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Spring Service Day Brings Street Art and Safety to Rancho Cordova
On Saturday, May 17, hundreds of community members in Rancho Cordova participated in the city’s second annual Spring Service Day. There were more than a dozen community-enhancing projects all over the city that volunteers could help with, from tree plantings to barn painting. One of the projects that stood out was the Lincoln Village Asphalt Art Pilot, where intersections along Lincoln Village Drive were covered in bright murals and art designed by local artists and installed by volunteers.
Intersection asphalt art “Turtle and flowers” by Sacramento-based artists Molly Devlin and Stephen Williams
“Our goal was to celebrate community and infuse it with art,” shared Drew Hart, senior transportation planner with the City of Rancho Cordova. The colorful murals bring energy to these intersections, and they perform an important safety function. The murals encourage drivers to slow down along the road, which has been a request by community members in this area for some time, added Hart.
Crosswalk asphalt art “Sunset on the River” was designed by Temecula-based artist Matthew Cavanagh. Volunteers are pictured painting the mural during the Spring Service Day.
The art pilot project was largely inspired by the Asphalt Art Safety Study, by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The study looked at data from 17 mural sites in neighborhoods across five states and found that roadway and crosswalk art helped reduce crash rates and increase safety for pedestrians. The study found that street art, in addition to traffic-calming measures, decreased the total crash rate by 17 percent, and significantly decreased crash rates involving pedestrians and cyclists by 50 percent.
Chalk art placemaking word “Play” by Sacramento-based artist Karen Chen
More traffic improvements are planned along Lincoln Village Drive. In the meantime, city staff and community members are enjoying the opportunity to look at and experience their streets in a new way.
“Being able to see how people reacted and being able to walk in the street was really unique,” reflected Ian Winbrock, management analyst at the City of Rancho Cordova, who helped find and coordinate the artists for the event. It was a huge undertaking to coordinate the day, and funding from the city’s Community Enhancement and Investment Fund (CEIF) helped to make it happen. “Tons of divisions came together for this,” Winbrock added. “[It was] true inter-departmental collaboration.”