The artistic flair of some elementary school students in north-end Halifax has added a colourful touch to temporary safety features at two intersections in their neighbourhood.
As part of a municipal project called Ride with Me, curb extensions installed along Creighton and Maynard streets stand out from typical bicycle infrastructure thanks to their vibrant colours and whimsical designs.
“[The] great thing about the street art project is that it takes that sort of … grey, boring concrete and makes it a billion times more attractive and more pleasant for the neighbourhood,” said David MacIsaac, the Halifax Regional Municipality’s manager of active transportation.
Three artists were hired to work with students in grades 5 and 6 at Joseph Howe Elementary School to plan and paint the designs along the streets, said Kate Moon, a community developer with the city.
The municipality received funding for the project through a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies under its Asphalt Art Initiative, which sponsors projects that use art and community engagement to create safer spaces.
Five other intersections in the neighbourhood are to get the same treatment and Moon said she hopes people will be excited to bike or walk through the spaces. She said an unveiling event is planned for late September, when residents will be invited to take a tour on their bikes to view the completed work.
“This community art project gives an opportunity to young people in the neighbourhood to see themselves reflected in public space,” Moon said.
“And as well as the young people that are involved, the wider community can have a sense of pride as well [as] a sense of place with seeing the seven intersections that we’re going to be transforming with the artwork from the kids,” she said.
The interim curb extensions are part of a bigger city project called Complete Streets that’s intended to improve streets and make them safer for all users, MacIsaac said.
The north-end project is an example of the implementation of “temporary movable infrastructure” that has been created to slow down cars on the streets and make crossing distances shorter for pedestrians and cyclists, MacIsaac said.
Increase in cyclists
Bicycle counters in Halifax suggest a steady increase in cyclists each year in the city core. There are a number of automatic bicycle counters, but the ones on streets like South Park, Hollis, Windsor and Vernon provide better year-to-year trends, MacIsaac said.
“On some facilities, you know, you’ll see like a jump of 20, 22 per cent per year and generally over time, I think we’re seeing roughly 15 per cent sort of since 2021,” said MacIsaac.
With the steady rise in bicycle ridership, more infrastructure in the city would help increase accessibility but it needs to be more effectively co-ordinated, MacIsaac said.
He said a lot of planning and design work is not always visible but he is happy it is progressing, even if it is sometimes at a frustrating pace.
“We live in a city that is growing where our streets are, you know, have a lot of demands. We have in Halifax a very awkward and discombobulated kind of street grid network,” said MacIsaac. “It’s an older city. So it, you know, it does take time and we need to be, you know, very conscious when we go in to add these facilities.”
David Trueman, the chair of the Halifax Cycling Coalition, said he understands some people may resist the additional cycling infrastructure but he emphasized that it can support everyone.
“When you think of the growth that we’re going through in Halifax, if we keep adding more and more cars, the congestion is going to get worse and worse. So we need the alternatives,” said Trueman.