The intersection of High School Road and Gateway Drive is circled on the map.
Incidents
MAY 6, 2023 / Pedestrian Death (FCRB Reviewed / Master Record: 904275096)
September 30, 2024 / Pedestrian Death (Not yet reviewed by FCRB)
October 4, 2022 / Pedestrian Death (FCRB Reviewed / Master Record: 904132778)
Three other fatal incidents: MAR 8, 2020 / AUG 15, 2020 / NOV 20, 2017
High School Road between 46th and Crawfordsville is on the MPO's High Injury Network with a special note that ped/bike incidents are overrepresented.
Image A / Indy MPO crash data of this area from 2015 thru June 2024. Red dot is vehicle. Blue dot is pedestrian. Green dot is cyclist. Dark red outline is a death.
What does the Fatal Crash Review Board say?
I'm going to quote from the May 6, 2023 hit and run incident that left a pedestrian dead:
"Install a crosswalk with ADA ramps on High School Rd. (possibly a HAWK signal) providing connectivity between the existing sidewalks and bus stops on both sides of the roadway."
This recommendation was not implemented and another pedestrian died at the same location in September. Once again, a hit and run. There is no urgency from the Mayor or City Council, so it's pretty reasonable to assume this won't be the last death at this location.
There was also a 2019 Road Safety Audit (link to a PDF) of the 38th and High School intersection. I would summarize the recommendations made as superficial and of little value. Definitely not in-line with Vision Zero.
Immediate Term Changes
What can we do to immediately affect positive change at this intersection? One positive about this segment of High School Road is that we already have ten-foot lanes. We know that ten-foot lanes discourage speeding when compared to twelve-foot lanes, but the posted speed limit at this location is 40 mph. I don't think we should see speed limits above 35 mph on any street inside 465 unless it's fully separated from pedestrian infrastructure. Although, it doesn't ultimately matter what the posted speed limit is it's not enforced.
If we swap the speed limit signs for 35 mph, how do we actually get people to slow down without construction? We add trench plates. We've all seen trench plates, driven over them, and seen them slow down drivers. I would propose adding them to the travel lanes on High School Road before each crosswalk. They come in many sizes and they even make high-vis plastic pieces that keep them locked in place.
Image B / Trench Plates. Basically a quick-build speed table!
Next, we're adding some jersey barriers. Right turn slip lanes are bad. That's an automatic elimination. We're also going to eliminate the duplicative access to the NW gas station that's too close to the intersection. The SW quadrant also loses a duplicative access point. Each right turn gets a jersey barrier at the apex to slow discourage drivers from taking the turn at speed.
Image C / Immediate Term Changes - Orange items are jersey barriers. Yellow items are trench plates, which come in many sizes.
Long Term Changes
High School Road is 3.5 miles long and runs from Crawfordsville Road to 56th Street. It doesn't directly connect to the interstate, but it does intersect three roads that do access the interstate. It runs completely parallel to 465 for that entire 3.5 mile run, so any person that would like to go interstate speeds can use 465. What High School Road desperately needs is an infrastructure enforced speed limit and complete pedestrian infrastructure.
THE PLAN!
Build a raised intersection at Gateway Drive
Speed tables, raised intersections, and roundabouts throughout the corridor
Aggressively eliminate duplicative driver access.
Make traveling at high speeds difficult for drivers.
Find the space for a mixed-use path to connect to the Eagle Creek Trail (and downtown)
We'll start with the Gateway Drive intersection, and for once I'm not building a roundabout. You know I want to, and am fully supportive of the idea, but we're trying a raised intersection this week. We're going to calm this entire corridor with infrastructure. A raised, or table-topped, intersection makes the area safer for all modes.
