The Indianapolis’ Sidewalk Donut
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Neighborhoods, Pedestrian, Transit on Dec 3rd, 2018 | 32 comments
I work on map layers for Indianapolis, and recently I’ve been updating the sidewalk layer. Something that really jumps out is a donut that’s about 6-8 miles out from the center of the city which has very few sidewalks. Aaron Renn of the Urbanophile might call this the new donut. There are some noted exceptions here, especially within the excluded cities of Beech Grove and Lawrence. But, the city went through a ~2 decade period of purposely not building new sidewalks. Much of that development lies within this donut:
This area of the city was largely developed between the 1950’s and the...
Transit & the High Cost of Auto Orientation in Indy
Posted by Jim Hodapp in Pedestrian, Transit on Feb 21st, 2017 | 35 comments
Final vote meeting details: February 27: Full-council meeting – vote on final adoption (7:00 p.m. in Public Assembly Room)
I want to first call your attention to contacting your city councilor, especially if you live in a district where your councilor hasn’t made up his or her mind yet about the transit plan. Tell them that we need this transit improvement plan and that now is the time. We can’t afford to wait another tens years to start improving our mass transit in this city.
There’s no doubt that in Indy, we love the automobile. There are many times when a car is a...
UPDATE: Expected Timeline for Transit at the City-County Council
Posted by Kevin Kastner in New Development, Transit on Jan 9th, 2017 | 6 comments
After passing the referendum in Indianapolis with relative ease, the mass transit issue now moves to the City-County Council, which is first introduced tonight at 7 pm @ the City County Building. Here is the tentative schedule:
1/9–Introduced at council meeting and assigned to Rules & Public Policy Committee (7pm Assembly Room)
1/30 at 7pm for public testimony to the whole council
2/1–hearing at Municipal Corporation Committee (5:30pm Room 260)
2/21–official advertised public hearing and vote by Rules Committee (5:30pm Room 260)
2/27–full council votes on final adoption...
New Poll Shows Support for Mass Transit Referendum in Marion County
Posted by Kevin Kastner in New Development, Transit on Aug 14th, 2016 | 32 comments
Indy’s Congregation Action Network commissioned a poll for the upcoming Mass Transit referendum. The results are encouraging to supporters, however I’m going to take this with a grain of salt. This is an organization that supports transit, and not an independent media source. Still, I figured it would be good to link it here in case anyone was curious to see a potential reading of the November electorate. Without some independent polls, though, we can’t average out the results to find a better...
Guest Post from Nick Ison: Sustainability and Connectivity: Values that move us
Posted by Kevin Kastner in Neighborhoods, Transit on Jul 23rd, 2016 | 15 comments
This is the 3rd post in a series of guest posts in support of increased transit access in Indianapolis. The first 2 can be read here and here.
In 2005, I moved from Indiana to attend college in Boston. Next came Philadelphia and Princeton to pursue a job and a masters degree respectively. When I returned to live at College and Kessler in 2014 though, I was anxious. Big east coast cities have a lot to offer a young professional, and I was worried that Indianapolis wouldn’t stack up.
What I quickly found, however, was just the opposite: when friends from New York would call and complain about...
