Knowing Your Neighbors: Creative Crosswalks

Kids and parents paint sidewalks to help combat reckless driving.

DULUTH, Minn.- If you’re in a car going 20-25 miles per hour and need to stop suddenly, you’re 40% less likely to crash than if you were traveling 30-35 miles per hour.

With that in mind, Zeitgeist is painting hillside crosswalks where residents say fast driving is an issue.

“Streets are kind of scary places now and they used to not be,” said City of Duluth Transportation Planner James Gittemeier.

Young kids and kids young at heart live near the intersection of East 6th Street and 15th Avenue East. So making it beautiful is important to them.

“11 kids who live on this block section alone and tons of kids who come to lower Chester so many of us bike and walk through this way,” said resident Michelle Pierson.

The painted butterflies serve another purpose: slowing cars down.

“The theory is that motorists would become more aware when they see this because seeing paint on the street like this, it’s not just your normal thing, you become more aware: ‘oh, something more is going on here,” Gittemeier said.

Residents said cars often come around the bend pretty fast at this intersection.

“Especially the traffic coming down the hill, you just have gravity,” Pierson said.

So the artwork on the street catches their eye, forcing them to slow to a speed they can stop at quickly if something jumps in the way.

“Things in the road designed, people around, things that can make, for a motorist it’s the things you don’t want to have on the road, it’s things that make you uncomfortable,” said Gittemeier.

“But the things that make the motorist uncomfortable are also the things that make the motorist slow down.”

By taking up a paintbrush these kids are taking the future of their neighborhood’s safety in their hands.

“It’s something that just builds a lot of community spirit and pride, just doing something like this, obviously you see the people out and kids out and adults, all of that.”

Making a difference for themselves and others through the power of art.

“All these kids here love art and they’re used to sidewalk chalk on their sidewalks at home, they’re painting at home but having the opportunity to paint on something that people, we can see again,” Pierson said.

“It’s not gonna wash away with the rain it’s really inspiring.”

You can meet up with another Creative Crosswalks crew tomorrow from 5-8pm at 11th Avenue East and 5th Street, and the final of four at 7th Street and 8th Avenue