Image A / The intersection of College Avenue and 16th Street.
Incidents
This stretch of 16th Street is particularly hazardous for drivers. I don't have a good way to run the numbers, but it's visually obvious when you look at the map that too many drivers are having traffic incidents on this stretch of pavement.
1 JAN 2017 / College & 16th / Cyclist Fatality / Pre-FCRB
3 OCT 2016 / MLK & 16th / Driver Fatality / Pre-FCRB
1 DEC 2020 / Roosevelt & 16th / Pedestrian Fatality / Pre-FCRB
40 reported driver incidents 2015 to SEP 2024
6 reported pedestrian incidents (including fatality above)
2 reported cyclist incidents (including fatality above)
Image B / Map of Incidents on 16th between MLK Jr. and Roosevelt
What does FCRB say?
None of these incidents have been reviewed by the FCRB, as they pre-date the creation of the Fatal Crash Review Board.
Immediate Term Changes
We need drivers on 16th Street to slow down. The quickest way to do that is to throw down some non-permanent speed tables at each crosswalk. Why speed tables? Let me just quote a USDOT study real quick:
Data collected at 26 speed humps demonstrates that the effect of speed humps on high speed vehicles is dramatic. For the study sites, 14 percent of the pre-implementation traffic had a measured speed that was at least 10 mph higher than the posted speed limit. After implementation of a speed hump, this high speed traffic had dropped to an average of 1 percent of the total traffic.
Instant results! And we're currently utilizing this strategy at zero downtown locations. This is the PERFECT type of installation for councilors looking to spend their $1M discretionary projects (Parks or Safety) on a safety project.
Image C / Using speed tables to create raised crosswalks at College and 16th - Easily duplicated throughout the corridor.
Long Term Changes
Deciding on a project to feature in D13 was actually kind of tough, because an impressive number of good projects are in-progress and in the pipeline for the near-eastside (Washington Street, New York, Michigan, 10th Street, and Rural). All that goodness led me to 16th Street, which is very not good.
10th Street to 38th Street is what I would consider the heart of Midtown Indianapolis. Currently, it's an area completely occupied by drivers. It's time to create a plan to remedy that situation. A long-term plan (in my mind) means, "what do we want this corridor to look like for the next twenty years?" In Indianapolis, that means we have to accept the continued existence of cars, BUT in a better controlled and well-planned way. My hope is that our needs for this corridor will look drastically different in 2045.
THE PLAN!
Push commuters to the interstate and our newly preferred arterial routes and make it extremely difficult to take other routes.
Create an uninterrupted median on 16th from MLK to College.
Raised crosswalks with pedestrian islands throughout the corridor.
Roundabouts at our arterial intersections (College, Central, Meridian, Capitol, MLK).
Unfortunately for the folks that think it's hilarious, this plan would likely stop drivers from colliding with the Cox Law Office at 16th and Delaware.
The Midtown Plan: Part One. Think of it as a rough draft!
The problem with midtown Indianapolis is that almost every street has become an arterial roadway. There are two big problems that occur when two arterials intersect. If the Vision Zero Taskforce became hyper-focused on just these two items, they would yield some great results.
Speed of drivers
Because arterials are wide and have clear sight lines, drivers naturally increase their speed. Slow down drivers and all incidents become much less fatal. It's very simple (left side of Image D). At speeds below 30 mph, pedestrian deaths become unlikely. But at just 10 mph more (40 mph), it becomes a coin flip on survivability for pedestrians. Do we think people are going 40 on any of these midtown roads where pedestrians are prevalent?
Conflict Points / Crossing distance
Large intersections create conflict points. The image below shows the conflict points in play at a typical two-lane intersection. College and 16th is a five lane intersection. Just mapping out the conflicts of LEGAL driver maneuvers is extremely complicated. If you have ten foot lanes, that's 50 unprotected feet that a pedestrian must traverse to clear the intersection. Not great!
Image D / Data and illustrations about speed and conflict points.
First, how do we slow down drivers? As we've shown in the previous section, speed tables are extremely effective. They should be installed throughout, especially at crosswalks.
Second, how do we reduce conflict points. Not as simple. Construction is required and you basically have three options:
Build an interstate - Obviously this makes zero sense here, because pedestrians and cyclists are not allowed on the interstate. But it's important to understand that the interstate works because conflicts have been eliminated. It's also the reason interstate flow is so fragile. Introduce a conflict (remove a lane, an accident, slow moving vehicle) and it all falls apart!
Reduce the number of lanes and/or eliminate driver options - It's tough to control what drivers do. We're all well-aware that putting up a sign like "No Turn On Red" isn't a super effective way to control driver behavior. And reducing lanes will reduce throughput, which is the only thing DOTs have been concerned about for decades.
Roundabout - A roundabout is the only option for the intersection of two arterials if you want to include mixed modes of travel and care about safety. The big hassle is building them.
Yep. I'm suggesting we build some more roundabouts. Let's look at College and 16th first.
