In 2020, more than 6,500 people were struck and killed while walking in the country. A new report by Smart Growth America lays most of the blame on roadways. “Our nation’s streets are dangerous by design, designed primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe,” the study authors wrote. The campaigners want streets to be redesigned for pedestrian safety. A new AI experiment imagines the outcomes.
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 27, 2022 The project is the brainchild of Zach Katz, a Brooklyn-based artist. Katz had been playing around with the DALL-E 2 image generator. After feeding the system Google Street View images, Katz believed the outputs could effect real changes. “I thought it was really cool, what it was spitting out, and I was kind of blown away at the transformative potential it has for helping people envision better cities,” he told Bloomberg News. But are the concepts better than the existing designs? You can judge that for yourself:
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) August 1, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) August 3, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 29, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 26, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 30, 2022
— AI-generated street transformations (@betterstreetsai) July 25, 2022 Katz hopes the project fosters advocacy for more liveable streets. With luck, it might even end some love affairs with cars.
