Vigilante Crosswalks: L.A. Volunteers Paint DIY Crossings to Protect Pedestrians After Child’s Death

Volunteers take safety into their own hands after fatal crash

Three days after 9-year-old Nadir Gavarrete was fatally struck by an RV while crossing a street in Koreatown, Bianca Cockrell and other members of Crosswalk Collective LA redirected a planned project and painted a memorial crosswalk at that intersection. On Aug. 2, the group laid down white stripes at the four-way crossing and stenciled the words “En Memoria De Nadir Gavarrete.”

Cockrell, 30, a documentary filmmaker and bookstore employee, says the volunteer collective formed out of frustration with slow municipal responses to dangerous crossings. She notes that Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) officials had been soliciting feedback about that same intersection as far back as 2021 without taking action.

Grassroots action and mixed reactions

Founded in 2022, Crosswalk Collective LA describes itself as a guerrilla-style, volunteer-run effort that has painted more than a hundred crosswalks at four-way intersections (stop-controlled) across Los Angeles. Using basic hardware-store supplies, the group estimates each project costs about $60 and takes several hours. What began as planned nighttime work shifted to early mornings after volunteers discovered the paint needs sunlight to cure properly.

“Going through the proper channels can take years and years and your request can still get rejected,” Cockrell says. “So we started thinking, ‘Maybe we can change things ourselves. Maybe we can do things to make our communities safer.’”

LADOT has a different view. The agency urges residents to use the city’s 311 system to request official street-safety improvements and notes that it has installed nearly 1,500 crosswalks across Los Angeles in recent years as it works to streamline processes. Unsanctioned paint jobs have led to citations: Cockrell says the collective has been written up for illegal graffiti and has paid roughly $1,000 in fines.

Some DIY crossings are removed by city crews, she adds. But when that happens, the city often returns with permanent measures—traffic circles, full-length, regulation crosswalks—something the collective treats as a meaningful win.

Part of a larger safety crisis

Volunteers position their work within a broader, nationwide response to rising roadway deaths and a troubling surge in pedestrian fatalities. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, pedestrian deaths are near a four-decade high and have risen roughly 48 percent compared with a decade earlier. In 2024, about 7,148 pedestrians were killed by vehicles in the United States, and many more required hospitalization.

Public-health and transportation experts point to several causes: increased driver distraction from phones and in-car screens, the growing market share of larger, heavier vehicles such as SUVs, and road designs that prioritize high-speed vehicular movement over pedestrian safety. “We prioritize driving and driving fast much more than pedestrians,” says Wes Marshall, a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado Denver. “The problem is solvable. But it’s not going to be easy.”

For Cockrell and others in Crosswalk Collective LA, the work is motivated by a desire for safer streets rather than to embarrass officials. “We’re not doing this to embarrass anyone,” she says. “We’re doing it because we want to feel more safe. And if the city wants to replace our work with better stuff, we love that.”