Sunday 15 July 2012

Fun Ideas for Safer Crossings

At our evening meeting a few weeks back, Jodie put forward some fun ideas we could do to add a bit of colour to crossings and places we care about.  Here they are:


"This is a great SPOT for a pedestrian crossing!"
  • to ‘tag’ the place where the pedestrian crossing should go, 
  • to slow traffic and make walking safer, 

An example of children's sticker art facilitated by Yayoi Kusama
Drawing literally, on the idea of the ‘spot’ for a pedestrian crossing, spot stickers of various sizes and colours are stuck on the footpath either side of the road to indicate where we would like the crossing. The spots will ‘pool’ around where people wait to cross the road creating an interesting piece of art. Children love sticking stickers, so with close supervision and support from their parents, this should be a lot of fun.


Pennant Garlands
  • to provide a response activity to ‘The Prince’ story for Primary school aged children, allowing them to symbolise their presence as walkers
  • to slow traffic and bring attention to the crossing place
  • to provide information to children’s families about the crossing via the information and the permission form distributed by the schools
Street celebrations. Photograph by TIm Irving
Street Pennant Garlands
(source http://stylemed.blogspot.com.au/2009_09_13_archive.html)
The pennant bunting flags would be displayed in a prominent spot at the proposed crossing.  The flags could be prepared as part of a school children's activity following a presentation of the story 'The Prince Who Walked To School' told by Walk On Moreland.  This story presents the importance of pedestrian advocacy in a narrative form. This activity can further engage school children by asking them to make pennants in a 'royal flag' theme.


Guerilla Gardening
  • to slow traffic 
  • to draw attention to the area as a place for people not just cars 
  • to provide opportunity for a different group of people (gardeners - maybe older people?) to voice their need and make their presence felt as pedestrians. 
  
Pothole garden
Adding some living colour can make a place less harsh and adds a touch of fun to an otherwise busy street.  There are always slivers of unused ground in the vicinity of a proposed crossing that can be taken advantage of and turned into ‘garden’.


Walk on Moreland annual photography competition 
  • to explore the issues of the ‘right to walk safely’ with the wider community.
Even musicians were pedestrians once.
Who will participate will depend on the categories but we could involve high school students, adults interested in photography and perhaps adults interested in digital art.  Secondly the exhibition of entries will provide a whole new audience.


Illustrating “The Prince who walked to school” together. 
  • to provide opportunity for local primary school students to think about pedestrians needs.


A children’s story was written by Nataniel earlier this year to raise the issues of pedestrian safety. This story is in need of some illustrations and we would like to invite children at the local primary schools to provide illustrations to accompany the story. The finished book could then be printed and shared with the local schools and perhaps launched with a special reading and exhibition at the Coburg library.