New York City’s Curbside Haiku program puts spin on road safety
In the Big Apple
Be mindful of your safety
New signage may help
New York City’s Department of Transportation is taking a new approach to traffic safety education: poetry. The city has launched “Curbside Haiku”, an awareness and art campaign that delivers a safety message by focusing on a mode of transportation. The series includes 12 eye-catching designs with accompanying haikus.
Placed near eye level in high-crash locations near cultural institutions and schools, the colorful signs draw attention to the critical importance of shared responsibility among pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists in keeping New York City’s streets safe.
In many locations, the haikus are embedded in a QR code on the sign, readable with smartphone apps, making the safety messages interactive and fun to discover. In others, the signs are hung in pairs with the image and text from its accompanying haiku in the five, seven, five syllable haiku format.
“We’re putting poetry into motion with public art to make New York City’s streets even safer,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “These signs complement our engineering and education efforts to create a steady rhythm for safer streets in all five boroughs.”
Below are a few of the Curbside Haiku installations. Click here (PDF) to see them all.
Sign from the New York City Department of Transportation's Curbside Haiku program (Click to enlarge)
"She walks in beauty..." from the New York City Department of Transportation's Curbside Haiku program (Click to enlarge)
From the New York City Department of Transportation's Curbside Haiku program (Click to enlarge)
Imagine...from the New York City Department of Transportation's Curbside Haiku program (Click to enlarge)
