After this post about Zebra Crossings I was happy to find people following up keenly with suggestions and offers of involvement.

I got the phone numbers of a few people in charge of various things around the city and got to work to prepare to convince people to support it.

The school wasted no time in not only accepting the idea of re-locating the zebra crossing, but assured me the paint would be procured by them.

The Aga Khan Chief Executive Officer, Fred Tukahirwa, was quite clear about the school’s position.

“We have this in our budget, and it is for the children’s safety as well!”

A couple of weeks later, we were at the scene of the planned relocation measuring it up for the paint.

The new site would be right at a speed hump a few metres down from the entrance to the parking lot; the logic being that most cars would have already slowed down anyway at that point, making it easier for them to stop should children and parents begin crossing the road. A few metres down from the spot is another hump, which would also slow them down (see the photo immediately below this).

But before that, the Kampala Art Biennale team had jumped at the idea of helping to paint a Zebra Crossing because it would fit in perfectly with the idea behind the project: incorporating art into ordinary, every day life.

Both Daudi Karungi and Henry Zilix Mujunga were quite excited because they had an opportunity to create a zebra crossing that wasn’t the usual, plain black and white story that most people didn’t even respect.

Their planned design, though, couldn’t work because road paints are simply not manufactured in colours other than Black, Yellow and White.

“No problem,” they said on Saturday morning when we assembled at the site to plan how to do this, and then got down to work.

The rest is best told through photos, but here is an opportunity for the Kampala Capital City Authority to do two things:

1. Put a Zebra Crossing point on every other road in Kampala; to make the lives of pedestrians easier and also to get more people to learn how Zebra Crossings work

2. Change Zebra Crossing designs so that they are more colourful and attractive – maybe that will work to get people to use and respect them.

Plus, there is a message in this Zebra Crossing that should give the children, and their parents, something to think about as they walk across to school!

And there are many more photographs on the Kampala Art Biennale Facebook Page as well!