Greece's Roadside Shrines Remind Drivers to Take It Slow

Road safety infrastructure isn’t all stop signs and steel barriers. There are locally made traffic interventions all over the world. Take the “Slow Down Cat” of Sebastopol, California, the Transformers-esque robots of Kinshasa, and that PVC pipe stretched across the pavement in a suburb of Arkadelphia serving as a DIY speed-bump.

Some of the richest examples of citizen infrastructure are the roadside shrines of Greece. The twisty mountain highways of the Peloponnese peninsula is particularly packed with them. You’ll pass a couple of these tiny, pedestaled constructions, usually topped with a cross, nearly every kilometer.