traffic. In the outer cities, the traffic control becomes a bit more equal between men and women. But P'yongyang has the vast majority being women.
    
    As with most of the country, electricity is a premium. Street lights and traffic signals are no exception. That and the fact that posting someone in each intersection is a way to keep everyone employed adds to the unique sight of Police Women in their circle.
    
    These traffic officers stand on the little metallic square, in the center of white painted circle, which is likewise in the center of the intersection. If there is any traffic, they must yield to their instructions or be served a violation.
    
    The women's movements are rigid, sharp, exact... military. They stand, rotate about-face, snap their arms and their baton in militaristic marching fashion. It is a constant ballet for their entire working shift, regardless of the number of vehicles that pass.
    http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/North_Korea/Local_Customs-North_Korea-BR-1.html
    
    
18. Goodmagazine
    Traffic Lights
    
    Despite having only about 300,000 cars, North Korea takes traffic control seriously. It is unique in having four-color traffic lights (the fourth-—for turning right—is blue) and in Pyongyang, a corps of female traffic directors—reportedly hand-picked by Kim Jong Il for their beauty—step in during the power outages.
    http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Guide/ggtnk_daily_life
    
    
19. KFA forum
    "Changing Shift:
    PTG (Pyongyang Traffic Girl) shift change over is a riveting event mainly for the clockwork precision with which it is carried out.
    It commences with the relieving PTG briskly marching with arms swinging DPRK military style directly towards her colleague who waits within the white positioning circle. A face to face collision is avoided at the very last second because as the relieving PTG steps into the circle the other girl takes one smartly executed step to the left. Both girls now stand side by side within the circle but facing in opposite directions. They are at rigid attention with the girl to be relieved holding the red and white striped wand vertically downwards in her right hand. Her colleague closes her right hand fingers around the wand and takes possession of it. Immediately this happens the relieved girl steps smartly out of the circle and marches military style across the road to the safety of the sidewalk. The new girl does two separate 180 degree turns to assess the traffic and then raises the wand full stretch above her head to signify she is now in command. It's a scintillating sparkling performance.
    http://korea-dpr.com/cgi-bin/simpleforum.cgi?fid=04&topic_id=1234260238
    
    
20. Corbis
    North Korea - Traffic Policewoman
    
    A traffic policewoman controls traffic as she stands in the middle of a white circle on a street in the capital of Pyongyang. In place of traffic lights, people regulate traffic in the Korean capital, with an overall of 6 shifts a day changing every two hours.
    http://pro.corbis.com/popup/Enlargement.aspx?mediauids=1f758a72-3a53-4eb1-a994-aad9164e0e06
    
    
    
    

They're becoming very popular, it seems.

LOL - "They are the faces of the road, and they are chosen for their beauty and their height," a minder explained. "They cheer us up and clarify our minds."

my mind is clarified

A few more excerpts

1. blogspot - mkohlmeier
   When I noticed the coast was completely clear, not a single car in sight, I ventured out into the street to take a photo. The traffic control woman immediately noticed me and blew her whistle, gesturing for me to get back. When we made eye contact a moment later, as a good will gesture, I gave her a "Hi. How are you?" kind of wave, but she didn't return it.
   There seemed to be a small circle painted in the middle of every intersection. This is where the traffic control women stand during the "busy" times of the day, orchestrating traffic in strict robotic movements. At the slow times (and I really mean slow) they stand off to the side of the street, blowing their whistles at the occasional American that steps out. They're all very lovely, with their faces painted almost white. I did not see a single working traffic signal in North Korea.
   
   http://mkohlmeier.blogspot.com/2005/10/north-korea-day-2-sunday-morning.html
   
   
2. blogspot - yisunshin
   Back outside, we beg and plead until the guide acquiesces – he lets us run down to the end of the block to shoot pictures of the traffic lady! Suddenly a dozen westerners start running full speed down the sidewalk, cameras swinging around our necks. The North Korean pedestrians look shocked and confused as we run by. What thoughts go through their heads?!
   And we start shooting picture after picture of the blue-skirted traffic lady, pirouetting robotically in the middle of the road, waving her baton at the few passing cars. The rhythmic motions, crisp in the starched blue uniform, hold our attention.
   
   A brief addendum – always have at least two cameras, extra film, and extra batteries. I lost a section of the trip at one point when my digital ran out of batteries.... I lost another part when the photo lab lost a roll of film from the manual camera.... both led to missed moments, memories and opportunities. All my close-ups of the traffic lady disappeared into the photo-processing black hole...
   http://yisunshin.blogspot.com/2006/01/simple-pleasures.html
   
   
3. The Daily Nightly
   The traffic lights do not work as a result and every intersection is controlled by a woman traffic controller. As a side note we actually got one of them to smile. I can't say which intersection it was as she'll probably wind up in a re-education camp.
   http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/02/26/701858.aspx?p=1
   
   
4. CNN.com
   In Pyongyang, 20-something traffic girls direct the non-existent traffic, robot-like in their white uniforms, black hair pulled back in identical World War II-style chignons. They remind me of little Russian girls in their starched school uniforms, organdy bows in their hair.
   http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/19/nkorea.dougherty.notebook/index.html
   
   
5. Flickr
   Here's an interesting fact about Pyongyang. They don't have traffic lights! That's why they still use people to direct the traffic. In the past guys were deployed, but they later found out that motorists don't give a damn about the policemen. Some bright spark proposed using young, pretty girls instead. According to our guide, traffic policewomen in Pyongyang are highly sought after by the eligible North Korean chaps.
   There is a blue tint to this photo because I took it through the tinted glass window of my tour bus.
   
   http://flickr.com/photos/xuanrong/285917388/
   
   
   
6. lastknownlocation.blogspot
   The big draw for us was to be found outside the bookshop at a road intersection. Where most cities use traffic lights and roundabouts at their main junction, the DPRK's cities have traffic police officers. (They have traffic lights, but they are permanently switched off.) In central Pyongyang these officers are all young and female. They wear an immaculate blue uniform, a knee length skirt, white ankle socks and shiny black shoes. They direct the traffic with precise, robotic movements, and having watched them many times we still have no idea what their signs mean and how they actually control the traffic. See the video we took below, which actually contains a lot of traffic (for Pyongyang). VIDEO
   http://lastknownlocation.blogspot.com/search/label/Korea%20%28North%29
   
   
7. CBS 60 Minutes
   The first thing that caught our attention in the capital, Pyongyang, was the traffic police. Well dressed and impeccably groomed, they display almost no emotion as they pirouette in a city that's so poor and so short on electricity there aren't any traffic lights most of the year. The police are in perpetual motion, working with an almost robotic precision. All of which is rather odd because there isn't much traffic. People can't afford cars. VIDEO
   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/12/60minutes/main1203973.shtml
   
   
8. aboutnorthkorea.com An American Tourist in North Korea, 2007
   Contrary to what I'd read about a bicycling ban in Pyongyang, I see many cyclists, including one being given a ticket from a female traffic cop on a motor scooter. While there isn't exactly a crush of traffic during the day, on some streets at least there are enough cars to occupy the female traffic cops stationed at intersections. We're told they work in two hour shifts during the day, and then at night the traffic lights take over.
   http://www.aboutnorthkorea.com/
   
   
9. Huffington Post
   I asked if it was true that Kim Jong-il had designed the uniforms for the "traffic girls" who direct Pyongyang's sparse traffic. Our guide replied, "Of course!", as if I had just asked the dumbest question in the world.
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wallechinsky/a-visit-to-north-korea-_b_88473.html
   

PTG2