When you come to a crosswalk, take it.

December 23, 2022 11:15 AM

How To Paint a Crosswalk. "The instructions below are about making a crosswalk that looks as legitimate as possible, to create as safe an environment for pedestrians as possible, ensure that the crosswalk lasts as long as possible, and reduce the likelihood that it is removed by local authorities. This guide also aims to ensure that painting is done while prioritizing the safety of the participants and that of passing drivers and bystanders."

"Cost -- Initial cost: $300 ($150 for the stencil, $150 for the remaining items). Cost per crosswalk: about $50 (for the paint and paint roller cover). Time -- One regular crosswalk (eight bars across) will take 90 minutes to 2 hours, including drying time. Personnel -- At least four people, but preferably five or six: two or three to measure, hold the stencil, and paint; and two or three to do traffic control."

posted by storybored (32 comments total)

BRB, sharing this link with my guerrilla urbanist slack.

Also, adding reflective glass beads to the wet paint will aid visibility, but with added, obvious expense.
posted by gauche at 11:35 AM on December 23, 2022 [11 favorites]

I'm reminded of the lovely rainbow crosswalks where I live.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:47 AM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

I 'painted' a crosswalk at least once. I called up the city and said "Hey! There's been an increase in pedestrian traffic here recently, it needs a crosswalk!" And they put one in.
posted by aniola at 12:37 PM on December 23, 2022 [18 favorites]

There are intersections that are so unsafe the municipality literally puts up a "don't cross here" sign for pedestrians. "Don't cross here" intersections for pedestrians should not be allowed to exist. Their infrastructure should be fixed until they are safe to cross. I know that these are not the intersections that this article is talking about. But I would have liked to see in this article:

1. More discussion on the circumstances where it is and is not safe for pedestrians to have a new painted crosswalk with no other changes to the existing street.
2. Try asking your municipality to install the crosswalk. Crosswalks fade. Your municipality will maintain the crosswalk. and/or
3. This is a long-term commitment. If you put a crosswalk in, people will start crossing there. People will expect to continue to be able to safely cross there.
posted by aniola at 12:57 PM on December 23, 2022 [6 favorites]

I read somewhere a few years back that Los Angeles went on a campaign of removing crosswalks because they gave pedestrians a false sense of safety. Sad what that says but I’m not sure they were wrong (at least in LA).
posted by sjswitzer at 12:58 PM on December 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

It says a lot about whose transportation they're prioritizing at those intersections.
posted by aniola at 1:01 PM on December 23, 2022 [12 favorites]

So if I’m a pedestrian, and I trust one of these guerrilla crosswalks but am hit by a negligent driver anyway, would I have any legal recourse? The motorist would not have disobeyed a legal crosswalk, only some graffiti that looks like one….
posted by LooseFilter at 1:08 PM on December 23, 2022 [6 favorites]

Probably depends on your jurisdiction. In some places, all intersections are crosswalks, and drivers are supposed to stop for pedestrians even if there's nothing painted.
posted by aniola at 1:19 PM on December 23, 2022 [16 favorites]

Ooh, next can we do DIY speed bumps, or some other kind of active countermeasures against drivers who like to go 60+ MPH in marked playground/school zones, and which the cops categorically refuse to do anything about?

Asking for a friend.
posted by Mayor West at 1:38 PM on December 23, 2022 [8 favorites]

One of the lessons of the pandemic has been that if you leave traffic cones around your block in an semi-organized layout, drivers assume there's a legitimate reason for them to be there and slow down.

Spill some black paint in a puddly shape and let it dry, and it will look like an oil slick, and enhance the look.
posted by ocschwar at 2:00 PM on December 23, 2022 [3 favorites]

Stochastic speed bumps! Moved around at night by guerilla action. Where you least expect it: a speed bump! Better just not speed anywhere.
posted by away for regrooving at 2:14 PM on December 23, 2022 [10 favorites]

I hope they are using the extra-gritty paint that doesn't compromise bicycle/motorcycle traction in the rain.

But assuming that, I like the idea of forcing even small accommodations for pedestrians.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:27 PM on December 23, 2022

This would be especially useful in Oregon where too many drivers don’t understand or don’t care that in this state basically every intersection is a crosswalk, marked or not.
posted by bixfrankonis at 2:40 PM on December 23, 2022

This is totally something a certain kind of police department will arrest you for and a certain kind of prosecutor will be happy to turn it into a nightmare, so be careful letting others know. Little tin gods are jealous of their aura of authority.

I’d also stick to intersections or otherwise explicitly legal crossing points, lest you turn out to be the villain enticing people to cross where a traffic engineer wouldn’t expect drivers to reliably notice or stop in time.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:56 PM on December 23, 2022 [5 favorites]

In 2008 our neighbors down the block painted a guerrilla crosswalk where people were constantly crossing the street to a small market. The city of Oakland painted over it in three days.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:07 PM on December 23, 2022 [5 favorites]

I remember visiting some friends in a neighborhood in Oakland that had a guerrilla crosswalk around that era, a crosswalk that led to a small market. They pointed the crosswalk out and told me about it, but I don't remember the details. So either I was there during the three days it was up (I don't remember it looking particularly new), it's a different guerrilla crosswalk to a different small market, the city put one in officially, the neighbors kept repainting, or something.
posted by aniola at 3:14 PM on December 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

In my city, there was a zebra crossing where cars used to speed past just behind a pedestrian who was crossing (dangerous, illegal). I used to cross there regularly and thought "Wow, that was dangerous!"

