Zen and the art of motorcycle (or car) parking
Drivers in Cambridge, Mass., are still likely to be ticketed if they park illegally, they just may not be as upset when they look at their tickets. At least, that’s the hope of city officials, who, in September, began issuing parking tickets that featured diagrams of yoga poses printed on them. “It’s trying to debunk the idea that all parking tickets are a hostile action, because I don’t think they are,” Susan Clippinger, the city’s transportation chief, told the Boston Herald.
The parking ticket makeover is part of a public art project by the city’s artist-in-residence, Daniel Peltz, according to the Herald. In addition to the 40,000 new parking tickets Cambridge printed, the city is incorporating mood-enhancing imagery in other aspects of parking enforcement, including new street signs that explain traffic rules in offbeat ways; a mural of excuses given by ticketed drivers that will be on display at Peltz’s “Crossing Non Signalized Locations” exhibition; and plush, stuffed ‘soft-boots’ that gently keep parking violators’ vehicles stationary until fees are paid.
