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Some comments on this. Note: I am reporting, not defending. The big, brightly colored graffitti we all see on freight cars are rarely (if ever) gang members, young teenagers, or pranksters, but mostly a small cult of people, mostly young men, who consider themselves artists.. I did some research on this a year ago and found that these people take themselves very seriously, have no use for gangs whatsoever, and have their own sets of approved behavior and ethics. They buy their paint. They're a cult by definition, although one we would like to go away. Their websites have all sorts of helpful tips such as "don't cover up the reporting marks!" because that will lead to the graffitti being immediately "marred" by the railroad spray-painting the reporting marks back on. And they have lots of discussion about what is good graffiti and bad, and have arguments about what is "art" and what isn't. About a month ago, listening to a radio news program while stuck in traffic, I was interested to hear that graffiti pops up in connection with ... bear with me here, I just report what I hear ... hip-hop music. The person being interviewed was commenting that the two were co-mingled as art forms a few years ago but that since graffiti was (a) illegal in most instances (b) wasn't attracting commercial success (c) dangerous in some instances (d) passe (e) was fading out fast. Note that last part. I do know that a year ago there were a number of rail-car graffitti websites that now are no longer begin maintained or have disappeared without new ones taking their place. And my observations seem to indicate that there is a lot less FRESH graffitti than there used to be. We can always hope. In the meantime, there is almost nothing that railroads or anyone else can do that is cost-effective. I used to think that making spray-paint cans difficult to purchase would help, but if these are serious people, measures like that won't stop the serious person.
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