Dive Brief:
- Between Madrid and Granger, Iowa, one of thousands of summertime road projects in America has narrowed a two-lane road to one for work on a bridge. It's the flaggers who are the face of the project for drivers, so two of them have decided that face might as well be happy.
- David Haines and Gary Trogdon work at opposite ends of the zone, and after one or the othger sends backed-up cars ahead to the other, he smiles and waves to drivers, and one gave a driver a doughnut one time.
- "There's so many problems in this world, people has got to smile once in a while," Trogdon told a TV station after word of his and Haines' approach got around.
Dive Insight:
The appreciation drivers express for being treated sympathetically is not just verbal. Last week, the flagmen said, a woman gave Haines a scratch-off lottery ticket after telling him people were talking about the happy flaggers. At the other end, she gave Trogdon a ticket, too. And both were $5 winners.
