Wednesday, June 8, 2016

At a time when the number of pedestrian traffic deaths is increasing as urban residents are encouraged to walk and bike more, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is committing to creativity and innovation by hiring a sound artist to help fix the issue. Alan Nakagawa, LADOT’s artist-in-residence, is tasked with underscoring the severity of the city’s traffic deaths. He will focus on Los Angeles’s Vision Zero Plan, which aims to eliminate all of LA’s traffic deaths by 2025.

His innovative approach to addressing the city’s traffic deaths takes into consideration the cultural nuances of every neighborhood, which determine the way that people navigate the streets. “This is an incredibly smart approach in a place like LA, because how you talk about Vision Zero to a primarily Latino community in Boyle Heights will be different from how you’ll talk about it in Chinatown or Little Bangladesh,” says Seleta Reynolds, LADOT’s general manager.

Nakagawa will also focus on integrating LADOT into the local art community by utilizing ground-floor space at LDOT’s headquarters as a public gathering center for art, showcasing the work of local artists, and making it a part of the surrounding neighborhood’s monthly art walk.

 

 

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