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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Transportation No "Sonic Bike Path" for Light Rail Bridge

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:07 PM

Remember how we dared to dream that TriMet would actually build a bike path that played Simon and Garfunkel's "Feelin' Groovy" as you pedaled over it?

Well, apparently some sort of common sense kicked in, because BikePortland reports that the dream is dead.

Plans for a the "sonic bike path" on the new light rail bike-ped bridge over the Willamette were scrapped when the pricetag for the public art installation came in at over $200,000.

Can we have a moment of silence to remember the surprising number of months where a bicycle bridge blasting "Feelin' Groovy" was actually a legitimate plan? ... ... thank you.

 

Comments (7) RSS

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1
Don't despair Sarah - there is still that stupid , waaay over-priced 'sustainability building' they want to build.
Posted by frankieb on October 6, 2011 at 5:57 PM · Report
2 Comment Pulled
3
Who needs sidewalks in East PDX when we can have crap like that?
Posted by Mizzzzzzz on October 6, 2011 at 7:46 PM · Report
4
Wasn't it just going to be cuts in the cement that made it sort of sound like Feeling Groovy while you rode over it? Why on earth would that cost $200,000?
Posted by nickeyrobo on October 6, 2011 at 10:01 PM · Report
5
@nickeyrobo: I think it would have to be a whole lot of cuts made very accurately in a whole lot of cement... No idea what the cost of cement pouring (and cut-making) would be, but I could see it getting tricky.

@Sarah Mirk: I don't see why you're so down on the idea. It sounded like fun! And while it might seem at first as if the money could be spent elsewhere, I think I read that TriMet has a mandate to spend 1.5 percent on art projects. This being a $135 million bridge, that 1.5 percent would come to 2 million. So while 200K sounds like a lot (and we can all easily think of other things we'd rather do with two million), isn't that only ten percent of the budget that will be poured into art no matter what?

The likely alternative is now typical, tedious, plaza-plop public art.

This at least was a clever idea.

Also, I don't think bike wheels on cement would have the acoustic oomf to go "blasting" anything.
Posted by anylandingisagoodlanding on October 6, 2011 at 11:20 PM · Report
6
I wanted to brag to my DC friends about our Simon and Garfunkel bridge. :( They beat us to bike-sharing.
Posted by Chris Freeman on October 7, 2011 at 1:17 AM · Report
7
This being Portland, couldn't they build an Eliot Smith bridge instead (which would sound a lot like a Simon and Garfunkel bridge except it would be mopey instead of groovy)?
Posted by dmitrir on October 7, 2011 at 3:49 PM · Report

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