Painted residential roadways

Distilled from an article on Axios

Street art such as colorful crosswalks and painted intersections can both liven up communities and make streets more welcoming. But, is it a potential distraction for drivers? New research suggests no. Painted roadways can make intersections safer by focusing motorists on the road, which causes them to be ready to slow down and be on the lookout for pedestrians and cyclists.

Pedestrian deaths are up 45% in the US in the past decade. Safety advocates say street design is a big factor. Roads prioritize automobiles over other users. To make communities more walkable, many cities have painted colorful crosswalks and murals over drab stretches of asphalt and concrete.

You will find however, that governments tend not to be a fan of art on the street. But government has no data to back up its position. Bloomberg Philanthropies commissioned the first known study of street art to see what effect, if any, the pavement paintings have on traffic safety. Compared historical crash data and real-time video footage of human behaviour before and after art was installed at 22 sites showed a 50% drop in crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists and a 37% drop in crashes leading to injuries. Overall, intersections with asphalt art saw a 17% reduction in total accidents, a 27% increase in the rate of drivers yielding to pedestrians with the right of way, and a 25% drop in potentially dangerous conflicts between drivers and pedestrians.

Traffic engineering is a social science. You're changing driver expectations. Things that constrain their field of vision and physically constrain the roadway cause drivers to focus, and recognize that they're entering an area where they might encounter pedestrians.