These artful pedestrian crosswalks are street art of a different stripe. Their most notable creator is Peter Gibson (aka Roadsworth), a street artist who got his start as a frustrated cyclist in Montreal. Having “found little encouragement in breathing car exhaust, having to share the road with eighteen wheelers and the prospect of receiving the dreaded ‘door prize’ (having a car door opened in your face)”, Gibson took up stencils and spray paint for a commentary on car culture (and a more prosaic “desire for more bike lanes”). Like Banksy, Britain’s premier graffiti artist (profiled here in Lauren Collins’ New Yorker piece), Gibson’s minor acts of subversion are motivated by a desire to jolt passerby out of their workaday attitudes for a moment of lucidity.
The Artful Crosswalk
Rose Garrett
Rose Garrett is a writer living in San Francisco. She has worked as a barista, literary agency intern, ESL tutor, and caterer at wealthy children's parties. She currently works as a staff writer and editor at Education.com.