The Florida Department of Transportation has ordered the removal of any painted design on intersections and pedestrian crosswalks throughout the state. That includes the scores of brightly decorated crosswalks throughout the Tallahassee area.
For the past several years, KCCI - the Knight Creative Communities Institute - has promoted the beautification of public spaces with a number of projects. One of those is painting pedestrian crosswalks in high traffic areas, especially around schools. Now the state is ordering the designs obliterated. Here's KCCI Executive Director Betsy Couch.
"Locally we were very careful that all of our artistic crosswalks are very generic in nature. We made sure safety was at the forefront of any design because the whole reason we did them was to improve safety, especially for kids trying to have a safe route to schools."
Initially, the state's directive was focused on designs with political or ideological messaging, but now Couch says the state is expanding its order. She hopes to push back ahead of the September 3 deadline but says if there's no way to save the designs, she'll ask local governments to place a brickwork design on the affected crosswalks to keep enhanced visibility for motorists.
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