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The pace of violations, recorded since the city restricted turns at 97 downtown intersections, amounts to an average of about seven tickets per month.
Two pedestrian advocates told Mirror Indy they would like to see more enforcement, but city officials said the number of tickets issued is only one metric — and not the most indicative of success when it comes to pedestrian safety measures.
“Their desired effect was not to increase (the) number of tickets issued by IMPD. It was to ensure the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in the Mile Square,” Vop Osili, the Democratic president of Indianapolis City-County Council, said in an emailed statement to Mirror Indy.
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The policy change followed a study from the Indianapolis Department of Public Works that looked at a five-year history of pedestrian-related crashes in the downtown area. It found that 57% of were the result of vehicles failing to yield to pedestrians at intersections with traffic signals.
Data also showed that downtown pedestrians were more than twice as likely to be involved in a crash compared to pedestrians in the rest of Marion County.
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Freeman, who was a city-county councilor from 2010 to 2016, argued that the policy would “create confusion and congestion” and “won’t stop distracted, reckless or aggressive driving.”
Anyone have experience in this area think this is working or not?
I wondered why there we so many no turn on red all the sudden when the intersection was not visually blocked, but I hadn’t experienced the pedestrian safety issues.
Personally, I have to make eye contact with the red turn drivers before I feel safe to cross.
I live downtown. It’s somewhat better since the change.
The fact is, the number one way to reduce pedestrian and bicyclist deaths is to slow down the cars. Study after study has proven this out. And preventing red light right turns is one way to do that. In a city center, that’s crucial; unfortunately, people who live outside the city are inconvenienced by this, so they complain to their politicians who make state laws and waste state resources dictating how Indianapolis can run its own business. And Freeman is the worst about it; for him, it’s all about sticking it to the “liberals.”
As a commuter, I hate the parking limitations and costs.
If I was a resident, I would hate people meddling in city business. Pretty easy to happen since state legislation is there.
I mean, I get it. But parking destroys downtowns by replacing destinations with car storage, which pushes the destinations further apart, which reduces the number of people who can walk to the destination, which requires more car storage. It’s a vicious cycle that can absolutely destroy downtowns, and has in a lot of places. So it’s bad for commuters, too. Just less visible.
Yeah, it’s awful. And it keeps happening: Indianapolis votes for a thing. Freeman gets a bee in his bonnet about it—even though he doesn’t live here—and thinks he can makes some noise with it. Freeman gets the other Republicans to sign on to it, and invalidates the will of the people who actually live here. Then he takes a victory lap while the residents have to live with his meddling.
One of the reasons I really like DC. You legit don’t need a car there.
We’re a pretty large family with only one car, which is about as close as we can be to that in Indianapolis. Bikes are awesome, and we’re close to a trail, so we can get mostly anywhere in the city we want to go in a reasonable amount of time.
Wow, you guys are rare I think. For here.
I’m on call 24/7, so I have to be able to drive to work in x amount of minutes. I have to live within a radius too. My wife worked up in Lebanon before she was downtown. Couldn’t have even done one car.
I really like walkable and bikable movement of late. Were only decades behind other parts of the world 😋
Yeah, I think we’re probably fairly uncommon. Especially being single car by choice. Maybe someday it’ll be doable enough that we won’t be as unusual.
@redfox @ilinamorato Any chance you could take the red line instead of driving? It might be cheaper and less frustrating.
Actually, my wife and I still planning to use it for hotel tango trips so no driving and Uber is $50 round trip.
I live in suburbs, and work outside of downtown, so I can’t really use it for visiting her at lunch.
I want to support it though because that’s how we get the funds and politicals to not constantly try to shut it down. I thought it was cool idea. I heard tons of hate for taking lanes.
You like it?
I love it, both as a rider and as a driver. Traffic isn’t as fast on College, but it’s way smoother. I didn’t feel like I’m about to sideswipe every car parked on the street anymore. And riding the Red Line is like a dream; closest to light rail we’re going to get with the current GOP stranglehold on state politics.
Thanks for the tip.
@redfox I’ve only used it a couple of times (I live and work in Bloomington and #ebike everywhere). I’d like to get in the habit of a park-and-ride from the south side when I visit Indy though.
Thanks Ben. I think I still have to park in Broad ripple. Need the ride north to be long enough for me to get right to drive safe when I get there.
It’s working better, but not perfect. Most drivers I encounter downtown follow the signs. Crosswalks are safer because those turning right are at a stop waiting for their green instead of pulling up a bit into the crosswalk to look left for oncoming traffic. Some of the right turns downtown aren’t always easy rights due to parked cars or other items semi-blocking the line of sight. I have one office at the CCB and one on the circle, and I feel like these signs have definitely improved some of the traffic concerns around that area.