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Resources

Will try and keep this organized. These will be in alphabetical order and I will try and keep the full list at the top. New resources will be introduced in "Concepts" posts and added here shortly after. Use Ctrl+F to search this page (sorry! not a web designer).

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City of Indianapolis Resources (pinned to top) / Crossing Distance / Duplicative Access / Lane Width / Leading Pedestrian Interval / Mid-Block Crossing / Mode Shift / Pedestrian Island / Raised Crossing / Road Diet / Roundabout / Sight Lines / Signal Priority / Slip Lane / Super Stop / Tiered Development / Truck Apron

 

​City of Indianapolis Resources

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Crossing Distance

The distance that a pedestrian has to travel to cross the street is critical in two ways. First, longer crossings are inherently less safe than shorter crossings. Second, shorter crossings are more desirable to pedestrians. A longer crossing, like what we see at Madison and Stop 11 may even discourage a pedestrian from attempting to cross the street at all... which forces them to drive and creates more traffic. Many Vision Zero concepts attempt to address this issue.

 

 

Duplicative Access

This may be renamed if someone points out a more official name of this concept. Duplicative Access is excessive driver access to an area that creates unnecessary conflict points, unneeded lane miles, and increases the length of pedestrian crossings. As a road gets widened over time, these become increasingly more dangerous. A good Vision Zero plan assesses the need of each access point when resurfacing and major projects occur.

 

 

 

Lane Width

Indianapolis has more pavement than we can afford to maintain and that's not an opinion. Converting a twelve foot lane to a ten foot lane doesn't seem like that big of a difference, but five twelve foot lanes being converted gives you back ten feet of space. That space could be green space, a bike lane, or just de-paved. Also, lane width is a known factor in safety. Drivers are more cautious when they have less space to operate.

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Leading Pedestrian Interval

This is an easy one to drop into your preferred search engine to learn more. A leading pedestrian interval gives pedestrians a head-start on drivers when signal conflicts will exist. Drivers turning left or right on green will often be turning into active crosswalks in busy pedestrian areas. The leading pedestrian interval activates the crosswalk BEFORE the drivers are given the green light. Hopefully, the pedestrian is able to completely clear the conflict point before the driver is even given the opportunity to progress.

 

 

Mid-Block Crossing

There are two forms of mid-block crossings. The dangerous version is an unauthorized crossing and the safer version is a designed crossing. There are many reasons a pedestrian chooses to cross mid-block, but the simplest is usually that it's the shortest path to their destination. If pedestrians are frequently crossing at unauthorized crossing locations, it needs to be addressed before easily predictable conflicts occur.

 

 

Mode Shift

When we discuss mode shift in Indianapolis, we're almost always talking about getting people out of cars and into a more efficient mode of travel. That means transit, biking, and walking. You can induce a person to shift their mode in two main ways:

  1. Make the mode you want them to abandon more difficult, expensive, or time consuming (tolls, increase taxes, tear down interstate, road diets, etc).

  2. Introduce alternatives or make the existing alternatives better (increase transit frequency/quality, build protected bike lanes, build sidewalks, e-bike tax credits/vouchers).

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Pedestrian Island

Crossing four or more lanes of traffic? A pedestrian island could be just the refuge you need. A pedestrian island should provide protection from drivers in most situations. The minimum would be a curb. Bollards, landscaping, and other barriers could also be used. Non-permanent pedestrian islands could also be created with jersey barriers.

 

 

Raised Crossings

Drivers hate obstacles. Damaging their precious vehicle is one of the most terrible things they can imagine. That's why raised crossings work great. A raised crossing is similar to a speed table, but these are specifically created for pedestrians/cyclists to cross. These crossings raise the street to the same grade as the sidewalk. This is much safer AND it eliminates those giant puddles that form at the bottom of ADA ramps. Raised crossings slow down drivers, discourage them from stopping in the crosswalk, and makes flooring it to beat a light really uncomfortable. A great place to start installing these in Indianapolis is at Cultural Trail crossings, especially the extremely dangerous ones near the transit center.

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Road Diet

A critical tool for Indianapolis, a road diet removes pavement that we can't currently afford to maintain. There are many ways to do a road diet, including temporary measures. A simple version would be converting four lanes of traffic into 2-3 lanes with a protected bike/ped lane. The most intense version would be removing an interstate, like I65 between the north and south splits if you need any ideas.

