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PUPstops: Indy's new transit seats

Image: PUPstop, Mass. Ave, Indianapolis (courtesy of People for Urban Progress, Michael Bricker)

Long-time readers of this blog know that I have a collection of public seating photographs.  One of the first sets of photos I published to this blog was of seats in Berkeley.  Many of the examples of seating in Berkeley were provided by private individuals as acts of neighborliness or artistic expression.

Image: PUPstop, Garfield Park, Indianapolis (courtesy of People for Urban Progress, Michael Bricker) 

In Indianapolis, the nonprofit People for Urban Progress (PUP) and the municipal transportation authority IndyGo have partnered to refurbish and install the famous yellow and orange Bush Stadium seats at qualified transit stops.  These attractive and eye-catching seats are known as PUPstops.  The project is creative and community-minded, sentiments that IndyGo's Samantha Cross articulates below.
“When PUP wanted to meet with us about improving transit stops in the community, the conversation led to the possibility of using Bush Stadium seats and the excitement levels just escalated,” says Samantha Cross, director of business development for IndyGo. “Not only will these seats provide a comfortable resting place for transit riders, they will also become a form of repurposed public art.”


The cheery color of the PUPstops seats remind me of the primary-colored double seats on Water and Fulton Streets, pictured above and here.


Another reason for providing seating in the public realm is to promote a lively, sticky sidewalk and is often associated with commercial uses.  The Sullivan Street seat, shown above, was installed under the NYC Street Seats program while the ASLA-award winning Powell Street Promenade in San Francisco is part of that city's Parklets program.

What type of public seating programs are available in your city?

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