For over 35 years, Amalia Gonzalez has watched how busy traffic can get on Rampart Boulevard near her apartment in Westlake.
Her concerns about how fast people drive are personal. In 2019, a driver hit Gonzalez as she was crossing near 4th Street and Rampart. She was hospitalized with injuries to her leg, arm and neck. She recovered, but the incident made her wish the city would do something to make the area safer.
On Sunday, Gonzalez watched as volunteers with the Crosswalk Collective LA painted two crosswalks near MacArthur Park and her apartment on 4th Street.
The crosswalks are unsanctioned and often appear at problem intersections. The pedestrian advocacy group arrived with high-visibility vests, traffic cones, white paint and stencils to create the crosswalks on Rampart Boulevard and Coronado Street.
Gonzalez welcomed the effort.
“For me, this is great, because there are drivers who just speed through and don’t notice when pedestrians are crossing to the other side, and I’m talking from experience because I was hit while crossing the street,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing, and I congratulate them for working to add those white stripes and make it safer for everyone who lives along Rampart.”
Since her accident, Gonzalez has noticed other car crashes.
“It’s really bad here. Drivers don’t respect that it’s a boulevard — they act like it’s a freeway and drive like animals. Just the other day, a man was going so fast that he hit a couple of people further up the street,” she said.
The volunteer group Crosswalk Collective LA has painted hundreds of unsanctioned crosswalks across Los Angeles since 2022. In some cases, members of the group have been ticketed for graffiti by the city.
Still, they’re committed to their work, which they consider a necessary, quick response in matters of public safety.
Volunteer Bianca Cockrell said the intersections on 4th Street were chosen for a variety of reasons, including the fact that some volunteers live in the area.
“A biker was killed here last year, so we painted a crosswalk in his honor to acknowledge that this street is very dangerous for people walking or biking, and we wanted to address that,” Cockrell said Sunday. “Rampart is also extremely busy — this is a crowded intersection with dense apartment buildings, heavy traffic, and a lot of people — so we wanted to add crosswalks to make it safer.”
Their group takes suggestions for future crosswalks via their website, she added.
“Our goal is to make all neighborhoods in LA feel safer, especially areas that are often overlooked or under-resourced,” Cockrell said. “Still, the input from neighbors and the community is the most important factor in determining where we act next.”
Volunteer Madeleine Colvin joined the collective last year and lives near the intersection.
“I think it just shows that we can make our city safer, make our streets safer on our own, like we don’t have to wait for the city to respond,” she said.
To locals, it’s clear that drivers speed on 4th Street after they turn off Rampart Boulevard, which is a major through street. Drivers sometimes do not notice pedestrians crossing the street.
“On weekdays, this is pretty well trafficked by parents walking their kids to school, and street vendors set up here too,” Colvin said. “It’s also pretty wide, and so we thought if we’re going to paint a crosswalk, this feels like a good spot.”
Colvin recently submitted a 311 request to have a crosswalk installed, but the city has not responded. Cockrell said this isn’t surprising, as she has seen the same happen at other intersections. Even though the collective does not expect a response to their request, they still feel it’s necessary to try to go the official route before taking matters into their own hands.
“So we find it really important to say, we’ve done that, but people are still dying on our streets, so we want to take action,” Colvin said.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cockrell added that much of the criticism their group receives centers on how they choose where to paint crosswalks. Sometimes, like the intersection at Rampart and 4th, they’re not the worst of the worst when it comes to death or injury toll. For Cockrell, it’s still an important spot for a new crosswalk because much of their work is preventative rather than reactionary.
“They look for the data,” she said about their detractors. “But we’d like to be proactive about our own safety. Kids shouldn’t have to die for something to happen.”