City Hall
Milwaukee’s New Tool To Fight Reckless Driving? Public Art
Rolling sculpture aims to provoke, encourage people to drive safer.
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Rolling sculpture aims to provoke, encourage people to drive safer. Back to the full article.
Photos - Page 2
I think Oscar Mayer beat her to it.
Education is an important part of prevention, and capturing peoples’ attention is a part of that. So, why not?!
Cute but what a waste of time and money. If you were directing this at grade school children, I’m sure they would enjoy this. Let’s do something real to prevent reckless driving–and that involves accountability for their actions.
Seriously people? This is nothing more than a feel good attempt at making it appear that someone is doing something. Speed signs, stop signs, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on bump outs, plastic cones, broken planters, and narrowing access to our streets hasn’t worked…and you think this will? Here is a hint people. Ticket books. They are cheap, and easily used (when you have enough Police Officer’s assigned to write them). Just make sure that the state and municipal judges have that part of their anatomy to enforce them with fines and/or jail time.
Ridiculous!
Clarification of my previous comment – when I suggested tighter control over funding.
I was NOT suggesting that politicians’ control of art is generally a good thing.
Artistically, the piece is not on my wavelength. Financially, it is an attention-getting tool in a larger safety program.
The price of the art itself is subject to cost/benefit analysis,
the same way an advertiser would weigh Commercial Artwork’s contribution to an ad campaign.
I presume the dollars mentioned are for the entire program – construction transport, storage, publicity, printed handouts, etc. The ‘job’ of the piece is to attract and focus attention on safety.
IF enough people see it, and are influenced by it’s applied messages,
it SUCCEEDS, my artistic opinion be damned!
Still think this artistic investment was a waste of time and money. Install street cameras to catch reckless drivers. We already have an awareness builder–all the cars wrapped around trees and driving into buildings.
This approach reaches drivers at a time when they’re not busy concentrating on avoiding trees, buildings, and drivers who are inclined to hit them.
Getting wrapped up in things at the end of their commute,
drivers can easily forget to contact their officials.
This encounter could and should provide a suggestion box, petitions to sign, handout reminders
with links to appropriate websites, petitions etc.or preaddressed, prepaid postcards to officials.
@Marty Ellenbecker – Just to be clear, I was not thinking about you when I was criticizing the call for elected official oversight of the arts budget. It was directed at the Alder.
Your posts are the ones I always look forward to reading because you are clear and smart, and also seem to be drawing from a pool of knowledge and experience I don’t have. (Like, maybe “functional knowledge,” how things do or should work.?)
Happy Labor Day!
FF
@ Franklin Furter – Thanks for the complement. No offense or issue taken with your comments. There were 2 articles on this topic, each with their own set of comments.
My main point is that when publicly funding art works, politicians and officials should consider cost/benefit scenarios, not impose their own judgment on the art’s merit.
I was once a member of MARN. I opposed their plan to put artwork in the S. 6th St. roundabout. No design or budget existed yet, but I feared putting a distraction/visual obstruction in the middle of an unfamiliar and poorly designed road feature.
Happy Labor Day to you too.