The "Annual Year In Ideas" issue of the New York Times Magazine just came out. It contains 74 provocative and sometimes offbeat articles with such titles as "Misery Chic," "The Comb that Listens," "Salt that Doesn't Stick," and "Empty Stomach Intelligence."
[Above: the intersection of Walden and Vassal. Photo by Gregory Marton]
One of my favorites is "Speed-Reducing Art" by John Glassie (subscription required). It's about using tromp l'oeil art to reduce traffic speeds at busy intersections. (Tromp l'oeil is the art of visual deception; check out my earlier posts on tromp l'oeil art "Fooling the Eye" and "More Eye-Foolery.")
According to Glassie,
"Public art projects are usually intended to beautify. But artwork commissioned this summer by the city of Cambridge, Mass., has a more utilitarian goal: reducing traffic speeds at a busy intersection."
A particularly busy intersection is at Walden Street and Vassal Lane; 6,000 cars pass through it every day. One Cambridge citizen, Susanne Rasmussen, had been aware that neighborhood street murals in Portland, Oregon had the unintended consequence of slowing traffic down. A light bulb went off in Susanne's head, "Why not experiment with deliberately putting murals on the street to slow the traffic." As Glassie put it:
"Soon the city was taking proposals for a circular mural, 20 feet in diameter, to be painted on the asphalt in the center of the intersection — a kind of artwork rotary. The objective, to reduce average speeds from 30 miles per hour to 25, seems relatively modest, but Rasmussen, citing statistics, says it’s significant: 'The chance that a pedestrian would survive an accident is vastly greater at that speed.'"
A composition by local artist Wen-ti Tsen was selected (shown in the photo above). Tsen played with several ideas including a trompe l'oeil pothole, but ultimately decided on "something like a blue pond with geometric vegetation in it." Tsen was paid $10,000, a sum significantly less than what traditional "traffic calming" solutions such as speed bumps, raised crosswalks, and traffic "furniture" cost.
Again, according to Glassie:
"Many residents and city officials say the mural is working. 'I know I slow down,' says Lillian Hsu of the Cambridge Arts Council, which ran the mural-selection process. 'There’s something in the road, so there’s a moment of confusion and you slow down. Then you see it’s flat, and you drive over it.'”
A "Creative Think Hat-Tip" to Susanne Rasmussen for seeing an idea in one area, and using it as an innovative and practical solution to a different problem.
W.H. Auden said "Poetry makes nothing happen" - looks like we're a step behind the visual artists in that respect.
Posted by: Mark McGuinness | 16 December 2006 at 01:41 AM