 

Roundabout

Indy residents are definitely familiar with roundabouts. There's a famous one right in the center of our city and it's on our flag. Many of us have also been to the roundabout capitol of the world, Carmel. The great thing about roundabouts is they are extremely safe for drivers. Almost nobody dies in a roundabout crash. Where Carmel initially failed though, is ped/bike safety was an afterthought. Indianapolis will have to make an effort to focus on ped/bike safety if we ramp-up roundabout implementation in the city.

 

 

Sight Lines

Design a drag strip and you should not be surprised when drivers exceed the 35mph speed limit signs you installed. If a driver can see 100s of yards in front of them like they can on an empty interstate, you're giving them a very unsubtle clue that interstate speeds are appropriate. Create tighter corridors and drivers will understand that excessive speed could damage their precious vehicles (the main thing they care about when driving).

 

 

Signal Priority

What if you never had to wait for a traffic signal to change? That's the goal of signal priority. Signal priority (AKA Active Signal Priority) is an automated system that tries to make sure the bus only stops when it's dropping people off or picking them up. You could start with just a few routes (obviously Indy would start with our BRT routes), but the ultimate goal would be full signal priority for the entire system. For routes that don't have dedicated lanes, think of signal priority as clearing a path through traffic. It's a great idea that saves fuel, time, and makes shifting your mode of travel to bus, more appealing. And bonus for drivers, getting stuck behind a bus is now a great thing.

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Slip Lane

A slip lane is a stretch of pavement that is only maintained so that drivers can make right turns as quickly as possible. They're bad for the safety of all users and are often designed to soften 90 degree turns so that the driver can make the turn even faster. A slip lane puts pedestrians and drivers in conflict by design. Nearly every Fatal Crash Review post will have this tag, because I will always be suggesting their removal.

 

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Super Stop

IndyGo introduced Super Stops in the 2020s. These stops are enhanced with seating, shelters, near-level boarding, and a dedicated lane for increased efficiency. In some posts, I will be advocating for a lighter version of these in places that warrant the upgrade. A grocery store would be a good example of an appropriate location.

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Tiered Development

This is a strategy for focusing the city's efforts and spending. Great care needs to be made to make sure that any development plan is equitable. It would be very easy to manipulate a strategy like this into a new form of red lining. Our current financial situation makes a tiered development plan/strategy necessary. No links for this section yet.

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​​TIER ONE

  • Places where population density already exists or should be encouraged in the future.

  • The most hardened infrastructure should be installed in these areas.

  • Pedestrians, cyclists, and transit should be prioritized.

  • It should be extremely uncomfortable for a driver to reach 40+ mph in these areas.

  • Tier one areas would be self-sufficient if they were independent from the other two tiers.

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T1 Examples

  • Most of Center Township

  • The BRT corridors

  • The immediate areas surrounding schools and grocery stores

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TIER TWO

  • Places surrounding tier one that have been taken over by cars.

  • Areas serviced by transit, but not BRT.

  • You probably aren't walking downtown from a tier two area, but inducing bike and transit use for these folks should be the focus.

  • Major arterial roads run through these areas and we need to rebalance to make things safer for peds/cyclists.

  • It should be easy to bike and walk in these areas, especially to a grocery store, school, transit stops, and to tier one areas.

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T2 Examples

  • Edges of Center Township.

  • Numerous car-heavy corridors: Keystone, Emerson, Madison, 16th, 38th, Raymond, Lafayette

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TIER THREE

  • Areas that lack density and transit access.

  • You can't exist without a car in these areas and that's the kind of development that we need to actively discourage. Moving folks from these areas to tier one or two is a huge win.

  • These areas need ped/cyclist access to the nearest transit locations and Center Township.

  • The infrastructure in these areas is hostile to peds/cyclists and creating space for their existence is the only infrastructure expansion these areas should be seeing.

  • Tier three areas could not exist without their reliance on services paid for by the other two tiers.

 

T3 Examples

  • Franklin Township

  • Marion county outside of 465

  • The White River flood plains on the southwest side

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Truck Apron

My first reference to this was as part of a roundabout, but there are multiple uses for a truck apron. Basically, a truck apron is extra space in a design that is set aside to help large vehicles navigate turns. It could be the raised interior of a roundabout or an armored corner of an intersection. Great care needs to be taken so that pedestrians are not standing in these areas. They also need to be bulky enough that non-truck drivers are also discouraged from driving through them to take turns more aggressively.

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