For three months in fall 2010, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and artist-in-residence Daniel Peltz softened the blow of getting a parking ticket by handing out citations with yoga poses on them. The drawn poses are an attempt to take some of the anxiety out of getting a parking ticket. Peltz came up with the idea for Crossing Non-Signalized Locations after riding along with parking control officers for several weeks.

New street signs, which were written and designed to appear as if they are official, were also installed around the city as part of the project. The signs played on the official language of parking and driving regulations. For example, one official sign reads, “If you’re reading this sign, you’re biking the wrong way.” Peltz’s nearby sign reads, “If you’re reading this sign, you’re reading this sign.” Peltz also created a “soft boot” that is made of fabric that will be placed on cars throughout the city; it is meant to be a less humiliating version of the real boot (which Peltz himself once experienced). Peltz also installed 10,000 Excuses, a large, handwritten drawing comprising all the excuses drivers have submitted in parking disputes over the past five years, at the Cambridge Arts Council Gallery.

The project was co-presented by the Cambridge Arts Council and the Department of Traffic, Parking, and Transportation.