White Line Therapy

A 2km white line painted down the middle of the Bondi to Bronte walk to stop people crashing into each other. It worked. Sort of.

The walk is beautiful and chaotic. Joggers dodge prams. Tourists stop mid-path for photos. Dog walkers weave. Everyone is in everyone else’s way, and nobody thinks they’re the problem.

The line appeared one morning and divided the path in two. Keep left. Simple. The kind of solution that should have existed already but didn’t because nobody thought a walking path needed traffic management.

For a few weeks, it worked. People noticed. Some laughed, some obeyed, some took photos. The line became a talking point, then a habit, then part of the landscape.

Then it started to fade.

The council didn’t repaint it. The problem returned. People went back to crashing into each other. The work was always going to be temporary, but the speed of the return to chaos was the most interesting part.