We appreciated the positive, widespread response to the pedestrian brick campaign! The campaign resulted from a combination of two sources of inspiration:
a) The ‘Brick in the Rain social experiment‘ by the Treeman Youtube channel in Hong Kong, who filmed a subject getting splashed at street corners by drivers passing through puddles. They then wanted to see if carrying a plastic brick caused drivers to slow down enough to stop the splashing. According to the video evidence, it worked!
and
b) the “safety” feature known as a pedestrian flag installation. It is a pair of buckets carrying bright flags installed at poles on two ends of a crosswalk, usually with a sign instructing users to wave the flag.
Pedestrian flags have been used across many jurisdictions as a low cost (usually DIY) stopgap effort in neighbourhoods where unmarked crossings are paired with highway-like driving conditions and a lack of political responsiveness to safety demands.
A photo of a pedestrian flag crossing set up on a West Vancouver crosswalk. Photo source: CBC News
The flags have been criticized and can be perceived as ineffective and demeaning by the user. One may feel like they’ve been asked to carry a permission slip to cross a street that already grants them right-of-way.
By formalizing the rain brick into the pedestrian brick crossing system, we at Vision Zero Vancouver replaced an object of ridicule with an object of power, challenging the power imbalance between driver and pedestrian that we’ve been conditioned to ignore for generations.
The concept spread quite quickly on forums and social media, generating hundreds of millions of views/interactions across many platforms. The pedestrian brick crossing system has now been replicated and reported on globally, from Mexico to Malaysia. Here’s a small sample of the media coverage:
Momentum Magazine: Bold Vision Zero campaign
CityNews: Local safety organization offers “bricker” solution to pedestrians
CTV News: Grab a brick: Pedestrians flock to Granville Island to try safety stunt
CBC News: Granville Island crosswalk users urged to pick up a brick
We advocate for the use of pedestrian bricks primarily as a means to force more conversations about achieving real peace on the streets through safer infrastructure and fewer, safer vehicles. We hope that it did! Safe streets are one point that communities can continue to organize around as they seek to improve their lives in general.
Vision Zero Vancouver 