The cool, transit-centric light installation unveiled two years ago by the non-profit behind the Bay Lights remains a project in motion, though an initial plan to break ground on it in 2016 appears to have been optimistic. As John King reports in the Chronicle, following a press conference on Wednesday upstairs from The Hall on mid-Market, the non-profit Illuminate the Arts is kicking off a fundraising effort to get $10 million in private funding for the project — much the way they raised funds, twice, to install and then re-install the Bay Lights.

Artists George Zisiadis and Stefano Corazza, who first proposed the project in 2014, are still working out the details, but basically it would work like this: Strips of LEDs would extend from existing utility poles up the length of Market Street from the Embarcadero to the Castro, showing swiftly moving flashes of color each time a BART or Muni train exited a station underneath the street — with different colors indicating which train lines were where, in real time, at street level.

The draft environmental impact report for the project was just released, per the Chron, meaning that final approvals are likely about a year off, despite the Board of Supervisors giving the initial go-ahead to the project in late 2014.

Says Illuminate the Arts founder Ben Davis, "This is as important as ‘Bay Lights,’ or maybe more important," and King seems to concur, saying, "Where 'Bay Lights' essentially is a mammoth computer-programmed light show, 'LightRail' would be cued to real life."

And in addition to the LED installation, the non-profit is pledging "to retrofit the entire Path of Gold streetlights — from the Ferry Building to the [Castro's] Rainbow Flag — with new energy-efficient LED bulbs that will cut energy use by 80% while casting a better light on Market Street." So that's cool too.

They're aiming to install the piece to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Summer Of Love next year.

Care to donate? Contact [email protected].

Previously: Supervisors Give Green Light To 'LightRail' Art Project Up Market Street