(she/her/hers)
I work with Baltimore City and other municipalities on these kinds of projects. There are two related issues in your question: 1) MUTCD guidance and 2) liability.1) MUTCD: Cities that are allowing pavement art in crosswalks are siding with the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) over the outdated MUTCD guidance. See this NACTO page when they were advocating for updating the MUTCD : https://nacto.org/program/modernizing-federal-standards/. In some cases, I've worked with cities who felt comfortable approving pavement art as long as it was on a locally owned street, not a state or federal road. The Bloomberg study that Patricia linked to is more evidence of what we have long known: well-design and quality-installed traffic calming art works!2) Liability: As a practitioner of traffic calming art (community engagement, design, engineering, site control, and installation), my company has had discussions with various officials over the years, and the liability expectations vary depending on who you talk to. City lawyers often want to put the liability on the artist and/or community group requesting art crosswalk, requiring us to carry General Liability Insurance. From an equity perspective, this is unfair to the historically disadvantaged communities most in need of traffic calming to improve the safety for their more pedestrian-oriented residents oftentimes grassroots organizations cannot afford such insurance nor should they be required to carry it for city-approved infrastructure (pavement art).Meanwhile, I've spoken with progressive traffic engineers who believe that if they can review and approve the artwork design as not being confusing to cars (exp: no arrows), and application materials as being anti-skid and durable (traffic paint, epoxy coating, MMA, thermoplastic, etc..), then the artwork is safe and liability should be assumed by the city. The liability of other things in the right-of-way approved by traffic engineers falls on the municipality as well, so why should art be singled out over things like wayfinding signage, decorated trash cans, etc..Baltimore City DOT just announced updates to its Community Led Placemaking Program, which is how communities can get approval for projects like neighborhood signs, parklets, and art crosswalks. After years of requiring the community or artist to carry General Liability Insurance, this liability coverage is no longer required for art crosswalks.That all being said, there is an old guard of AASHTO affiliated traffic engineers who will reject anything out of the ordinary as non-compliant and therefore a non-starter. Show them the Bloomberg study and see what they say. Suffice to say, getting art crosswalks approved is ultimately a political choice that must be asserted by leadership for traffic engineers and lawyers to then follow.Best,Graham--On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 2:47 PM Patricia Walsh (via public_art_network list) <public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com> wrote:Hi Jana,
Bloomberg Philanthropies recently released a study that may be useful: Asphalt-Art-Safety-Study.pdf (bbhub.io)
From: public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com <public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com> On Behalf Of Jana L. Weldon
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 2:15 PM
To: public_art_network@americansforthearts.simplelists.com
Subject: Artist Crosswalk Projects
I would love to hear from cities who have done artist crosswalk projects and how they dealt with City liability concerns given that the crosswalks don’t conform with USDOT’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD),
I have read a few primers like https://smartgrowthamerica.org/bringing-art-and-culture-to-the-street/ that focused in on Ames, IA, but mostly interested in arguments that won the day with your City’s traffic engineering and risk management departments.
Jana L Weldon
Beautification, Arts&Sciences Project Administrator
928.863.4298 (Primary: Work Cell)
928.213.2964 (Desk/Voicemail Only)
211 W Aspen Ave
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
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