Then a pregnant woman got hit and killed by a driver who tried to speed past her while she was using the cross walk.

Did the city put traffic lights in for pedestrians?

Did they put traffic calming devices in?

No, they completely removed the cross walk.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 3:24 PM on December 23, 2022 [3 favorites]

On the mechanics of painting: You'll notice that the guide says traffic paint. My city recently approved a rainbow crosswalk, and the challenges of finding paint that wasn't the standard roadway marking colors was extremely challenging. I organized the crew that did surface prep, so wasn't deeply involved in the painting part, but both the city engineer who approved the process and the organizer mentioned how challenging that was.

And, in fact, I'd offered to road trip up to Portland because their DPW has an approved vendor and process for assorted colored road markings that go beyond the usual yellow, white, green, and red.

Of course the other problem with paint longevity and rainbow crosswalks, even here in the San Francisco Bay Area, is the asshats in pickup trucks deliberately burning out on it. On a one lane street lined with commercial retail and nose-in parking. There's already been one defacement painted over, and despite the prominent camera it's happened again.

On guerilla activity using cones: Yeah, my neighborhood tried a guerilla effort to reduce curb cutting with flex posts, and when the city came out and removed those within a couple of business hours, tried cones. Cones just became a target for the guys driving the modern oversized trucks, and got knocked into the roadway and became a hazard.

We're saving the response time of the city to removing the flex posts for the lawsuits following the inevitable fatality at that intersection, though we did get a few reflectors and some new paint after much additional lobbying. Sigh.

What I really want is the heavy equipment necessary to drop K-rail into place in the middle of the night. That's the path forward.
posted by straw at 3:52 PM on December 23, 2022 [7 favorites]

Ha! Shades of Richard Ankrom who added a sign for I-5 on a confusing interchange in LA, completely up to the highway requirements. Caltrans decided to retain Ankrom's helpful signage (even if they don't want to admit it).
posted by phliar at 4:10 PM on December 23, 2022 [8 favorites]

Ahem, asking for a friend: anyone know if the San Francisco authorities will paint over such a guerilla crosswalk?
posted by phliar at 4:11 PM on December 23, 2022

aniola- did it look like this? It may have been up for a week- 2008 was a long time ago.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:23 PM on December 23, 2022

The Tactical Urbanism Guide is another good resource for crosswalks and other kinds of action-oriented ways to make cities better.
posted by rockindata at 6:15 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

did it look like this?

Yes! It was on Jackson Street, and that first stripe, which I recognize, is why I don't remember it looking particularly new. I also remember it looking longer, but there probably wasn't a car paused in the path when I was looking at it.
posted by aniola at 7:37 PM on December 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

There is a highway somewhere in coastal SoCal where they used K-rails to convert a car lane into a 2-way bike path. It was amazing. More of that, please!
posted by aniola at 7:39 PM on December 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Cones just became a target for the guys driving the modern oversized trucks, and got knocked into the roadway and became a hazard."

I knew a guy who worked for caltrans, the would ge people doing this sort of thing , so once in awhile a cone was filled with concrete or set over a post stuck in a hole.
posted by boilermonster at 9:46 PM on December 23, 2022 [5 favorites]

I used to cross there regularly and thought "Wow, that was dangerous!"

I have literally lost count of the number of intersections and roads that I've said "this is dangerous" about where someone was later killed. It's heartbreaking.
posted by aniola at 11:55 PM on December 23, 2022

Trees are good for traffic calming.
posted by aniola at 12:11 AM on December 24, 2022

A guide to DIY bike route maps: How the Richmond, Indiana bike route was made
posted by aniola at 12:46 AM on December 24, 2022

Methods for making cities safer for pedestrians are known. And it’s not (just) crosswalks. It’s all the other stuff too.
posted by heyitsgogi at 7:05 AM on December 24, 2022

Here in the UK, crossing is less of an issue. Jaywalking isn't a crime, and a motorist who hits a pedestrian on almost any stretch of road where a pedestrian wound consider it safe to cross should be found guilty of reckless driving because they clearly were going too fast to stop in time for that pedestrian! (note far this theory isn't perfect and the reality is that pedestrian rights get eroded over time here too)

But speeding in urban areas is a big issue. I've taken to manufacturing and installing "speed trap area" signs on poles in the villages near me. They all sometimes (rarely) have actual police speed traps, so I'm not even lying... and I can't find any legislation that would make it illegal for me to put up unofficial-but-technically-true signs, soo...

So far, none have been removed. Oh, and as a bonus, one doubles as a geocache container
posted by avapoet at 9:04 AM on December 24, 2022 [6 favorites]

I don't trust crosswalks. The father of a friend of mind got killed using a well-marked crosswalk across a wide road on a sunny day with little traffic.

A better alternative is a flashing crosswalks.
posted by eye of newt at 2:05 PM on December 24, 2022

Flashing crosswalks are better, but I don't trust those either. Or rather, don't trust the drivers.
posted by aniola at 3:10 PM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]