JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The crosswalks at two intersections in Historic Springfield are painted with colorful designs. The intersections of East 3rd and Hubbard Street and East 7th and Hubbard Street were painted by local artist, David Nackashi.
“We are super excited about our crosswalks,” said Kelly Rich, Executive Director of SPAR. “Historic Springfield has been fighting a lot of speeding and several issues that have created some pedestrian safety issues.”
Rich said SPAR has been working on the initiative with the city for roughly a year.
“Several months ago they added the white striping and what that does is it narrows visually the lane so when drivers are driving, it puts them back in their lane and it reminds them of an important intersection,” explained Rich. “Then we came back and added the artistic element because Springfield is quite quirky and we love to include art every opportunity we can.”
According to SPAR, the goal of the project is to get drivers to slow down and improve pedestrian safety.
“We are looking for any opportunity for people to slow down and look where they’re going, get off their phone,” said Rich. “With all of our increased pedestrians that are crossing, there’s a lot of people coming to take pictures so with that we’re hoping it will create more awareness of the speeding problems and just give a reason to slow down and enjoy the neighborhood.”
Rich said they chose these two intersections because they are highly traveled. In the future, the organization hopes to paint other intersections in the neighborhood.