The NY Times magazine had its ideas feature last weekend, and one of the cool ideas was to use art in the middle of an intersection to slow traffic rather than a roundabout or speed bump. Basically, painting something in the middle of an intersection slows people down enough to make a difference for any unlucky pedestrians that get hit by a car. We love this – roundabouts are awkward but art is awesome! (and speed bumps suck.) It is a good deal for the city – $10K for art is way cheaper than building a roundabout – and what better venue for your art than smack dab in the middle of traffic. Of course, you would want to hit the right level of distraction so that people would slow down but wouldn’t be so interested that they actually caused an accident. We assume the artists can figure that part out. Mediocre art only? At any rate, we’re in – bring on the art circles!
–k
this isn’t safe-for-work, but still worth seeing as “traffic calming” art. performance art though i guess.
http://www.speedbandits.dk/
Personally, I’d LOVE a couple of speed bumps or berms or whatever on my street. It’s a double-length block, and cars use it as a shortcut to avoid the traffic lights on the main arterial one block east. I swear, I’ve seen cars doing 45 – 50 mph down what is essentially a one-lane street with cars parked on either side!
ANYTHING that made them slow down to a reasonable speed – even “speed bandits” would be welcome!