Check Out All the New Colorful Crosswalks Coming to Downtown Decatur!
Decatur Metro | June 13, 2016 | 11:05 am
For those of you who have followed this site for a while, you know my weird interest in non-standard crosswalks. Back in January, I suggested some polka-dots for Decatur’s streets, after Austin, TX dotted one of its intersections.
Decatur has been open talking about replacing the faux-brick crumbling crosswalks downtown with something a bit more lively since 2014, but this past Monday, June 6th, the City Commission approved designs for 7 new, colorful, “decorative preformed thermoplastic” crosswalks downtown. A note from Asst. City Manager David Junger describes the project thusly….
The Downtown Decatur Crosswalk portion of this project includes the replacement of 7 crosswalks at intersections and mid-block locations along East and West Ponce de Leon Avenue, a new raised intersection and crosswalk at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Clairemont Avenue, a new mid-block crosswalk on East Trinity Place and a new mid-block crosswalk in the 300 block of West Ponce de Leon Avenue. The existing crossings are to be removed and replaced with a decorative preformed thermoplastic product along with pavement replacement or repair as necessary. The base bid includes 4 existing crosswalks. The additive alternate includes the raised crosswalk at Ponce and Clairemont and new mid-block crosswalks on West Ponce de Leon and East Trinity Place.
So of course I’m going to show them to you now. See all after the jump! But also note that the agenda item also approved funding for the Olympic Trail between Olympic Place and Mead Road and also a sidewalk on Harold Byrd Drive. That’s a lot of good walking infrastructure funding!
Love this!
Another reason I love Decatur!
Will Chick-Fil-A be contributing extra for the chicken related advertising for the crosswalk in its close proximity? If that works, could we tailor some of the other crosswalks for the specific businesses they are intended to service? I suggest bricks and beer for the crosswalk at the corner of Ponce and E. Court Square, sponsored by the Brick Store.
What is the cost and is there a guarantee that these new crosswalks do not end up looking as bad as the current ones?
Ugly!
I just rolled my eyes so hard that I pulled a muscle.
I just wish they would repaint the bike lane signage near the Post Office.
Related to this, Georgia State has painted dazzling crosswalks graphics (school logo) on Auburn Avenue near the new Law & Humanities Building. They certainly get your attention.
Not a fan of Decatur’s proposed designs.
I noticed those too. They are eye-catching and appear durable. Hopefully we’ll have fewer students mowed-down!
I think they’re great
+1. Further overcoming the debilitating deficit of whimsy that’s plagued downtown for years.
Me too. I particularly like the design for the Ponce & Marshall crossing.
Get rid of brick crosswalks?! What a horrible idea! The suggested plans are also terrible. The idea for Clairemont & Commerce is, probably, the worst, but, there are so many bad ideas that have been put in place & proposed, it just boggles the mind which is the most dangerous. The recent input into the comprehensive plan review will, hopefully, have some effect. However, if not, we need better leaders.
I like the footprint/pawprint crosswalk, but the rest are definitely garish examples of 2010s styling; especially the Jimmy John’s one, yeesh. In 20 years time, people will be looking at photos of some of these crosswalks in the same light you would Day-Glo, or a mid-90s Taco Bell interior.
So it’s retro, then. When I first saw the spaceship entrance to DHS, I thought it was ugly and dated looking. Now, I’m fond of it just because of the positive memories associated with it. To me, the important issue is whether research shows that decorative cross-walks result in drivers stopping for pedestrians or not.
Cool project. Lots of white in many of the designs. Hope that doesn’t look bad as soon as it’s installed. Also hope the contractor is someone other than the folks that did the striping in front of the firehouse.
The Fire Station thing was merely painted on. The crosswalks will be embedded on the pavement with the colors going all the way through, so they won’t change as it wears.
very nice!! Maybe this will help all the idiots who dont stop at crosswalks see them a little better so they can finally make themselves stop and pay attention.
I really like the chicken one, but isn’t the placement a little macabre?
Why did the chicken cross the road? For MURDER.
I hope they don’t use the same company to do these that put in the “faux brick” ones. We should have gotten our money back for that disaster.