A raised intersection is raised to sidewalk grade. This gives pedestrians and bikes a completely level crossing with no need for ramps. Raising the intersection forces drivers to slow down to ease the impact of the transition. Here's how it could look at our problem intersection:
Image D / The newly raised intersection of Gateway Drive and High School Road. The black bars are a transition zone between the roadway and the raised intersection and would be appropriately sized and graded for the 35 mph speed limit (hitting them at 45 would not be pleasant).
Some other features we've added to this intersection:
Complete pedestrian accommodations. Crossings at all four locations with signals and painted crosswalks.
Bollards protecting all four corners (the teal circles). If you're already raising the intersection, it's cost effective to go ahead and add the bollards at the same time.
The orange on the edges of the right turn zones is representing a truck apron. This pavement would be raised and rough, like a rumble strip. It's to provide a little extra room for trucks to make their turn AND to prevent drivers from taking the turn at speed.
A mixed use path? The pink path is a 6-10 ft mixed use path. We didn't gain any space from a road diet on this one, so I'm not sure if the existing right of way can accommodate this addition. However, I would advocate for acquiring the space if we don't already have it. I think it's an important addition at this location. It gives these folks a nice connection to Eagle Creek and this area is in the e-bike zone. I would consider the e-bike zone to be anything less than a ten-mile bike commute to downtown. We should be using infrastructure to induce bike trips in that zone.
What about the rest of the corridor? In case you forgot, this corridor is part of the high-injury network and needs help. The first thing I'd like to add is speed tables. Speed tables have the same purpose as a speed bump, but unlike a speed bump, a speed table is designed to be taken at about the speed limit. Whatever else we do to this corridor, we should generously distribute speed tables at regular intervals. This corridor is only a few miles long, so it's the perfect place to experiment with them. It's crazy that the city doesn't currently have speed tables deployed anywhere.
Image E / A typical speed table. They can be permanent or temporary (you could even use a trench plate, as suggested above). Speed tables can be graded to work at a range of about 20 to 45 mph. I would suggest 30-35 mph for High School Road.
Next, we have to address Crawfordsville and 38th Street. Those two intersections are far too wide for any type of pedestrian crossing to ever be safe. That's where a road diet and roundabout treatment becomes the only course of action in my opinion. Take the crosswalk on the current layout of 38th as an example. It's 115 feet! That's an insane distance to ask a person in a wheelchair to cross in one cycle. Converting to a roundabout changes that distance to 20 feet, followed by a protected pedestrian island, and an additional 20 feet. That's a massive change in the level of safety for a pedestrian. It's the ONLY way we should be looking at these major intersections if pedestrians/cyclists are involved.
Lastly, we have four additional raised intersections to build. As stated at the beginning, any of these intersections could be roundabouts and I'd fully support that, but nobody wants to be a one-trick pony.
Roundabouts - Crawfordsville intersection and 38th intersection
Raised Intersections - 25th, 34th, Gateway Drive, 46th, and 56th
Image F / Proposed changes to the High School Road Corridor.
The big negative of not going with roundabouts for this corridor is that we didn't really remove much pavement from the maintenance inventory with this project. Using roundabouts instead of raised intersections forces us to maintain the center turn lane instead of turning it into a landscaped median. A center turn lane also gives drivers a lot of opportunities to make fatal mistakes. These are important things that need consideration when we're trying to make a Vision Zero plan for Indianapolis.
Council District
High School Road is almost entirely in City Council District 5. Approximate borders are Lafayette Road, 71st Street, 34th Street, and the County Line. Maggie A. Lewis is your councilor and she's also the council's Majority Leader. She's been on the council since 2008 and her current term ends in 2028.
Contact Maggie A. Lewis: 200 E. Washington St., Suite T441 Indianapolis, IN 46204 317.327.4242 |  |
Other Involved Districts
District 11 is the next district to the south of District 5. Approximate borders are 16th Street, 34th Street, Kessler North, and the County Line. Crista Carlino is your councilor.
Contact Crista Carlino: 200 W. Washington Street, Suite T441 Indianapolis, IN 46204 317.374.6266 |  |