Image E / A roundabout at 16th and College Avenue. Pink dotted lines show the outline of the current roadway to show we have room for this configuration. Dark green is a median that is about 5 feet in width. The crosswalks would all be raised to sidewalk level and be used as speed tables. Pink is flexible space that includes the current sidewalks.
Dropping a roundabout onto this location makes it instantly safer for all modes:
Driver deaths get pretty much eliminated when you put in a roundabout and driver on driver incidents at roundabouts are usually just minor fender benders without injuries.
Pedestrians get a huge upgrade. A daunting 50 foot crossing becomes two 20 foot crossings with a protected island in the middle. At the busiest locations you could event include a call button to stop traffic where needed.
Raised crosswalks will also slow drivers at the approach and exit the roundabouts. Making the raised sections visually different from the roadway would also be a great practice at these locations (a stamped brick pattern like the Cultural Trail uses perhaps).
The pedestrian island would also be wide enough for cyclists. More about that later.
Large vehicles, like busses, will need some room to maneuver on these more compact roundabouts. I would suggest squeezing the lane sizes on the approach and encouraging large vehicles to use both lanes (the squeeze makes it more difficult for drivers to try and pass when large vehicles take both lanes). A truck apron would be included on all roundabouts to accommodate left turns of large vehicles.
How does this play out as we move west from College?
Image F / Where are we placing roundabouts on 16th? College, Central, Meridian, Capitol, and MLK Jr.
A continuous median from College to MLK forces drivers to the paths we have chosen for folks leaving or arriving downtown. This median also forms the initial backbone of the Midtown Plan. But why these five streets? Each of these streets cross Fall Creek and intersects 38th Street (the other side of our midtown backbone). It really comes down to where we have bridges and where we don't. We'll get to why ALL of the bridges weren't utilized shortly.
A continuous median makes things safer, but what about access? What if a pedestrian, cyclist, emergency vehicle, or bus needs to get through? The folks driving emergency vehicles understand how to navigate the city and probably don't need accommodations at every blocked street. Rerouting a bus wastes time and fuel though, so we should make every effort to keep our routes as efficient as possible. Check out the two potential layouts below
Image G / Pedestrian and Cyclist accommodations at 16th and Pennsylvania
Image H / Bus and Emergency vehicle accommodations at 16th and Pennsylvania
These are rough concepts, so please forgive me! Not much explanation needed, but I do want to make some comments on the bus pass-throughs. These can be hardened with gates and or retractable bollards to keep out the jerks. The big downfall of something like that is that they can fail.
That leaves us with the Midtown Plan. This is a multi-modal strategy that focuses how our infrastructure should be used. 16th Street and 38th Street will be the heroes of this plan and everything in between them will get better for everybody. As I've said many times, I'm not an expert on these things! There may be some consequences to this plan that I have not foreseen. HOWEVER, a plan like this will be how we transform this area and make it safer for all users (and buildings).
Image J / The Midtown Plan: Part One
This is just part one! Part two will focus on 38th Street. Part three will clean everything up and be the final vision (there will be a "Big Ideas" post dedicated to that). Let's talk about part one:
The yellow lines and circles are the unified median and collection of roundabouts on 16th Street.
The pink lines are our newly minted commuter routes. College, Meridian, and MLK are the work horses here. The big question on my mind for part two is if Central and Capitol should be able to cross 38th. My preference is to have a roundabout every half mile or less when you have an uninterrupted median (it's about 0.4 miles between our largest gap, Cental and Meridian).
Solid teal lines are our existing protected/separated bike infrastructure (The Monon and Fall Creek).
Dotted teal lines are proposed integration opportunities. Some of these locations do have a protected bike lane, but they need to be further hardened and completed.
Many of the proposed two-way conversions are already in-progress or planned, but we need full-conversion of each of these proposed routes for this plan to be effective.
Look at all of the housing in this image! Convincing some of these people to drive less, become single car households, or become zero car households is low-hanging fruit. Having a fully connected network of safe infrastructure is how that happens.
The combination of a median on 16th Street, limited ways to cross Fall Creek, and another median on 38th Street is going to have a drastic calming effect on all of the other streets in this area.
Stay tuned for parts two and three. Part two will be part of the next "Fatal Crash Review" post and part three will be its own "Big Ideas" post. Got feedback about part one? Let me know on Bluesky: @thedirte.bsky.social
Council District
District 13 isn't a perfect rectangle, but its main borders are Washington Street, Emerson, 21st, and Delaware. Jesse Brown is your councilor. He joined the council in 2024 and will be up for reelection in 2028.
Contact Jesse Brown: 200 E. Washington St., Suite T441 Indianapolis, IN 46204 317.370.7079 |  |
Other Involved Districts
District 12 is the next district west of District 13. Vop Osili is the President of the City Council.
Contact Vop Osili: 200 E. Washington St., Suite T441 Indianapolis, IN 46204 317.327.4242 |  |