image via gravyness

Last year I was working on a study to address the walkability and general quality and identity of a cultural neighborhood. The existing neighborhood had large streets, small and unpleasant sidewalks and large blocks with very little vegetation or perforation. There was very little to even acknowledge the heritage of the people living there aside from the writing on storefronts.

The challenge was to bring a more human scale to the neighborhood in a way that would celebrate and strengthen their cultural identity within the city as a whole. It was nice to see how much interest the city took in the project and two of the streets in the neighborhood had even been designated as future green streets which allowed us to skinny up the streets and take advantage of more generous sidewalks.

While thinking about gateways and neighborhood identity, we got the idea to add crosswalks but with a twist. The idea was to provide simple yet integrated messages that this place was different than the surrounding areas. Traditional symbols in their culture lent themselves very well to creating embellished designs that could run throughout pedestrian walkways and also be used as a crosswalk, like laying down a tapestry wherever the pedestrian was encouraged to go.

It seems like such an easy way to dress up a neighborhood without incurring a large cost. Just a stencil and some paint! And so this got me to wondering if crosswalk manipulation had occurred anywhere else. I often thought of making my own stencil, grabbing some paint and embellishing some crosswalks just for fun and to see how people would react to it. Here’s some people who have done just that:

image via Sentieri Urbani

Brothers Davide and Gabriele Adriano formed Sentieri Urbani with the goal of reinventing how crosswalks communicate a cities identity around the world. The key here though is that the crosswalks don’t distract drivers because they are based on the standard zebra-style design and cars travelling faster than walking speed aren’t distracted by the slight artistic enhancements. These are even painted in a way that increased the friction a vehicle feels on the street so it actually enhances safety.

image via Sentieri Urbani

From their website: “Sentieri Urbani communicates city’s identity, culture, history and local differences and places without over-adding signs. Sentieri Urbani removes material from our codified communication system but gives more information that look different depending on the point of you, position and the speed you are moving around the city.”

The design of the crosswalk is meant to reflect the identity of that particular area in the city and the name is stenciled into the design as well. So whether you are in New York Cities SOHO or China Town neighborhoods, the design would provide you that little extra visual clue.

images via Sentieri Urbani

Here is also a video of the creation of the crosswalk:

In Portugal a campaign was launched in April of 2007 called ‘Safe Street Week’ which had the mission to bring awareness about the fact that 1/4 of car accidents involved pedestrians. Advertising agency Draft FCB had the idea to turn crosswalks into memorials by making crosswalks out of the names of pedestrians killed by vehicles. Here is a video documenting the event:

image via adsoftheworld

While I think this is an interesting idea in theory, after watching the video and seeing how the memorial takes the attention of the pedestrian and focuses it on the ground, I have to wonder about the safety. As people linger and try to make out the small writing and figure out what it’s about, they aren’t paying attention to their surroundings. Check out the video below:

Montreal-based artist, Peter Gibson aka “Roadsworth” looks for inspiration in traffic markers, street lanes and of course, crosswalks for his “Pedestrian Street Art”. Gibson has garnered wide public support for his works over time since the beginning of his painting endeavors in 2001 and now receives commissions for his art. Instead of using the standard shape of the crosswalk, he sometimes manipulates the shape to get across his message. In the photo below, the crosswalk manipulation is trying to point out the size of the North American’s “eco-footprint”.

image via roadsworth

From the website: “Initially motivated by a desire for more bike paths in the city and a questioning of ‘car culture’ in general, he continued to develop a language around street markings and other elements of the urban landscape using a primarily stencil based technique.”

The photo below he calls “All Roads Lead to Empire” and says that “The Roman Empire was made possible with the construction of a network of roads connecting Rome to the far reaches of its empire. The tradition continues but today’s Rome is compose of the corporations that deal in arms, oil and allof its chemical and plastic by-products”.

image via roadsworth

To view more of his work and get some insight into why he does this particular style of art, when he started and how he went from night-time lurking graffiti artist charged with several counts of mischief and jail time to being loved by the public and considered a real artist. Check it out: