The city knows about it. Neighbors know about it. Kids are warned about crossing the street due to the danger.

After years of struggle, and over $500,000 in spending on attempted mitigations, city officials think that they now might have the problem licked.

The solution? A painted mural of a "sinkhole" in the street, along with a police message board flashing a warning.

"We've tried everything," deputy traffic engineer Kyle Malthus told MB News, "but this actually works. In five days of testing, we've seen more brake lights than in the six months prior."

The "sinkhole" mural works, quite simply, because drivers want to get to the south end of town. They do not want to fall into a deep pit.

It's survival instinct in action. 

"Drivers do eventually figure out that it's safe to pass," Malthus said. "But the sight of this thing really gives people pause. If it's their first time, they might be really scared. Later, the art, plus the message board, seem to be enough to get drivers to say, 'Oh, alright, I'll stop here.'"

If drivers do continue to stop, it will be a welcome change at a longtime problem intersection.

Precedent in Poughkeepsie

So where did this unconventional idea for a traffic mitigation originate?

You're probably thinking "Road Runner" cartoons – the type where Wile E. Coyote would try to trick his prey, only to actually fall into the sort of deep, dark pit he'd painted on the road like the one now in Manhattan Beach. 

That's partly right. But the reality is, perhaps, stranger: It's already a proven tactic in Poughkeepsie, New York, and other cities that have learned from the first such road mural there. 

The riverside town in upstate New York has a road known as Hooker Ave., which angles through Poughkeepsie and connects it to nearby villages. Hooker has a few stoplights, including a small one at Forbus Street that drivers seem to frequently ignore, due to low traffic from a single side street. 

Back on April 1, 2021, after learning of a pedestrian injury at the intersection, a group of Poughkeepsie Middle School students – all "Looney Tunes" fans, thanks to YouTube – purloined traffic cones from a nearby construction project and proceeded to paint a section of the road at the Forbus intersection to look like it had a deep hole.

Whether that was an "April Fool's" prank in Poughkeepsie or a public service, local police noted that neighbors went months without calling for traffic enforcement in the area – after it had been a frequent source of calls before. 

That was quite a start.

Next came more cities trying out the tactic, and academics studying the effects, with published studies including “Driver Response Patterns to Illusory Pavement Discontinuities in Residential Corridors,” “An Evaluation of Perceived Subsurface Void Hazards as a Low‑Cost Traffic Calming Intervention” and a meta-study by federal engineers titled, “A Multi‑Jurisdictional Review of Optical‑Illusion‑Based Hazard Depictions for Traffic Control.”

Manhattan Beach will be the 17th known jurisdiction to try this kind of mitigation.

A Longtime Problem Intersection

It's a harsh reality: Neighbors have complained for years that the city wasn't doing enough – the most vocal by far being nearby resident Tom Williams, who has created a series of videos documenting drivers' failure to stop at 6th and Valley. 

Williams' collection of 6th and Valley videos include, Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4, Video 5, Video 6, Video 7, Video 8, and Video 9. He also launched a Change.org petition in September 2022 calling for the city to take more action at 6th and Valley, and has frequently criticized the city for not taking strong enough action or providing enough enforcement.

The city announced several new "calming measures" just a year ago. But no one could be sure how effective they'd be.

No Bad Ideas in a Brainstorm

While the impact of the "calming measures" was being monitored and evaluated, deputy traffic engineer Malthus learned about the concept of a "visual speed mitigation" like the current street mural. He read some of the studies. He sketched the bare bones of a proposal.

When he bounced it around the office, Malthus said he faced incredulous, and even mocking, reactions. But he found a way to test the concept. There was money available from an unexpected source.

The "sinkhole" mural was funded by Manhattan Beach's Public Art Trust Fund. That fund was established through a dedicated 1% development fee, and does not impact the city's general fund, nor draw from any specific departments' budgets.

The total cost was less than $35,000 for the mural, which was crafted by renowned South Bay graffiti artist Abyssinia T. L’Oeil, who told MB News that the mural is titled, "The Pit." They said they are huge fans of the medical drama "The Pitt" on HBO.

L'Oeil's mural is now the first use on record of Manhattan Beach's Public Art fund for traffic and public safety purposes.

Malthus remains hopeful that traffic engineers will study the local mural implementation.

"We want our city to help provide the proof," Malthus said. "We're saying to everyone: Come to 6th and Valley. Check out The Pit. Watch the traffic. We're succeeding, and you can, too."