Freeway Drive For All — ThirdSpace Partners

Project Gallery

Aerial view of completed S. Harrison St. mural — Completed installation in East Orange

Volunteers painting the asphalt mural at Brick Church Station — Installation day, Brick Church Station - credit: Ziwei Liu

Completed geometric asphalt mural detail — Asphalt art at S. Harrison St., East Orange, NJ - credit: Ziwei Liu

Before and after aerial view, Orange, NJ — Before & after · S. Essex Ave., Orange · Photo: Ziwei Liu

Before and after drone aerial, East Orange — Before & after · S. Harrison St., East Orange - credit: Ziwei Liu

Volunteer team at East Orange installation site — Volunteer team, East Orange site

Community engagement meeting at The HUUB — Volunteers on Painting Day, S. Essex Ave, Orange, NJ

Community mapping exercise with post-it notes — Community design mapping session

Aerial view of crosswalk safety installation — Artist Steve Green with East Orange Mayor Ted Green and painting volunteers

Community bike ride along the corridor — Community bike Ride

Brick Church Station signage and installation — Installation day in East Orange - credit: Ziwei Liu

Crew preparing the street for painting — Site prep before painting

Volunteers gathered after installation — Volunteer crew, installation day

East Orange volunteer painters, including a young resident — Volunteer painters · East Orange

East Orange police lieutenant with a young volunteer — Lt. Bourquet & volunteer · East Orange

City of Orange Mayor Warren at the Quick-Build Safety Project sign — Mayor Warren · City of Orange

Volunteers and crew marking a crosswalk near the rail overpass — Lillian with Artist Steve Green

Aerial view of asphalt art intersection mural at S. Essex Ave., Orange — Aerial — asphalt art, S. Essex Ave., Orange · Photo: Ziwei Liu

Street-level view of asphalt art intersection mural at S. Essex Ave., Orange — Asphalt art, S. Essex Ave., Orange · Photo: Lillian Cho

Residents and officials reviewing a corridor map at a community meeting — Community mapping session, East Orange

Attendees sharing a laugh at the community mapping meeting — Community mapping session, East Orange

Residents gathered around a table marking up a corridor map with sticky notes — Community mapping session, East Orange

A child learning to ride a bike at a community bike event — Kid learning to ride, community bike event

Challenge

Since its construction, Interstate 280 and the parallel Freeway Drive access roads have divided the downtowns of East Orange and Orange from residential neighborhoods and key civic destinations — schools, parks, and transit. In 2017, the NJTPA commissioned a Safety and Public Realm Study that documented the corridor's dangers and outlined a clear path toward safer, more walkable streets. Eight years later, most of those recommendations remained unimplemented.

Approach

Funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Connectors program and the US Department of Transportation's Thriving Communities Program, the project set out to turn that eight-year-old study into visible, community-owned change. When it became clear that NJDOT could not approve work on state-owned Freeway Drive within the grant term, the team pivoted to city-owned intersecting streets — targeting two high-need intersections adjacent to Freeway Drive and two NJ Transit commuter rail stations.

ThirdSpace Partners worked with Street Plans and Equitable Cities to lead the community engagement, artist selection, asphalt art design and installation, facilitating three community meetings, attending neighborhood events across both cities, and conducting outreach in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Two local artists were selected: Steve Green for East Orange and Gina Rivas-Velazquez for Orange. The pilot projects introduced temporary curb extensions, daylighting, lane width reductions, new high-visibility crosswalks, and asphalt art to shorten crossings, calm turning movements, and create clearer, safer pathways for people walking and biking.

"So even just this public mural on the street — it will slow cars down. It gets you to see this street not just as an access point to get back and forth, but as a neighborhood block again."

— Councilmember Naiima Fauntleroy

2,480

SQ FT of pedestrian space
reclaimed in East Orange

4,200

SQ FT of pedestrian space
reclaimed in Orange

50%

Average reduction in
pedestrian crossing distance

Outcome

"I feel like… happiness. Look at that — it's beautiful!"

— Robert Dunn, 8-year-old resident

The pilot reclaimed 2,480 square feet of pedestrian space in East Orange and 4,200 square feet in Orange — with the Orange site achieving 50% average reduction in pedestrian crossing distance. Residents claimed that the quick build made it easier to cross streets and wanted more permanent changes to follow. The City of East Orange is pursuing funding for additional public art. Community advocates in Orange are organizing activations around the city. The project's final recommendations explicitly call for centering the arts in all future corridor improvements, emphasizing the value of modest investments in community-led design to promote safety and connectivity.