INDIANAPOLIS – City leaders on the Vision Zero Task Force met Tuesday night to outline some of the progress they’ve made and hurdles they have yet to overcome to reach their ambitious goal of eliminating traffic fatalities in Indianapolis by 2035.
Since the task force last met in the fall, experts with the engineering firm Burgess & Niple have worked on comparing Indy to similar cities implementing Vision Zero strategies – like Denver, Columbus, Charlotte and Louisville.
“What is most notable to me in talking to everyone is the fact that Indianapolis maintains a significantly larger amount of roads,” explained Maria Cantrell, an engineer with Burgess & Niple.
Some of those roads have proven dangerous, even deadly in recent years. In response, IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said they’re taking steps like upping investments in drug recognition training to better help officers identify when a driver might be intoxicated by something other than alcohol during traffic stops.
“We have a responsibility to respond to what our community wants, at the same time addressing violent crime,” Bailey said. “We have to pay attention to things that impact neighborhoods, and that’s the way people drive.”
Despite an overall department shortage of 300 officers, he’s added three more to the traffic unit, aiming to add five more this year. But, Bailey said shifting personnel around comes at a price.
“When I prioritize putting eight additional officers into the traffic section, those officers aren’t going somewhere else,” Bailey explained. “They’re not on the streets patrolling, they’re not in our homicide branch. They’re not in our federal task forces. So there are things you have to sacrifice to meet those priorities.”
As was the case for every peer city the task force analyzed, Bailey said enforcement can be a challenge. But thanks to a $20,000 donation from The Shepherd Center, IMPD’s motorcycle units will be equipped with moving radars. The chief hopes the city will consider adding more technology to assist officers.
“If given the opportunity in the city, I would ask that we adopt an ordinance that recognizes the privacy and constitutional issues around things like red light cameras and speed cameras, but then try to test those in areas that data said we have issues,” Bailey said.
Another obstacle – finding the money to get big plans off the ground. City-County Councilor John Barth said based on the state’s funding formula, Marion County cannot retain all of the infrastructure dollars it generates, some going to other counties in Indiana.
“Ideally, we could make these changes and make these improvements for pedestrians and cyclists today, but we can’t,” Barth said. “We have a lot of sunk costs, we have a lot of infrastructure we need to change over time.”
Task force members also highlighted recently completed and active projects that align with their mission, for example: the Michigan Street road diet, Post Road and Raymond Street roundabout and College Avenue conversion.
Bicyclist and pedestrian advocates, like Jakob Morales, the advocacy committee chair for Bike Indianapolis, have been keeping up with the status of the city’s Vision Zero efforts.
“I feel more heard. It seems that they’ve taken our concerns of transparency and timeliness into consideration,” Morales said.
Morales sat one row behind an unmistakable message for those promising to make change – seats left empty and labeled with the names of community members who’ve died on Indianapolis roads, like: Dominique Berryhill, who was killed in a hit-and-run last summer, Alexandra Leal, the victim of another hit and run one month later, and Rodney Huffman, a pedestrian who was reportedly hit by an IMPD squad car while crossing the street.
“I wanted to reserve that space to both commemorate them and memorialize them, but also to let everybody on the task force know and our councilors that this issue will continue,” Morales said. “People will continue to be killed. So we need to act urgently.”
Task force members said next steps include hiring an administrator, continuing to collect data that will inform their creation of a plan later this year and working with non-profit Health By Design on engaging the community. If you’d like to share your input, you can participate in a public survey here.
