Indy Fantasy Land


Time to indulge in a Strange Maps-style posting. As a life-long map geek, this map from the Skyscraper City forum was quite exciting to me. The map does not mention which mode of transport this is, so that is left to the reader. I’m going with a subway, because I can’t imagine something of this scale above the ground.

Map notes:

  • Union Station is not the hub, in fact, there is no true hub. Perhaps the four main downtown stations suggests that that loop will connect with a bus route similar to the sadly defunct blue line.
  • The light gray and mustard yellow routes would probably not attract much ridership.
  • James A Allison Memorial Stadium“. I had to look up who that was, but it makes sense. I did figure it had something to do with Allison Transmissions. It looks like this map predates the naming of the LOS.
  • If I could take a train to the racetrack, I might actually attend the 500 one of these years. I’m actually considering riding a bicycle there, which defies a normal person’s logic, but makes perfect sense to me.
  • Connecting IUPUI to Broad Ripple on a single line is a stroke of genius.
  • Who needs more lanes on 465?

Comments 10

  • While this looks brilliant, I don’t know if Indy could sustain it or even pay for it as a subway system and as you said it is to expansive to be above ground. I think it was just someone fooling around with photoshop. The map looks exactly like the one in DC but rearranged. I would love to see it hapen though if someone donated the city a billion dollars.

  • Exactly right, no way is this anything more than a creative thought experiment. However, I do think it is inspired, and the creator (who does hail from DC) seems to know this city pretty well.

    I don’t think a billion dollars would cover something like this. This is somewhere in the “gazillion” range.

  • i think there would be more riders from the southwest side than people not overly familiar with that area have reason to assume.

    there are GOBS of people living down in the camby/mooresville area now — and if there were stops in the right places, there could be heaps of riders every day, both for commute and for pleasure.

  • I guess I meant the interior of the routes, which seem to meander a bit.

  • Awesome! Even DC doesn’t have a perimeter line 🙂

    guess we got to start raising the big dollars now

  • I agree. Gazillions. But as I said on SSC, this would make a great template for bus service.

  • Yep. It’s nice to imagine that Indy could have the most comprehensive subway outside of NYC, but nothing like that will exist in our lifetimes. Some sort of a connector loop–say, north on Emerson, west on Kessler, south on Georgetown, east on Raymond, and vice versa, would make Indygo much more usable for those who aren’t going to or from downtown.

  • I’m all for public transportation, and I love subways, but that is a lot of lines running around town. Looks like a kitchen sink approach. The map basically tries to accommodate everyone in the city exactly as it is now, rather than anticipating how the city would change with a subway system installation and planning around that. Do we really need a perimeter line? A bus would probably do that job just fine.

    But a fun map anyways. I’ve often planned out a subway system for Indy in my head. His is better than mine.

  • Yeah, that doesn’t strike my as very efficient; it almost looks like it follows current bus routes, which could be better to begin with. Why would a monorail have to follow existing major streets?

    There are only the blue and green lines running truly east west, and a meandering gray, and way too much emphasis on the north side.

  • this would be an absolute dream come true. it obviously doesn’t need all the stops (there are too many), and the yellow out to the airport needs to be better connected to monument circle for business traffic.

    If Indy wants to be a true metropolitan city, then it needs public transportation. This would do a lot for revitalizing areas of town as well.

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