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New Haiku Signs Will Make NYC Streets Safer Through Power Of Poetry
By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 29, 2011
Modified Nov 29, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 29, 2011
Modified Nov 29, 2011
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DOT uses / Money from drunk driver fines / To buy new haikus! Today DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan unveiled the first of 216 safety signs featuring colorful artwork and haikus. The signs will be installed at a dozen high-crash locations near cultural institutions and schools citywide, using state money collected from DWI fines. Haikus for safer streets! We can't wait to hear what cantankerous NY Post columnist Steve Cuozzo has to say about this! ("In the good old days / Cars ran poets down like dogs / Wrote rhymes with their blood.")
The DOT hopes that the "Curbside Haiku" initiative will draw attention to "the critical importance of shared responsibility among all street users to help keep New York City's streets as safe as they can be." The series features 12 designs with accompanying haikus by poet John Morse, each one expressing a different safety message by focusing on one transportation mode. For example, our favorite one spreads this message: "Cyclist writes screenplay / Plot features bike lane drama / How pedestrian."
Half of the signs will be hung in pairs, with the image and haiku text appearing; the others feature an image with a QR code on the sign that lets New Yorkers "discover the safety message via their smart phones." They'll be displayed from now until next fall at a dozen hubs across the five boroughs; there's a map below showing where each haiku awaits you. Collect each one!
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department of transportation
dot
haiku
safety
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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