The Coolest Street Art Ever

An impromptu illustration gallery has sprouted up beneath my feet (and it’s not what you might think).

According to the New York City Department of Transportation, the city had 1,525 miles of bike lanes as of 2022, and that figure has presumably grown larger since then. As is the case in most cities, all of those bike lanes are marked by little cycling stick-figure symbols on the pavement, sometimes augmented by a pair of chevron marks, as shown above.

But here’s the thing: Thanks to the age and complexity of the city’s infrastructure, New York streets are constantly being torn open so maintenance crews can repair or upgrade a gas, water, sewer, or power line. After the work is completed and the street is repaved or patched, the workers will use a paint wand to indicate where various street markings should be restored to the fresh surface. These markings typically include things like BUMP lettering, crosswalk stripes, and — of course — bike lane symbols.

And that’s where things get interesting, because the bike graphic is a lot more complex than a stripe, a chevron, or even a letter. Rendering it with a paint wand is probably a bit of a challenge, especially for someone who’s trying to work quickly and efficiently. And that’s probably why so many of the paint-wanded bike glyphs end up looking something like this: