We want to create safer neighborhoods and stronger communities by giving locals the opportunity to use art to “repair” public intersections in their neighborhoods. A technique pioneered by the City Repair Project in Portland, intersection repair is a tested, cost-effective way to turn regular streets into places for people, making them safer and uniting neighbors through a common sense of ownership of and pride in their neighborhood.
Intersection repair is a simple and fun technique that consists of collectively painting graphics, murals, and other public art in residential intersections. It’s relatively inexpensive, and has been shown to reduce crime, improve traffic safety, and strengthen the sense of community and communication amongst neighbors.
Since the goal of this project is to strengthen community by encouraging residents to enjoy public streets in their neighborhoods, one of the best success metrics is simply the number of people active on a street throughout the day. Conveniently, New York company Placemeter recently released a technology that makes it easy to use streaming video to count pedestrian activity with 95% accuracy (manual pedestrian counts are usually only 75% accurate!). We’ve spoken with Placemeter about using their technology to gauge our success, and they agreed to work with us on an initial implementation.
Throughout the life of the project, we will take measures to ensure that this type of data collection is a top priority. All data collected will be made available publicly, and we will use it ourselves to ensure that each implementation is as effective and successful as possible.