According to Zero Deaths Maryland, speeding, distracted driving and other factors drove fatal crashes up 16% between 2019 and 2023 (the latest full year for which data is available). And Prince George’s County has the highest accident rate in the state. One unconventional tool local communities are using to reduce these collisions and injuries is called “Art in the Right of Way.” These are colorful murals and designs painted directly onto roadways, which were traditionally reserved for black asphalt with yellow or white lines, and for a few letters or arrows.
In October 2023, Hyattsville’s Transportation Manager Taylor Robey made a video announcing two projects creating traffic-calming public art outside the Hyattsville Municipal Building on Gallatin Street and in the intersection of Jefferson and 40th streets. “Something like asphalt art is nice to look at, it’s eye-catching,” Robey says in the video. “Studies also show that it increases safety in places where it’s deployed.”
Graham Coreil-Allen, the artist whose studio installed the designs in September and October 2023, told the Life & Times (L&T) that he considers such artworks a form of visual traffic engineering. “By painting bright colors inside the bump-outs on Gallatin, we visually narrow the street, which causes drivers to slow down.” He also explained that drivers are programmed to drive and park in areas that are either black or concrete-colored, and usually outlined with white lines. Therefore, other colors and designs help differentiate spaces where cars shouldn’t be, or where people have the right of way. According to Coreil-Allen, art that is directly on the roadway can also help to direct drivers’ eyes and attention back down onto the street, at pedestrians and cyclists who are harder to see than vehicles.
One of the area’s most recent pieces of traffic-calming art was completed last October. “Solstice Glow,” which celebrates native plants, is painted across from Joe’s Movement Emporium on Bunker Hill Road between 34th and 33rd streets in Mount Rainier. For several years, residents had been concerned with drivers using Bunker Hill Road to speed through the neighborhood from Eastern Avenue to 38th Street to avoid the traffic and lights along Route 1.
Joe’s holds dozens of performing arts classes, and many children and teens attend its after-school activities, held during afternoon rush hour. Joe’s is towards the middle of the block of Bunker Hill, between 34th and 33rd streets, and the two crosswalks at adjacent intersections are inconvenient for busy families hoping for a quick dropoff or pickup. As a result, many adults park on the north side, while their students cross Bunker Hill Road to reach Joe’s front entrance.
Solstice Glow was a collaborative community effort. The Neighborhood Design Center (NDC), which negotiated with the city to obtain the necessary permits and close the street to protect the artists; and the Chalk Riot studio, which designed and installed the artwork. Funding for the $17,000 project came from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council, along with other sources.
In June 2025, studio staff drew in a preliminary temporary design and solicited community feedback on it. Between Oct. 20 and Oct. 25, 2025, the street was partially blocked off, then thoroughly swept and power-washed to remove any dirt or oil. Over the next two days, eight painters completed the design using three layers of a special epoxy paint whose bright colors are formulated to stand up to the rigors of traffic, while not posing a slipping hazard to cars or people when wet.
Chalk Riot CEO Chelesa Ritter-Soronen emailed the L&T, “While regulations prohibit the construction of a new midblock crossing, the art is intended to increase visibility for all road users and remind people to take care with their vehicles because this is a road where community members and kids are living their lives.”
Does art in the right of way actually slow cars or reduce accidents or injuries? According to Ritter-Soronen, the NDC is conducting a traffic study at the Bunker Hill Road and 34th Street intersection to find out. Hyattsville’s Deputy Director of Public Works Hal Metzler wrote that city staffers have observed that the street art and other interventions near Church Place and Gallatin Street have reduced the number of vehicles stopping or parking illegally on Church Place. Metzler added, “The additional parking spaces as well as painted bump out do have a visible impact on the speed of vehicles. The roadway appears narrower, causing drivers to slow down to navigate safely.”
In April 2022, Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has funded numerous street art projects, released the Asphalt Art Safety Study, which compared both historical crash rates and real-time videotaped observations of the behavior of pedestrians and motorists before and after 17 asphalt art projects were installed across the country. Its historical analysis, which included at least two years of data both before and after the projects were installed, found a 50% decrease in the rate of crashes involving pedestrians or other vulnerable road users, such as cyclists; a 37% decrease in the rate of crashes leading to injuries; and a 17% decrease in the total crash rate.
The safety study’s behavioral assessment indicated a 25% decrease in pedestrian crossings involving a conflict with drivers. It also found a 27% increase in the frequency of drivers immediately yielding to pedestrians with the right of way, and a 38% decrease in pedestrians crossing against the walk signal.
Asphalt art is fun, attractive and has a proven track record of improving safety. But it doesn’t always win out over some other interventions that are uglier and often resented.
In 2023, the Town of Brentwood and the City of Mount Rainier wanted to decrease traffic speeds at several locations, including near Thomas Stone Elementary School on 34th Street, just a few blocks north of Joe’s. At first, their design firm considered colorful bump-outs, speed humps and painting the school’s logo in a nearby intersection.
But in 2025, officials instead chose to install two artificial intelligence-powered stop sign cameras that issue $40 tickets when drivers don’t come to a complete stop. No artwork can generate that kind of revenue. Hyattsville recently announced that it also was exploring the idea of installing mobile AI-powered stop sign cameras at numerous school-zone locations. Perhaps they’ll help pay for more asphalt art.
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Paul Ruffins is a citizen scientist and a professor of curiosity.
The next “Science of the City” article will consider some of the technical and political challenges of installing asphalt art.