Intersection in need of a re-design: Delaware and Fall Creek

If you've ever traveled this intersection in anything but a car, you know what I'm talking about here. The sidewalks end just south of Fall Creek Boulevard, only to reappear one block to the north. (Sidewalks are colored maroon). It's no safer for cyclists: I've ridden in a bicycle north on Delaware towards Washington Boulevard, and pretty much felt like this. I'm not sure how we could reconfigure this intersection to be friendlier for all users, but it is currently a major barrier between Fall Creek Place and Mapleton-Fall Creek.

Chatham Center Market

It's been a good week of people contacting me and giving me juicy information. Larry Jones sent me a proposal (warning, file will expire within 14 days or 500 downloads) to host a permanent community market in the Chatham Center building. The meeting before the IHPC board takes place February 3rd at 5:30 pm in the City County Building's Assembly room.

Fountain Square update

Last month, I posted some concerns that I had regarding the Fountain Square project. In the comments, I was contacted by the firm responsible for the redesign. Last Friday I met with Eric Fulford from NINebark, along with Paul Baumgarten of SEND, and they brought renderings of their vision for the project. There's also a longer PDF of the groups long-term vision (warning, this link is only live for 14 days or 500 downloads). They were gracious enough to let me post the square's renderings here:






They also assured me that the removal of the parking lane along Prospect Street was only temporary.

Major features of the project include:

• The creation of crosswalks that are shorter in distance, meaning that pedestrians will be less at-risk than they are currently. Most significantly, the cars going north on Shelby will come to a stop further south, making the crosswalk more prominent and obvious to drivers.
  

• A smaller left turn from westbound Prospect Street to southbound Shelby, which initially concerned me. However, they are also moving the curb out towards the square on the west side of the street.

• The creation of a public plaza in place of a present-day parking lot. I was previously aware of this part of the project, but it certainly deserves a mention.
  

Moving back to the PDF of their long term vision, the most exciting aspect for me was the reconfiguration of Woodlawn Avenue along its historic alignment, freeing up a ton of space for new development. It's a great idea, but until it receives funding, it will remain on the drawing board.

It was great to meet with these gentlemen, and I wish them success.

Navel Gazing update: Urban Indy has a facebook fanpage

I created a facebook fan page for this website. I'm hoping it can be a space where sharing of information is easier. Many people out there know more about projects and initiatives than I do, so I'm hoping it can be a communal effort. If something juicy is posted on the fan page, I can blog about it here. We'll see if this works...

Nice article on repair shops in the Star

This article on repair shops around town touches on a topic that I have not yet covered. I admit I'm not always the best at looking to repair something and fall in to the common trap of planned obsolescence. With so many new goods available at our fingertips, and household items that are built cheaply, I often lose sight of the idea that I should value the quality items that I do have. Perhaps this will be my belated New Years Resolution: next time something that I value breaks or wears down, I'm going to first look to repair it before buying something new.

Join the Indiana Complete Streets campaign

Health by Design has launched a campaign to push for a complete streets bill in the Statehouse. The state could use this effort to give citizens safe and diverse options when traveling.

Just for kicks, my German Train Story

New blog Huston Street Racing has started an excellent series regarding the case for rail transit in Indianapolis. In replying, I found my own post on my train trip to DC, and noticed that I mentioned I may eventually talk about my favorite train story from my trip to Germany in 2002. So, here it is:

I was in a group with 3 other people in Frankfurt. We went to the train station with the intention of traveling north through the Rhine Valley, with no particular destination in mind. The helpful ticket attendant recommended taking a train to the small town of Bingen (with a transfer in an even smaller town along the way), and then taking a tour boat up the Rhine to the mid-sized city of Koblenz. A bit extravagant for four 20-somethings, but what the heck...let's do it.

We board the modern train and are on our way. We hear the stop for our transfer, and as the train comes to a stop, we mount our backpacks. In the time it took to put on the backpacks, however, the train had stopped, and started rolling again almost immediately. The train was leaving the station. We started freaking out a bit, and none of us knew much German outside of bratwurst, pretzels, and bier. We also didn't have a good map with us and our next stop was basically unknown to us, but we resolved to get off the train there and deal with it when we alighted on the platform.

We arrive at the tiny station and this time we make sure to have our backpacks on before the train stops. We depart from the train. Almost immediately, my friend says "Bingen!", and sure enough, across the platform there's a modern train with the word "Bingen" prominently displayed on it. We board, and the rest of the trip went on without a hitch.

Just imagining this type of thing happening in the U.S. always brings a chuckle. At the moment, I would appreciate any improvements in our rail travel, but I doubt we'll ever attain that level of efficiency.

Mixed Signals

The city recently improved the sidewalk infrastructure during redevelopment of the Fall Creek neighborhood for Phase IV of the project. Amazingly, the project also increased the turning radii on most of the side streets, which serves to increase the speed of vehicles. (Note, the new street edge is shown in red). This snapshot shows just two of the affected intersections, but there are many more. It's yet another mixed signal that we are sending, along with West 16th street and the insanely huge Washington Street interchange: we can give you sidewalks, as long as we continue to give more space to the vehicle.