Picture this: The intersection was all dull asphalt and yellow crosswalks, but now it’s a rainbow of colors. Children are crossing the street to get home from school, and drivers are forced to pay more attention. The crosswalk mural reminds everyone that the street is a shared public space, too.

That is the vision of Donald Gensler and Amie Tokuhama-Chapman, who are the two-person team behind the Art in Public Places program in Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture. The city is accepting artist applications through Aug. 18 to create two crosswalks by two elementary schools, Smythe Academy and Garden Valley Elementary. Both schools are on the Northgate Boulevard corridor that cuts through Gardenland, Northgate and South Natomas.

The grant-funded crosswalk project feeds two dogs with one bone: beautifying the neighborhood and using a proven method for enhancing road safety.

Sacramento has some of the worst traffic death rates in the state, and Northgate is one of the worst streets. Of at least 21 people who have died this year, one man — Vuong Van Nguyen, 47 — was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking on Northgate Boulevard.

The crosswalks are “a small step,” Gensler acknowledged at the Donuts & Coffey in South Natomas. One limited project is not going to solve the road safety crisis in Sacramento.

But, he said, “We’re trying to build the city we all want to live in. ... We can’t think that just one crosswalk is too insignificant.”

Can a crosswalk help stop pedestrian crashes?

Although car crashes tend to be unintentional, they are also rarely “accidents.” The vast majority of fatal and severe collisions are preventable with changes to policy and infrastructure. With that in mind, the City Council made a Vision Zero pledge in 2017 to end traffic fatalities by 2027.

More than 300 people have died in collisions since then, including at least 21 people in 2025: Najah Islam, 30; Jonathon T. Slaugh, 62; Adrienne Keyana Johnson, 33; Cornelius Jesse, 59; Nguyen; Zachery Ryan Taylor, 20; Natalia Regina Sanchez, 50; William Andrew Akens, 26; Ernesto Torres, 58; Zhen Cheng Kuang, 76; Thongthai Xanaxay, 55; Kaleb Josiah Green, 22; Duc Nguyen, 30; Robert Michael Pineschi Jr., 39; Kimberly Lynn Pickett, 60; Parris Shauntel Windham, 41; and Michael Driskell, 78. Mohammad Shaoib Durrani, 22, and Hashmatullah Durrani, 24, died in a crash Aug. 2 along with one other young man whose name has not yet been released by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. On Aug. 6, a pedestrian identified as Ricky Reyes, 19, was fatally struck in North Natomas.

But as with any ambitious goal, to reach it, officials must break it into smaller parts. Councilmember Karina Talamantes, who, along with her staff, is working with the Art in Public Places team on the crosswalks, has already tackled another small but significant intervention nearby. She lobbied to fund a crossing signal and a pedestrian refuge island on San Juan Road. The improvements, along with rumble strips that jolt drivers to attention with noise, now coax drivers to slow down a little heading into a curve where a horrific single-vehicle crash killed Rayshawna “Shawna” Armstrong, 25, her 3-year-old son, Zayden, and Alex Leon, 5, in May 2023. The infrastructure change is an improvement on one dangerous curve in a citywide network of dangerous roads.

Two colorful Northgate elementary school crosswalks are about as small as an intervention could be.

They could start a trend, however. Research sponsored by the charitable foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies found they reduce pedestrian crashes after they’re installed. And Tokuhama-Chapman hoped the crosswalks could be an example for the whole city, which, she said, has only one similar installation: the rainbows in Lavender Heights at 21st and K streets.

“It is the kernel of the conversation. Yes, we recognize that it’s a small part,” she said. But a safer street wasn’t just about physical safety; it would add to the vibrancy of a neighborhood. “When you have four- or six-lane streets and then strip malls and big box stores, you don’t have the same kind of connections — community connections.”

Foot traffic is a boon to local businesses, she said, boosting sales. But creating a place where people want to walk also has intangible benefits.

In Natomas, she said, “So many people walk on the streets. And when you pass by, you make eye contact. You greet; you say hello. That doesn’t happen when you’re driving in cars next to each other.”

And, she added, a colorful and possibly zany crosswalk serves as a bold reminder that people are using the road; it’s not just a route for vehicles to zoom through.

To get the next generation involved, the projects involve an education component. The grant funding covers one “design artist” and one “teaching artist” per school — the design artists will focus on the crosswalks themselves, while the teaching artists will work with students at each elementary school to create a thematically linked art project. The pieces that the students create will be displayed in an art show open to the public. The development of the project will also involve public meetings with people in the neighborhood.

When community members are part of the process of making something, Tokuhama-Chapman said, “They want to protect it and preserve it.”

Fighting climate change with pedestrian infrastructure

Gensler had ridden his bike to the cafe that morning along Northgate Boulevard and then San Juan Road — two major thoroughfares with fast-moving traffic and inadequate bike infrastructure.

He was scared that he would be run over, and he could see urban design mistakes. Like many roadways in Sacramento, these streets were made for people in cars, and the safety and comfort of anyone outside a car was an afterthought. In so many ways, communities were less safe and less healthy because of past city planners’ deference to cars.

But California has pledged to shift more people into forms of “active transportation” such as biking or walking, particularly as a way to fight the climate crisis. The transportation sector contributes the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, with 39% of total emissions. Staving off the worst effects of climate change will require getting more people out of their cars.

The students at Smythe and Garden Valley will be part of that shift. Gensler pointed to Davis as an example of what is possible for Sacramento. “We could do it,” he said. The crosswalk could be the beginning for these students.

“We are investing in this youngest population that will help build this next generation,” he said. “And maybe think a little bit more about traffic safety.”