Guerrilla Traffic Calming Spreads in Southern California

Is it time to bid adieu to the much derided speed hump? Mott profiles the efforts of several Southern Californians who have taken traffic-calming into their own hands with creative and innovative solutions. 

One project highlighted is the road mural painted by Joe Linton, artist and organizer for the L.A. walking and biking event CicLAvia, and his fellow neighbors in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles. "'I think it really works to slow cars down,' Linden said of the mural at the T intersection of Bimini Place and White House Place. He said the artwork helps to take drivers out of their typical 'just-have-to-get-to-their-destination' frame of mind and makes them realize that 'streets are public spaces where people can really interact.'"

Another, perhaps less successful but more prevalent, practice profiled is screaming, as demonstrated by "vigilante Eric Lapidus," who "routinely shouts at drivers flying down his tree-lined Spaulding Square avenue."

The result? "'Sometimes people do slow down,' Lapidus said. But is the occasional victory worth the vocal cord strain? 'Hardly,' Lapidus said. 'But it helps relieve the anger I feel when I see people blasting down our street when kids are playing ball just a few feet from them.'"