In 2018, MICA’s Center for Social Design partnered with the Neighborhood Design Center and the Maryland Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Highway Safety Office on the Made You Look: Art in the Right of Way program, with the goal to increase pedestrian safety in Baltimore City. Receiving multi-year funding from MDOT, the initiative has built a growing network of community partners while increasing pedestrian safety across the city.

With Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s recent announcement of $1 million in state highway safety grants, Made You Look will now expand to other parts of the Baltimore-Washington region, including Hyattsville, Colmar Manor, and Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mt. Rainer.

Conceived by Quinton Batts ’19 (Social Design MA) and Vilde Ulset ’19 (Social Design MA), the initiative sought to provide design interventions to help save lives and prevent traffic-related injuries in Baltimore. After investigating ways to reduce troubling pedestrian safety statistics through design interventions, the pair eventually pursued artistic approaches to traffic-calming, such as horizontal murals painted in crosswalks and colorful sidewalk bump-outs that can alert drivers’ attention to pedestrians, bike-riders, and other road users.

Among Made You Look’s efforts are Bright Lanes — the use of creative crosswalks to enhance the visibility of pedestrian zones and provide visual cues to drivers to slow down and stop for other road users. An installation in Baltimore’s Reservoir Hill neighborhood increased pedestrian use of crosswalks and significantly increased cars yielding to other road users. The collaboration also produced the Art in the Right of Way Toolkit, a step-by-step guide for Baltimore communities that want to install traffic calming art in their neighborhoods. Created in collaboration with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation Community Programs, it gives directions for how to create and implement Art in the Right of Way in Baltimore City.