More cultural crosswalks coming for Seattle pedestrians

In March, the City of Seattle installed one crosswalk boasting Pan-African colors in the Central District. The city is now creating 10 more for pedestrians throughout the neighborhood.

Related: Jason Rantz wants American flag-themed crosswalks in Seattle

The first crosswalk was installed at 23rd Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It is striped with black, green and red — the Pan-African colors. Throughout June, the Seattle Department of Transportation plans to install the new crosswalks, but will first remodel the already painted walkway from March. While the original design had colored lines similar to regular crosswalks, the new ones will have solid colors laterally crossing the street.

The new Pan-African crosswalks will be modeled after this pattern. (City of Seattle)

The city will continue by installing the crosswalks at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Alder Street before moving on to others. The existing crosswalks will be torn up over one or two days and replaced with temporary paint. Then the new crosswalks will be installed as weather permits.

Seattle’s crosswalks program

The move to paint crosswalks according to each neighborhood’s unique characteristics began when locals on Capitol Hill redesigned their crosswalks with rainbow colors in recognition of the area’s LGBTQ community. Those 11 street crossings cost the city $6,000 per crosswalk — or $66,000 altogether.

Since then, the city has developed a program for neighborhoods to implement their own unique crosswalks.

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