A Crosswalk That Counts the Cost of Reckless Driving

The white stripes of a pedestrian crossing are meant to promise safety. In Turkey, they often mark something else entirely: the place where a life was cut short.

Over the past decade, more than 20,000 people have been killed or injured at crosswalks across the country, according to government data. The reasons are depressingly familiar — drivers who fail to yield, speeding through intersections, a culture of impatience that leaves little room for pedestrians.

In Tuzla, a district on Istanbul’s eastern edge, officials have decided to make that danger impossible to ignore. This week, the municipality unveiled a crosswalk that doubles as a memorial and a warning.

Part of a campaign called “Stop at the Crosswalk, Stop the Accidents” — created in partnership with Concept Advertising Agency — the installation turns the familiar zebra stripes into a data visualization. Accident statistics are printed directly onto the asphalt, confronting drivers with the number of people injured or killed in such spots.

It is blunt by design. “We wanted to make sure no one could pass without understanding the stakes,” a municipal spokesperson said.

For drivers, the message is unmissable: this is not just a place to cross. It is a place where lives have been lost.

Whether the project will change behavior remains to be seen. But in Tuzla, the crosswalk now speaks — not in words, but in numbers, and in the silence of those who never made it to the other side.