Measured Progress: Bike Lanes on Broad Ripple Ave
Posted by Curt Ailes in Bicycling on Nov 15th, 2011 | 68 comments
Last week, guide lines went down on Broad Ripple Ave between the village and Keystone Avenue. I knew that the thermostriped permanent ones would not be far behind.
Well, the new lines are down and my initial expectations for what the corridor would look like have been exceeded. The new design has caused a small stir in the twittersphere as I noticed some people wondering what the city was thinking of when they designed this. I even received a call from Fox 59 seeking comment on camera. I accepted, but the story was changed and I never got the opportunity to talk about it. Regardless, this tells me...
46th Street Rebuild Indy Critique
Posted by Curt Ailes in Bicycling, Pedestrian on Oct 31st, 2011 | 5 comments
The Indianapolis DPW contracted this job out during 2011. I am not 100% sure of the overall scope involved since I have seen reconstruction of 46th from College Ave all the way to Emerson and even beyond that. For the purposes of this post, I am going to focus on the section that is bounded by College Ave on the west and Keystone Ave on the east; the portion that I have personally witnessed a change worth reporting on.
Previously, I critiqued the effort that transformed 52nd street. That project was a debacle that I hope our criticism may have helped influence. Indeed, comparing the 46th street rebuild...
Cycling on sidewalks in Indy
Posted by Curt Ailes in Bicycling on Sep 27th, 2011 | 34 comments
I’m sure we’ve all seen it or experienced it a time or 10 here in Indy. Walking down the sidewalk (when there is one available) and someone either comes at you on a bike, or brushes past you from behind on a bike. Some go fast, some go slow but the fact that they are cycling ON THE SIDEWALK is the point I wish to examine with this post.
I have thought about this one for a long time but a recent brush really called me to action. I was crossing West Street to get to classes at IUPUI. I saw someone riding up the sidewalk of West Street and when I got across, we were in close proximity to one...
2011 State of Cycling in Indianapolis Report
Posted by Curt Ailes in Bicycling on Sep 14th, 2011 | 45 comments
2011 has been a busy year in Indianapolis with road repairs, sidewalk fixes and creation and the addition of more cycling infrastructure. Generally, I feel like I should leave coverage of cycling in the city to the folks over at IndyCog. My recent observations however, have spurred me to action.
This year we have seen a lot more construction of the Cultural Trail. I have reported fiercely on this project and given a lot of heated criticism in the area of the Conrad. However, at the core, this project has expanded vastly this year and should be mostly completed by the time the Super Bowl occurs...
Central Indiana Regional Bikeways Plan up for review
Posted by Curt Ailes in Bicycling, Pedestrian, Transit on Aug 24th, 2011 | 9 comments
Urban Indy is a huge champion for cycling improvements within the Indianapolis area. Cycling is a low cost, low emission and healthy way to get around for short trips to the store, to see friends, get to work, school, etc. It is with these thoughts, that I am happy to pen this review of the recently unveiled Central Indiana Regional Bikeways Plan (click to open 79 page .pdf).
The Indy MPO has been gathering input over the past year from people via the Indyconnect site as well as some other public meetings. Existing bicycle plans were taken into account and a fiscally constrained long range plan for...
