Before the path arrived, Indianapolis didn’t have a mainstream bike scene — just streets designed to improve traffic flow. Now, children and the elderly have joined the spandex swarms of longtime cycling enthusiasts...
The public art along the trail accentuates the path’s role as a sculptor of the city’s evolving identity. For example, Donna Sink’s “Moving Forward” is a series of seven stained-glass-hued eco-friendly bus shelters covered in lines from poems by local writers.
— mobile.nytimes.com
4 Comments
Go Donna!
Excellent project, too. You should be proud.
Thank you Miles! I *am* proud of them, though as with most things when I see them I can't help but see how I would improve them if given the chance.
For the curious, here they are on my Archinect page.
Interesting parallel debate going on in our city right now: We are trying to get a mass transit funding bill through the legislature, against constant, hysterical claims that light rail or even bus rapid transit are just expensive boondoggles that won't improve life for anyone but the politicians who get kickbacks from the contractors who build it. And BTW <sarcasm> all mass transit is socialism, apparently, and those claims that it spurs free market development are way overblown </sarcasm>.
But here in the Cultural Trail - right here in our conservative city! - we have an enormous public amenity that allows people to move freely around the city AND has spurred plenty of economic activity along it's length plus we've seen national and international press about it. Yet somehow none of the transit naysayers are willing to concede that the Trail's success could in any way parallel investment in other urban design amenities like transit.
It seems to me government* has to work on the big projects - like transit and urban design improvement zones - then the fun, smaller-scale grassroots changes will show up too.
*It should be noted the Trail was built with private funds initially then got a big push with Federal funding from ISTEA - no local tax dollars were used in either its construction or maintenance.
Looking back at your own work critically is indicative of many things, all good.
It seems to me government* has to work on the big projects - like transit and urban design improvement zones - then the fun, smaller-scale grassroots changes will show up too.
I think it is the other way around. Government does not lead, it follows. Mostly money. In order to create change, we have to personally create it. Which is the real reason your project is so cool.
If everyone stopped driving to work, the demand for public transit - and revenue from it - would be so big that municipalities would have to react. Of course that means giving up the drive to work and the illusion of freedom that accompanies it (car payments, gas, tolls, maintenance, insurance, time lost, frustration, parking fees, etc., all of which make you a slave to the machine and a willing accomplice in the global oil industry, pollution, etc.).
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