On the streets of Downtown, local artists transform e-scooter and e-bike parking corrals into eye-catching ground murals.
By Bailey Garrison

Have you noticed the pops of color along the streets of downtown? Over the summer, the City of Raleigh installed more than 70 corrals for e-bikes and e-scooters, a collaboration between Raleigh Arts and the Department of Transportation’s Shared Micromobility Program. But the corrals aren’t just functional — they’re fun, too, thanks to vibrant ground murals in each of the designated parking areas.

“I think public spaces should inspire a sense of wonder and curiosity,” says Hannah Dos Santos, Active Transportation Planner for the City of Raleigh. “I’m a big supporter of bringing more color and vibrancy into our shared spaces.”

According to Dos Santos, the project is an expansion of the upgrades made to the scooter parking on Glenwood South in 2025, efforts that led to an increase in scooters and bikes being parked in correct locations. The new artwork is an effort to build on that momentum and continue improving the micromobility network around the city. People are more likely to park in correct locations with the help of visual cues, so the murals encourage parking safety and adherence to regulations — while adding some whimsy to the daily commute.

Last fall, the city put out a call for artists who were up for the task of painting the murals. Nearly 80 local artists applied and eight were selected to contribute. Each artist was designated a sector of downtown and developed two to three design concepts based on a 10-color palette before presenting the options to the public for a vote. Once they had finalized their designs, the artists got to work, using an epoxy-based paint mixed with hardener and sand to make it resilient and non-slip. Each mural can take weeks to finish, between the design, applying up to four coats of each paint color and waiting out delays due to weather and other factors.

For artist Kelly Schrader, the positive feedback she received from the public is what kept her going through the more than 140 hours of painting in the sun. Each of Schrader’s nine murals on Wilmington and Salisbury Streets is different, featuring colorful monsters riding forms of micromobility transportation: scooters, unicycles and even a six-seat tandem bicycle. “[The project] was a huge step for me and definitely the largest project I’ve ever done logistics-wise,” says Schrader. But as her monsters shaped up, she was delighted by the pedestrians, especially children, who stopped to watch her paint. “It’s really cool being downtown with so many people walking around, knowing that I was adding some fun and whimsy to their days,” she says.  

This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.