Dallas restripes confusing Oak Cliff intersection

DALLAS - City workers returned to a confusing Oak Cliff intersection with paint.

Earlier this week a crew painted over hand-drawn directions that someone spray painted in the 3-way intersection at Kings Highway and Tyler and Seventh streets in the Bishop Arts Districts.

The next day the city came out and put black paint over the markings. Workers returned Thursday to add yellow lane lines and white stop lines.

It’s believed the spray paint was added to try to help clear up the confusion. People who live and work near the area said there are accidents at the intersection all the time.

“You can hear the wrecks, right,” said Ryan Behring, who lives nearby and said he hears a crash every couple of weeks. “It’s a loud pop, so you're like, ‘Oh, it’s another one.’”

The group behind the makeshift lanes is called the "Transformation Department." Since they operate in secret, a man with the department asked FOX 4 not to show his face. But whatever you call them, they are getting noticed.

"We do appreciate the City of Dallas for coming out and putting effort toward it," the group spokesperson said. "We want to make better streets for kids, for seniors, for someone who lives around the street."

The group first started with a bike lane project near North Polk and Kings. The movement is similar to other 'transformation departments' in places like New York and Boston.

But not everyone is behind what the group is doing. Councilman Scott Griggs shared a note from the city department on Thursday asking the group to call 311 so the improvements can be installed "collaboratively and safely." It warned the markings are "illegal" and often "endanger themselves and the traveling public."

"This intersection is more unsafe when it is left alone than it was for us to come out and try to make it better," the group spokesman said. "Streets are the city's greatest public space, and they belong to everybody. And so everybody should have a say on the streets and who can use them."

The group, which has now grown to about a dozen people, is already searching for its next guerilla movement.

The city does have plans to convert Tyler Street into a two-way road, but it's unclear how exactly that might change the intersection.