Zipline to soar through downtown Indianapolis

Sure, it's not the most efficient way to get around downtown, but a zipline has got to be the most fun.

As the host city for this year's Super Bowl, Indianapolis has been working hard to make the area around the downtown stadium a more desirable destination. They've improved the streetscape and increased the walkability in an already pleasant downtown.

And it looks like the zipability will be pretty high too, as the city will install a 95-foot tower for a 800-foot zipline through the Super Bowl Village in downtown and toward the stadium. Based on previous success, the attraction is expected to be a hit, Associated Press reports:

The zip line will be the first for a Super Bowl but not a first for a major sporting event. Super Bowl organizers borrowed the zip line idea from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, where fans waited up to four hours for a ride. Indianapolis organizers even dealt with ZipTrek Ecotours, the same Canadian company that ran the Olympic zip line.

"We were in from the start," said ZipTrek CEO David Udow. "We were thrilled at how popular it was at the Olympics, that fans were willing to wait four or five hours just for a single ride. I'll never forget hearing somewhere that the zip line was the most popular thing at the Olympics besides the Olympics themselves."

Udow says the zip line should be able to handle four riders at a time, up to 120 riders an hour.

Sadly, the zipline will only be around for 10 days. But if it can help bring more people to downtown, and linger around downtown (five hour line!), maybe they should consider keeping it around.

Photo: 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com