It's come to this. A freaking blog. Please end this crisis so that I can stop. We're here because an unacceptable number of my neighbors are being killed by predicable and preventable incidents of car violence. We're here because a map of traffic incidents and fatalities from 2015 to MAY 2024 looks like this:
Indy MPO Fatal Crash Data from 2015 to MAY 2024
That's 988 of our neighbors. Gone. The goal of this project is for the City of Indianapolis to become a city that believes ZERO is the only acceptable number of annual deaths on our streets. Unfortunately, we are very far away from that goal.
What is Vision Zero? and Why Vision Zero?
Vision Zero is the idea that a transportation system with zero annual deaths is possible. Vision Zero concepts are in use all over the world and a few U.S. cities have dabbled in the concept. Hoboken, NJ is probably the most famous of the Vision Zero cities in the U.S. They recently achieved the milestone of seven years without a traffic fatality.
The reason we advocate for Vision Zero is because it is a known plan that has been proven effective. No studies are needed. All of that work has already been done. We will learn about the design concepts of Vision Zero as we review each fatal intersection.
The Indianapolis City Council recently (12 AUG 2024) approved Proposal 224, which establishes the Vision Zero task force, sets a goal of zero ped/bike deaths by 2035, and tasks the task force with creating a plan JUL 2025. Hopefully, the ideas discussed in this project can help shape this plan.
What's wrong with Indianapolis?
Any discussion of problems with Indianapolis has to lead with the Big Three. We're not here to solve these issues, but just remember that these constraints exist.
The Big Three Problems
Indianapolis is huge. 367 square miles. That's larger than New York City with 7.4 million less taxpayers.
Indianapolis has more lane miles than it can afford to maintain. There is no current plan to escape our deferred maintenance death spiral.
The Indiana State Government is hostile to the city, our people, and our self-governance.
Now that we've got the lay of the land. Let's talk about the people with the power to make the changes required to achieve Vision Zero.
#1 The Mayor
A barrier to change and protector of the status quo. Few would consider Mayor Joe Hogsett an ally in this fight. His preferred method of soft power and closed-door negotiations make it nearly impossible to ever understand his true motives, but his lack of action and advocacy on this issue has spoken for him. James Baldwin once said something to the effect of "I can't trust what you say, because I've seen what you do." That's where we're at with Joe.
#2 The Indianapolis City Council
The 25 members of the Indianapolis City Council represents an extremely diverse group of Hoosiers including some of the densest census tracts in the state and literal farmers that still farm 100s of acres in Indianapolis. The council is fully under the control of 19 Democrats, but anybody can be an ally or an adversary in this fight. The current Mayor is a perfect example of that fact.
#3 The Indianapolis Department of Public Works
Familiar with the trolley problem? The Mayor and City Council control the switch and Indy DPW has to lay the tracks where all the people get killed. Indy DPW is underfunded and operates under the direction of the city's government. Would it be helpful if they stopped driving their trucks on the Monon? Absolutely, but they will need new directives from the city government before they can make the temporary and permanent changes needed to get out of this crisis. It's easy to blame Indy DPW, but keep in mind that they are basically doing what they're told.
How this will work and how you can help
In June 2022, the City Council founded the Fatal Crash Review Board (sometimes referred to as the FCRB). Advocates hoped this would finally be the catalyst needed to begin real changes. Unfortunately, the board did not receive any real powers or mandates to make actual changes. As you may have figured out, no changes have come from anything the board has done.
With this project...
I will be revisiting ped/bike incidents that the board has reviewed.
Each post will review the incidents at that location, recommend immediate and long-term actions, and include supporting visuals.
Appropriate City Council Contacts will also be identified for each incident.
I will also be focused on equity and hope to highlight a location in all 25 council districts. Unfortunately, they all have fatal ped/bike incidents.
Hopefully I can manage about three posts per month, but nobody is paying me like the car dealers are paying the city councilors and mayor.
You can help by sharing these posts and contacting your councilors. I want these posts to help everyone understand that change is possible and provide a tangible ask for each council district to take to their councilors.
Why am I doing this?
I love Indianapolis. I live here. I work here. I want to ride my bike to work more, but it's not safe enough most days. I'm tired of seeing that my neighbors have been struck down by preventable tragedies and I also don't want that to happen to me.
Launch Day Twitter Thread:
Clicking the image should work, but here's the link text: https://x.com/thedirte/status/1826602345402433634