I risked life, limb & bicycle when I stopped in the middle of Dallas Road the other day to get this photo of street art.  Wouldn’t it be neat to meet the whimsical public worker brave enough to create it?

More & more often the streets in Victoria are showing the influence of creative & open-minded thinking.  I first spied this funky crosswalk through the windows of a transit bus.  The compulsion to get a photo was so strong, I had to get off the bus.  This time my self-preservation instinct kicked in, so I remained safely on the curb for the shot.

This past summer, a rainbow crosswalk decorated the street in front of City Hall for Pride Week.  The University of Victoria painted one on Ring Road, just outside the Student Union building.  It seems to be holding up well even though a couple of months have passed.

When I was out to Long Beach for Thanksgiving, I was delighted to see the trend had spread to Tofino.  Several crosswalks along the main drag show off the town’s artistic bent.

Surfing is a big deal out there, so it makes sense they produced an homage to the wave.   My favorite is the wave made by swapping the black & white stripe placement to show off the wave pattern.  Another that changed the regular shape of the crosswalk to form the wave is pretty cool, too.

Even better is the crosswalk that the fish are swimming through.
Now that’s groovy.
🙂

But all this makes me wonder…

Are we just a bunch of creative hippies out here on the west coast?
Or are other places on board with this fun?

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This piece of public art made me smile.  If clunky utility boxes are a fact of life in the urban landscape, I’m glad some are decorative too.

🙂

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