Lately, Pittsburgh locals have been seeing strange signs crop up around the city. Specifically, the majority of these signs are located around the Walnut, which makes sense considering the theme of the sign. Beyond this, it also reads: “Pedestrianize Walnut. Streets for the people” with an image of walnuts riding a bike. So, what does this actually mean?

This sign is a nod to the recent movement going on in Walnut whereby it will be closed to motorized vehicles on July 16th and August 20th. Instead, the area will apparently be transformed into an area with ‘Live music, food trucks, pet adoption, and workout classes’. Now, with this in mind – the context of the sign actually makes a lot more sense.

It is not known whether this sign is calling for a permanent pedestrianized zone however, which would be viewed as extreme compared to a couple of days during a two month period. Nonetheless, one resident wanted this and wrote online: “Walnut from Aiken to Negley should be car free. It gets crowded on the sidewalks. Restaurants might even be able to expand outdoor dining. It’d be great!”

However, others argued that this idea was not realistic and may create more traffic problems for the city, as one person claimed, “Now that’s an idea! The people that want to eliminate more parking and make the congestion in the city worse should definitely play in traffic.”

As is often the case with these things, it seems to be a battle between cyclists and car drivers. Nonetheless, you can’t deny that from a design point of view, it’s a pretty cool sign.