LOOK On Your Own While Crossing 9th Street Now That Markings Are History

It’s been just over two years since the city’s Department of Transportation rolled out its LOOK campaign, aimed at reminding pedestrians to look before crossing the street, and the markings at a busy local intersection have completely worn away.

It didn’t take long for the words “LOOK,” with little eyes in the Os, to deteriorate — just six months after being applied to the intersection of 9th Street and 7th Avenue, they were mostly gone. They also wore down fairly quickly in other places they were applied around the city, and in some places they were replaced with spray-painted versions. But now these ones, at least, are history, as each of the four in the crosswalks have worn away completely.

It’s unclear how much of an impact these markings and this campaign overall have had on keeping pedestrians safe. The NYPD’s collision stats for this intersection show that there are some car crashes — for the year through October, which is the most recent month for which the data is available, this intersection saw seven collisions, with one of those involving a pedestrian.

Could a decal have helped stop that? Who can say. It would be great if the campaign helped in some way, but we have to wonder if the cost — about $60,000 for the stamps (largely from federal funds) and $1 million for the advertising, reportedly — was worth it, particularly considering how long they lasted.