KING5 reports, “Graffiti has been a consistent problem on [Washington State] freeways, and it’s becoming more expensive to remove. Numbers from the Washington State Department of Transportation show that the costs of cleaning up graffiti increased significantly in 2020, then shot up again last year.” Recently, Governor Jay Inslee (D) signed a bill establishing a “Graffiti Abatement and Reduction Program” that, among other things, will make innovative use of drones to apply paint over defaced infrastructure surfaces. According to one of the bill’s sponsors, “Today, you’d have to send out a crew with a high-lift truck and about eight people, and it just takes too long and is too expensive [to eradicate graffiti]. One person with a drone can paint over an area, and if you have a fleet of those, then you’re staying on top of [damage], cleaning it up, and not allowing it to stay present for a long period of time.”
