Art in the Fast Lane
When Caltrans refused to install a freeway sign for I-5 North, one courageous artist decided to do something about it
If you’ve ever wondered if one person can change the world then you probably haven’t met anyone like artist Richard Ankrom. It’s a true tale of one man’s desire to make life easier and safer for the tens of thousands of motorists who dared to navigate the ever-confusing freeway systems near Los Angeles, California. You could say that long before Banksy there was Ankrom.
As the story goes; in 2001 Ankrom commuted into Los Angeles from his home in Orange County, California using the 110 freeway interchange. For those who drove it daily it was terrifying to navigate. For reference, Los Angeles has 27 different freeway systems to serve 88 cities in Los Angeles county. It was easy to take the wrong exit at the time because GPS was a rarity in cars. Without proper signage daily commuters like Ankrom would regularly miss the exit onto Interstate 5 North because there were no official Caltrans signs anywhere on Interstate 110.
According to interviews of Ankrom, he believed, the lack of an official large I-5 signage was contributing to accidents and drivers being lost in the entanglement of lanes. That’s when he decided to put his sign painting skills to work. “I lived in Orange County and had gotten lost too many times because it wasn’t adequately signed,”
As a professional sign painter and contemporary artist Ankrom searched the Internet for freeway sign specifications so that he could replicate exactly how these signs were made. Ankrom told a news crew with ABC7 back in 2001. “I’m a sign guy. I could do this.”
Signage was typically handled by the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with Caltrans in California. Ankrom did his own research and went to work fabricating an exit sign. His intent was to not only fabricate the signage for I-5 North, but to install it too. Apparently, Ankrom was done dealing with bureaucrats.
For three months Ankrom took measurements, mixed paints, and generally tried to make his new sign look an authentic as possible. He read everything he could from official transportation manuals about the correct fonts, the exact colors used and the exact size to make the signs he was about to install. Ankrom left nothing to chance. He went to Home Depot and bought a Caltrans-like hard head, a bright vest and uniform, a ladder and all the equipment needed to pull off his mission. To make it more authentic, instead of installing his exit sign under the cover of darkness, he decided to do it in broad daylight, making it more authentic. He even outfitted his truck to look like an official construction vehicle used by Los Angeles county workers. His hope was people would believe he was working with Caltrans.
Ankrom dressed in construction clothes and confidently carried his homemade sign up his ladder and onto the catwalk above the 110 freeway. His friends stationed themselves nearby to film the entire process. In short time Ankrom had finished the job. And for many years no one from Caltrans or the DOT noticed what Ankrom had done. He had done such a perfect job at replicating the style and look that the new sign blended into the scenery. But commuters were thrilled to see the sign for I-5 North.
According to Ankrom, he thought someone from some agency would immediately see the counterfeit sign and tear it down. It wasn’t until Ankrom leaked the story to the media in 2009 that this true story became known to the public.
Ankrom waited 7 years to adhere to the Statutes of Limitations against a crime of this nature. Like any protagonist in a good story, Ankrom had thought of it all.
