People walking down Bank Street can expect less of the crude graffiti tags and messages they’re used to seeing on traffic boxes and more community friendly designs after the Ottawa transportation committee decided to extend vinyl-wrap pilot project meant to prevent graffiti and cut removal costs in the area.
The program was started in December 2012 after 24 traffic-control boxes along Bank Street between Queen Street in Centretown and Riverdale Avenue in Old Ottawa South were covered in the colourful vinyl wrap full of cartoon city buildings and the O-train.
The design, which is representative of the city’s current focus of “Ottawa on the Move,” is meant to deter vandals by providing minimal blank space that would be optimal for writing or painting messages on.
Bank Street BIA spokesperson Charlie Crabb says the program works well to prevent graffiti on Bank Street, along with the murals that the BIA has commissioned in the area to showcase the art aspect of graffiti.
“The Bank Street BIA commits a considerable amount of resources to keep graffiti off out street,” says Crabb. “As for the wrap, I think it’s a great project that keeps our street looking clean. Anything that does that is a success.”
In its first year, the program cut graffiti cleaning costs by 40 per cent or almost $1,900 in the pilot project area, according to a report from public works department chief Larry O’Keefe.
The report states that other unwrapped traffic boxes in close proximity to the boxes protected by the vinyl coverings also experienced a decrease in graffiti. However, at intersections lacking a wrapped box the city has seen a “creep effect” begin to occur in which areas not close to a wrapped box are experiencing an increase in graffiti.
“Graffiti is one of those things that, you know, it’s like littering,” says Const. Matthew Hunt, who is part of the Ottawa police graffiti management program. He hopes that the program will deter vandals, but doesn’t believe it will stop tagging altogether.
“It’s sort of a gateway crime,” says Hunt. “We make sure that it’s cleaned up right away . . . that way there’s less of a chance of it coming back because vandals know that this is an area the city will notice it in.”
The city’s public works department believes this problem will be solved once the remaining traffic boxes along Bank Street are covered, but nobody from the department could be reached for further comment on how they would address the issue if it continues after the remaining boxes are wrapped.
The remaining 100 boxes along Bank Street between Queen Street and Riverdale Avenue that were not covered in the pilot program will receive vinyl wrappings by the end of this year, the cost of which is an estimated $38,000 – significantly less than the $75,000 allocated to graffiti removal each year.
The city’s public works department has had they will work with ward councillors and Business Improvement Areas to figure out what areas to implement the project in next.