BALTIMORE — It's so nice to take a walk through Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood. Problem is, sometimes, drivers floor it on streets when they're supposed to be going 25.
One local artist and his team might be able to help slow things down, and make things safer for people walking in that small neighborhood.
The goals: Traffic calming and placebuilding. Bringing cars down to a more reasonable speed to prevent traffic injuries.
As Graham Coreil-Allen, owner and public artist for Graham Projects, explained to WMAR, street murals may help slow traffic by making pedestrian walkways more noticeable.
"Instead of it feeling like a thoroughfare," Coreil-Allen said, "where commuters are just sort of traveling through at high speeds and not paying attention to their surroundings, the art makes it feel more like a place, more like a neighborhood, something where you're actually wrapped in art and really drawing attention to the pedestrian's right of way."
Coreil-Allen and his team start with neighborhood organizations, get community feedback as they did Tuesday night in Little Italy, and ask neighbors to choose art designs, applying for permits from Baltimore City.
Dan Sutherland-Weiser has led the Little Italy Neighborhood Association for the last few years, and tells WMAR neighbors have raised concerns about traffic there.
While Sutherland-Weiser would like folks to stop at businesses there - he'd also like them to stop at intersections.
"We want to make it more welcoming to come into Little Italy, and once you're here, to be able to walk around safely," said Sutherland-Weiser.
"I think people try to be respectful as they go through a small neighborhood," he continued, "But we want to make them very aware there are people walking and there are businesses and people walking dogs and also elderly people, not everybody who's capable of walking in a healthy way.
Coreil-Allen said their work cycle typically takes around 18 months.
