LOOK Campaign Fail on 7th Avenue/9th Street

Remember when the Department of Transportation rolled out their LOOK! campaign, which included adding markings with little eyes in the Os of the word ‘look’ in busy crosswalks around the city? That was just a few months ago, but the one on the northwest corner of the 7th Ave/9th St intersection is halfway gone already.

Whether these markings, which are supposed to remind pedestrians to look before crossing the street, do anything to help reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths remains to be seen. But it will sure be a little harder to calculate the markings’ effectiveness if they’re erased from the street so quickly.

What we can confirm is that the LOOK markings don’t do much of anything to alert drivers that pedestrians are using the crosswalk. I recently crossed this intersection, and myself and another pedestrian who had the light nearly got mowed down by a car trying to make the turn onto 9th. Where are the signs about that?