INDIANAPOLIS -- A project meant to ease traffic and improve safety isn't being met with open arms on the east side of Indy.
Even though it's temporary, many people living along 10th street feel it’s causing more problems then it’s fixing.
"I just don't see this as being the answer," Terri Nichols who has lived on 10th street on the east side for 20 years said.
She is one of 50 people who signed a petition created by David Choinski. He created the petition after not knowing about the project. He feels the temporary installations are an eye sore and restrictive. He wishes there would have been more community input on the project. Especially since he and other residents feel the project is doing the opposite of what it’s supposed to do.
"People that can't pass you now tailgate you extremely close. You know they are aggressive drivers,” Choinski said. “Stopping them from being able to pass you is not going to stop them from being aggressive drivers.”
"If anything, it's causing traffic problems we've already had accident right here in front of the house where a lady hit them,” Nichols said. I am worried about emergency vehicles being able to get through especially during high traffic times."
The traffic calming barriers were installed in July and will be in place until November 4th. The Community Heights Neighborhood Association says they will study the traffic patterns.
"Before the barriers were installed the 85th percentile speed or the so-called natural speed of a driver was 43 miles per hour,” Leslie Schulte the President of the Community Heights Neighborhood Association said. "This is 8 miles above the speed limit. We hope to see after that we have an 85th percentile speed closer to the speed limit at that 35 miles per hour that folks are supposed to be driving.”
The organization says this is what needs to be done to get more infrastructure funding for the east side. The temporary installations mimic the function of what permanent ones would do.
If DPW were to award the money to the community they’d like to have a permanent median installed and bollards protecting the bike lane. These are infrastructure changes the organization says are needed.
"Several neighbors reported speeding and passing in the center lane turn lane was a problem,” Schulte said. “A child was hit on a bike over 4th of July weekend we've had people die at our intersections on 10th and Emerson 10th and Ritter and 10th and Arlington."
The project needs community feedback to work. That is why the Community Heights Neighborhood Association hopes regardless of how people feel they will submit feedback.
"We have to get the community input in order for the project to work," Schulte said. "If we don't get that input then we can't give the information to DPW."
The Community Heights Neighborhood Association will be asking the community for input once the barriers are taken down. If you have feedback about the project, now click here.
Once the barriers come down on November 4th they will not be put back up. We reached out to DPW to get their take on the situation and they sent us the following statement.
"Tactical urbanism is a City policy that allows community members to test how small-scale, temporary installations can improve street safety. Tactical urbanism projects are temporary and funded by community groups. Residents submit ideas they believe will make the streets in their neighborhoods safer and receive short-term permits to test their theory. Groups engaging in tactical urbanism projects are collecting data that will be submitted to the City to inform if a permanent change should be implemented in the future.
Prior to the installation of this community-driven project on 10th Street, the Community Heights Neighborhood Organization received input from nearly 200 residents living in the vicinity of the project. The results of this survey can be found along with additional project documentation on the neighborhood's website.
Indy DPW worked with CHNO for 18 months prior to implementation of this project."
