Sports-themed crosswalk, Beban Park, Nanaimo

A colourful crossing connecting the Beban Park parking lot to the pool, social centre and arena: hockey sticks, baseballs and bikes in preformed thermoplastic on a route walked by thousands of kids.

At Beban Park in Nanaimo, the route from the parking lot to the pool, social centre and arena is walked by thousands of kids. The crossing that connects them is themed to what they are walking toward: a field of blue and green waves carrying white sports icons outlined in orange, skates, a hockey stick, baseballs, a bicycle, a soccer ball, a tennis racket, footprints, held between white borders.

The crossing is preformed thermoplastic; Square One's photo record files it under TrafficPatterns, a preformed thermoplastic system. Each icon and each wave is a cut piece, heat-fused to the pavement in place, so the shapes stay crisp and the colour runs through the sheet rather than sitting on top of it. The manufacturer publishes the sheet at 125 mil with anti-skid elements throughout, and says a crossing can be open to traffic within minutes of application.

The photographs show the crossing from the parking-lot side with the lot and the trees beyond, and straight down from above, where the whole design can be read at once. A parks department planning a crossing at a pool, arena or school should ask for the design to be cut in thermoplastic rather than painted, so the icons keep their edges under traffic and the borders still read as a crosswalk to drivers.