Pavement Art Makes Roadways Safer. So why did FDOT ban it?

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Research has shown that pavement art has a strong positive correlation with improved safety benefits, particularly in relation to crash reduction pavement art, across aggregated and most individual study sites. The Asphalt Art Safety Study conducted by Bloomberg Philanthropies in April 2022 analyzed before-and-after data of crash rates at 17 pavement art locations, including seven in Florida, and performed video analysis of street user behaviors. The study concluded that road user behavior clearly improved across the observed study sites in the after analysis periods. On average, areas featuring pavement art experienced a 17.3% reduction in crashes, underscoring the importance of pavement art safety.

The same study examined a pavement art installation in St Pete and found that the crash reduction pavement art led to a decrease in accidents from 4.2 per year to 4 per year, demonstrating a 4% reduction. This highlights the potential of pavement art safety measures, especially in light of the recent FDOT pavement art ban.

In the memo below, FDOT Assistant Secretary Will Watts, P.E., enforces a FDOT pavement art ban that prohibits local officials from installing pavement art. He threatens to withhold roadway funds from cities that fail to comply, citing roadway safety as the reason for this policy. Ironically, while he claims to prioritize pavement art safety, Mr. Watts is making our roadways more dangerous, contrary to the potential benefits of crash reduction pavement art.