City takes 14 years to paint a needed crosswalk, so advocates take the paintbrush into their own hands. Then what? | NextCity

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Los Angeles failed to eliminate traffic fatalities, so Angelenos are taking Vision Zero into their own hands – one bucket of paint at a time.

Painting a crosswalk is cheap and easy. A group of neighbors can paint an entire intersection in one morning for $100 or less. Getting the city of Los Angeles to paint a crosswalk, on the other hand, might take 14 years and the death of a 9-year-old boy.

Across L.A., neighbors are banding together to paint crosswalks to protest the city’s failure to protect people outside of cars.

Jonathan Hale, a UCLA law student who goes by “Jonny,” spent four Saturday mornings painting crosswalks with neighbors at Stoner Park this summer, covering each corner of the park. After the city removed them, he went to the press and vowed to repaint them.

“I was like, ‘Next Saturday, we’ll be out there, and you’ll have to deal with it. It’ll be a spectacle. And, like, everybody kind of hates you right now.”

The city painted official crosswalks a week later.

Now, Hale is leading a new group, called People’s Vision Zero, to continue to paint crosswalks across the city to protest for safer streets. Painting guerilla crosswalks in L.A. is not new — the anonymous group Crosswalks Collective LA has been doing it since 2022. What is new: Hale is putting his name and his face on the movement, challenging the city to take a public stance on vigilante crosswalks.

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City takes 14 years to paint a needed crosswalk, so advocates take the paintbrush into their own hands. Then what? | NextCity