It’s No Illusion: The Crosswalk Art You See Here Might Save Your Life

Three-dimensional crosswalks may come to your neighborhood — but they aren’t a futuristic technological advancement. they’re an optical illusion that could save your life.
Here’s how it works: an artist will take the typical zebra-striped crosswalks you see everywhere, then paint shadows around them. It’s a simple process with a stunning result: To the drivers approaching, it’ll appear as though the blocks are suspended above the asphalt. And the people crossing, they’ll also seem to float.
But 3D crosswalks are more than just a jaw-dropping visual effect: The cities behind them hope they might be eye-catching enough to save your life.
Pedestrian deaths are rising at an alarming rate. The Governors Highway Safety Association estimates 6,227 pedestrian deaths in 2018 as compared to 4,414 in 2008 in the United States — a 35 percent increase. This number is contrasted by a six percent decline in all other traffic deaths. The study cited unsafe infrastructure, speeding and alcohol use as big contributors along with smartphone use.
“I’ve been in this business for 36 years, and I’ve never seen a pattern like this,” Richard Retting, who wrote the report and has worked in a variety of traffic engineering and safety roles, told The New York Times.
The 3D crosswalk’s purpose is to grab the driver’s attention and, as a result, he or she will navigate the intersection carefully.
While the 3D design has been implemented and experimented, there isn’t definitive proof yet that it works. But cities are doing everything they can to reduce pedestrian deaths. And it’s an inexpensive tactic that doesn’t require much additional work for city planners.
This approach to crosswalk safety gained worldwide popularity on social media when the city of Ísafjörður, Iceland, installed 3D crosswalks in 2017.
Ralf Trylla, Ísafjörður’s environmental officer, saw similar crosswalks in India and decided to try it in his city.
“I was looking for other possibilities and different solutions to slow down traffic other than the regular speed bumps,” he told Quartz.
Speed bumps are often criticized for their impact on cars and car owners. And when a study published by the UK National Institute for Health suggested speed bumps contribute to increased air pollution, Trylla decided to give 3D crosswalks a shot.
He said he watched drivers slow down and be more cautious through the intersection. “So in that way, I would say that it’s a success so far.”
Since then, these crosswalks have been painted in China, London, Canada and across the U.S, in Oklahoma, Illinois and, now, Massachusetts.
The city of Medford, near Boston, recently adopted the idea. The first one in the Boston area is painted near Brooks Elementary School, with more crosswalks planned for each elementary school in the city.
Two Brooks students had the idea for the crosswalk near their school. They worked with a teacher and the Brooks Center for Citizen and Social Responsibility to pressure the city into painting the crosswalks.
“When you’re walking across you can tell it’s painted, but what we hope is, when you’re driving down, you’ll see it as 3-D, three dimensional. So it looks real,” Isa, one of the students, told WBZ.
3D crosswalks are not the first public-arts approach to creating safer pedestrian pathways. In Warsaw, Poland, piano keys were painted to replace traditional crossings, and in Seattle, Washington, the crosswalks transformed into rainbows to celebrate LGBTQ pride. Baltimore, Maryland, tried a hopscotch technique to slow local traffic down.
More: The Ghost Bikes Project Gives Voice to the Dead

Why Salt Lake City May Become the New Leader in Public Transportation

Salt Lake City seems like an unlikely candidate to be a pro-public transportation city. Cars are king in the capital of Utah, where city blocks are long and streets are an unusually wide 132 feet — a measurement Brigham Young allegedly described as enough room to turn a wagon team without “resorting to profanity.” With much of the majority-Mormon city shutting down on Sundays, pedestrians struggle to transverse the Rocky Mountain-backed landscape.
Which is why Robin Hutcheson, a new executive-board member of the National Association of City Transportation Officials, is becoming something of a Salt Lake City rock star: She’s instrumental in diversifying transportation options in the metropolitan area of 1.2 million to include bike lanes and a commuter rail line. And the measures she’s taking could provide a crucial blueprint for other urban centers. 
Atlantic Cities profiled how Hutcheson is harnessing Salt Lake City’s increasing friendliness to public transportation. She’s been head of the transportation planning division of Salt Lake City since 2011, and is a biker, runner, and all-around public-transit devotee. With the help of state and city investments into public transportation, more pedestrian-friendly streets, and business and church cooperation, Salt Lake City has self-adapted to the idea of reducing reliance on cars.
The reason doesn’t just lie in ease of movement, it’s about the environment, too. Salt Lake City suffers from visible smog, and has been named one of the ten worst cities in the U.S. for short-term particulate pollution by the American Lung Association. “As the air-quality issue has risen in the public eye, people are accepting that we need to do more than just say we’re going to do better,” Mayor Ralph Becker told Atlantic Cities. “It’s about people being able to move around in their city without having to use their car. How do we get from where we are today to having a city where people easily get around, can drive if they wish, but that isn’t their only or necessarily their best option?”
Enter Hutcheson. Her initiatives include a new low-cost transit card called the Hive Pass that allows holders unlimited access to buses, light rail within the city, and commuter trains for only $360 a year. Others, like the rail line connecting Salt Lake to Provo that opened in December 2012, caused public transit ridership in Utah to rise an astonishing 103 percent. TRAX, the city’s light rail system, saw its ridership increase 6.8 percent last year and a current plan calls for two more lines to open by 2015.
Meanwhile, Hutcheson and her team have also been working hard to make Salt Lake a more welcoming city for people on bicycles and on foot. Last December, a streetcar line with a walking and biking trail alongside it opened in the rapidly-developing Sugarhouse neighborhood. The city also has a seasonal bike-share and are designating new bike lanes in town. Salt Lake has been granted a budget for bike and pedestrian capital improvements that will be about $3.5 million for 2014-2105, a marked increase from just under $500,000 in 2009.
With Hutcheson making a positive imprint all over Salt Lake City, so is her city’s chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS), which she founded. The organization itself was established in 1977 for the professional advancement of women throughout the transportation industry — from road engineers to airline pilots. Her perspective on public transit is partially shaped by WTS, which believes that women have an unmatched lens into what commuters need. For instance, they have an acute sense of the dangers of a long wait at a dark bus stop, or traffic patterns when driving children back and forth between activities.
With or without her WTS foundation, one thing is for certain: Hutcheson’s work in Salt Lake City is likely to have reverberations in cities across the country.