County promotes traffic safety with colorful crosswalks

Key Takeaways

Leon County, Fla. is raising crosswalks near its schools and decorating them with colorful artwork to make its communities safer and promote walkability through its Crosswalks to Classrooms initiative. The new crosswalks have resulted in notable reductions in traffic speeds, with decreases of up to 23.7%, according to speed studies.

“By combining essential public safety infrastructure with public art, we’re creating safer and more vibrant intersections for our community,” said Leon County Administrator Vincent S. Long. 

More than 14 artistic crosswalks have been implemented near seven schools throughout the county, directly benefiting more than 3,500 students, and the county also unveiled three new crosswalk projects last month in downtown Tallahassee. The county worked with the Knight Creative Communities Institute (KCCI), which secured grant funding for the initiative through the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), to make the installations possible.

“Artistic crosswalks improve safety and beautify the area as we elevate the conversation around pedestrian and vehicular safety,” said Betsy Couch, KCCI’s executive director. “A quick-action project like the artistic crosswalk project demonstrates and builds momentum to improve livability for residents of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.”

The installation on Dempsey Mayo Road — which sits between Westminster Oaks, a senior living facility, and W.T. Moore Elementary School — was the first in the initiative to use Color-Safe pavement marking. Color-Safe doesn’t require a heating process to install, instead heating and hardening upon cooling, and will make the designs last longer than they would with traditional paint, according to Charles Wu, Leon County’s director of engineering services.

“We raised the crosswalk, which already has a traffic calming effect,” Wu said. “And then with this color, the pattern on the crosswalk itself, that definitely draws people’s attention as well … to enhance the driver’s visibility and slow people down.”

Each year, KCCI focuses on a different “place-making project,” that can help make Tallahassee and Leon County a healthier community, Couch said. Once it was decided that artistic crosswalks would be the focus of 2023, the organization worked with the county to determine the best areas to implement them — ones that would engage diverse populations and could sustain growth.

“What’s about to happen is a huge roadway and future development project that will continue Dempsey Mayo Road,” Couch said. “So, by putting in the elevated artistic crosswalks, we’re not only improving safety right now, but it will help keep traffic controlled and it promotes a walkable community for the future … When you have a more active population, that leads to overall [better] health.”

Leon County handled most of the project’s infrastructure, including coordinating road closures and communication regarding construction with the neighborhood, and elevated the crosswalks, so that KCCI could then come in and add the artistic overlay on top, according to Couch. KCCI is interested in working with the county moving forward on a program in which neighborhoods and businesses could sponsor the creation of more of the artistic crosswalks, she added.

“These elevated, artful crosswalks will benefit citizens of all ages in this Commission district and beyond,” said Leon County Commission Chairman Brian Welch. “We appreciate the neighboring senior living facility, Westminster Oaks, for their ongoing involvement, which played a key role in shaping this project.”

Students at the elementary school and residents at the senior living facility each had input on the crosswalk’s design and W.T. Moore’s school colors — green, yellow and white — ended up being the focus, according to Couch. Many members of the Westminster Oaks senior living center have “raved” about how much safer they feel crossing the street and going on their daily walks now that the series of elevated artistic crosswalks have been implemented, she said.