Transportation is a complicated civic issue that touches everyone’s lives in so many ways. In 2018, artist Clement Hanami was placed in one of LA County’s first Creative Strategist residencies with the Policies for Livable Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) Program at the Department of Public Health, focusing on Vision Zero, the County's initiative to reduce traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.
Around this same time, similar artist residencies had already or were also launching across the country. Two years previous, artist Alan Nakagawa (who later had his own Creative Strategist residency with LA County Library), served as the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (DOT)'s first Artist-in-Residence (AIR), focused on its own Vision Zero initiative. In 2018, Smart Growth America launched its AIR program with the Minnesota and Washington State Departments of Transportation. And in 2019, Bloomberg Philanthropies published its Asphalt Art Guide, with case studies of asphalt art programs across the U.S.
As government and communities grapple with tough transportation and mobility challenges, evidence has grown over the years validating the importance of integrating art into our civic spaces for healthy and thriving communities.
This ethos is embraced by the LA County Board of Supervisors, demonstrated in many ways including through the adoption of the Countywide Cultural Policy, which includes integrating civic art and design in the creation of public spaces, transit, and infrastructure as just one among many strategies.
Back in 2022, the Department of Arts and Culture collaborated with the PLACE Program on the Department of Public Works’ application for U.S. DOT funding to implement Vision Zero in the unincorporated LA County community of Florence-Firestone. The funding was awarded and in January 2025, artist Audrey Chan began her four-year residency, during which she has been applying her artistic practice to strategize and develop:
- Arts-based, healing-centered community engagement around strategies for safer streets; and
- Community-engaged temporary artworks as site interventions to enhance pedestrian safety, visibility, beautification, and cultural equity.
Audrey's activities are intended to:
- Build awareness of and support for Vision Zero and traffic safety generally
- Complement and enhance the PLACE Program’s Vision Zero traffic safety education and programming
Thus far, Audrey has designed or participated in a number of engagement activities in Florence-Firestone, seeking to understand the needs and perceptions of the community. Over the course of many months, Audrey developed the following two projects (select each tile below to learn more):
For one of her earliest engagement activities, Audrey asked Florence-Firestone residents to respond to the prompt, "I want safe streets for...." She then created illustrated portraits of each resident with their personalized message for drivers speeding through the neighborhood.
The posters will be installed in bus shelters throughout Florence-Firestone starting this November 2026, to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in the U.S. This annual day honors victims of traffic collisions and their loved ones. Each year there are an astonishing average of more than 700 traffic-related deaths in the County alone (including all cities within its borders). The images will also be shared over social media to raise awareness about the County’s efforts to encourage people to take action for safer roads.
In September 2025, Audrey partnered with Public Works, the PLACE Program, Los Angeles Walks, and the Florence-Firestone Community Organization on a zine workshop. The zine, see below, includes interactive activities to envision safer streets and empowers residents to show care for their community by becoming street safety superheroes.
Learn more about the County’s Vision Zero initiative and what you can do to make the roads safer.
Learn more about the County’s Policies for Livable Active Communities and Environments program
Explore the Vision Zero Zine.
About the Artist
Audrey Chan is a Los Angeles-based visual artist whose research-based projects center community stories to challenge dominant historical narratives through allegories of power, place, and identity. Public art commissions include Will Power Allegory at the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station for Metro Art (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority) and The Care We Create for the ACLU of Southern California, where she was the inaugural Artist in Residence. She has been recognized as a DCA Cultural Trailblazer by Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs and as USC Pacific Asia Museum’s Artist Awareness and Impact Honoree. Chan has been awarded fellowships from the California Arts Council, California Community Foundation, Artists at Work with the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum, 18th Street Arts Center California Creative Corps, and the City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (COLA-IMAP). She is currently Artist in Residence with the Vision Zero Los Angeles County initiative in Florence-Firestone, Artist Fellow with Americans for the Arts, and a Local Artist in Residence at 18th Street Arts Center.