If you’ve walked or driven through the intersection of 106th Avenue NE and NE 10th Street lately, you may have noticed something new underfoot. The City of Bellevue has installed four artist-designed crosswalks around the city — including one in downtown Bellevue — as part of a new pilot program called Creative Crosswalks.
Now the city wants to hear what residents, commuters and visitors think.
Where to find the new crosswalks
Each painted design was installed on one side of the following intersections:
- 106th Avenue NE and NE 10th Street (downtown)
- 124th Avenue NE and NE 8th Street
- 132nd Avenue NE and Bel-Red Road
- 164th Avenue NE and NE 24th Street
The downtown location sits just north of Bellevue’s core, near the NE 10th Street corridor that carries steady foot and vehicle traffic between downtown towers, residential buildings and the I-405 interchange.
Art as a traffic safety tool
The pilot is a joint effort between the city’s Transportation and Community Development departments. It’s designed to answer three questions: do painted crosswalks improve safety, are they practical to maintain, and does the community actually like them?
On the safety side, the city is looking at whether the bright, colorful designs help grab drivers’ attention and make pedestrians more visible — or whether they end up being a distraction instead.
The installations were funded through a U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, along with money from the city’s Community Development Arts and Culture program.
Meet the artists
Bellevue issued an open call for artists to submit designs for the project, with each artist limited to a palette of up to six colors. From the pool of entries, two Puget Sound artists — Nikita Ares and Kenji Stoll — were selected, and each created two of the four designs.
Share your opinion
The city is asking anyone who has walked, rolled or driven through one of the new crosswalks to take a short survey, which takes about five minutes to complete. The survey is open through November 30.
For more on the artists, the designs and a link to the survey, visit the city’s Creative Crosswalks project page.
Source: City of Bellevue
