Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 09/00) - Yielding traffic is not as boring as it looks. Just ask traffic control person Caroline Jacobs.

Everyone knows who the traffic control people are -- those individuals dressed in a fluorescent yellow construction vest and hard hat who stand with a brightly-coloured stop/slow sign in hand.

Many motorists dread and even despise seeing a traffic control person in their path. After all, it's human nature to rush, rush, rush when we're on the move.

Working in traffic control is not an easy job for Jacobs, who can currently be found directing traffic at an RTL Robinson Enterprise construction site on 54th Street.

Jacobs has been a traffic control person for almost 11 years. She has grown to accept working 12-hour shifts in the blistering heat, anxiously awaiting the moment when she can soak her chronically-aching feet in warm water.

"I get two 15 (minute) and a half-an-hour break, so it's quite a long day. It takes some getting used to, that's for sure," said Jacobs.

Despite popular beliefs, traffic control persons are not there to ensure motorists get tied up in traffic. Jacobs said it's a matter of ensuring public safety.

"I have to watch the traffic and everything around me -- all the equipment, all the men working and people walking through the site ... safety is the main purpose of it all."

But Jacobs said drivers just don't understand that. She has even been bumped by a car after she attempted to stop a motorist.

"I was trying to hold him but he got mad at me, bumped back on my legs and backed up the road so I couldn't even get his (licence) plate number.

"But I know what he looks like. I'm watching for him," warned Jacobs.

She realizes that nobody appreciates being held up, but her job is to ensure that nobody gets hurt.

"They try to get through, people yell at you ... they ask questions wanting to know how long the job is going to take, wanting to know why I'm holding them up, there's all kinds of things going on," said Jacobs.

But not all motorists are rude to her, like those who understand what is going on at the construction site.

Jacobs gets a lot of gratification from her job as well.

"It's a good feeling knowing you may have saved somebody from getting deathly hurt. It's very dangerous out here," she said.

After holding that stop/slow sign for 12 hours a day, it's amazing Jacobs' arms never get sore.

"No, just my feet," she laughed. "You can switch arms but you're stuck with the sore feet."

Jacobs doesn't worry about that though. She has a sympathetic boyfriend who massages her aching feet every night.