much of the European stuff is actually not just tolerated but legitimate – in some European countries the electric and telecoms distribution companies actually encourage local artists to put art on their street furniture when its initially installed or with appropriate supervision. Same with railways/transport infrastructure (where normally hanging around too long and painting stuff gets folk watched and even nicked).
This not only makes it look less drab/boring but also discourages other less pleasant graffiti/tagging and vandalism/trespass into what can either be dangerous to life (33 000 / 11 000 V to 400 / 230 V transformer, and on light and full size railways there’s both high voltages and trains) or can cause service disruption (someone monkeying around with a telecoms cabinet who shouldn’t be can knock out phones/broadband for 100+ people)
to be fair even in the UK it crops up – for instance BT Openreach cabinets for the new fibre optic broadband in some areas of London have art on them. Some friends of mine had fun with the green man off a traffic signal a few years ago and it was left alone for many years until the signal was replaced with a different kind and no one got in shit for it (and I suspect both the council and feds knew exactly who would have done it, as they obviously knew where the traffic signal depot was and we were squatting a warehouse nearby…)
http://www.partyvibe.com/forums/jokes-humour/36879-uk-se-smoke-green.html
