Art in Motion

One of the issues that came up during class last week was looking at public transportation in Philadelphia. One idea that was proposed was to both add more stops in areas of West Philadelphia but also to improve the existing stops.

One method of improving bus stops has been implemented in Lexington, KY called Art in Motion.

http://aimlex.wordpress.com/art-in-transit-policy/

The main idea behind this was to increase awareness of public transportation in a city that typically is dominated by the car and bring in new riders who would have traditionally used their car.  As of now their are four official art stops located throughout Lexington with many more planned and others that have spurred off.  Each of these stops has been designed through a competition with a theme, GardenStop, BottleStop, ArtStop, etc and adds variety to the traditional metal post stops or the lone bench on the side of the road.

In the end it is an initiative that both improves the ride of those who use public transportation and the neighborhood the stops are located in, something that every city could implement.

Philadelphia has a similar initiative called Art in Transit. With this they add artwork to existing stop locations such as a sculpture at City Hall.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-23/news/31813288_1_public-art-art-in-transit-program-fine-art