INDIANAPOLIS — An important meeting Tuesday evening focused on making the Circle City's streets safer. "Vision Zero" aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and make Indy more walkable and bike-friendly.
"This is an everyone problem. Whether you're a driver or walking or pedaling to wherever you're going, we all have some responsibility to make sure we get from point A to point B safely," Chief Chris Bailey with IMPD said.
Pedestrian safety is a crisis. Leaders hope Vision Zero is the solution.
"I hear about the way people drive more than I hear about criminal homicides in our community," Bailey said.
Tuesday evening, the Vision Zero task force, which consists of city leaders, public safety officials, urban planners, and advocates looked at data from other cities that have implemented Vision Zero.
Those cities are Denver, Columbus, Charlotte, and Louisville. All have added speed cameras or significantly reduced speed limits. Some have dished out more than $1 million for pedestrian upgrades.
As for Indy?
"There is a really great complete streets process in play. You have your fatal crashes review team in play, and we've seen some success with some of your past projects in process," said a woman with the Vision Zero task force.
"I've asked our staff to add eight additional officers to our traffic enforcement section. We were able to find three of those right now, with the goal of adding five more in 2025, bringing this to 27 officers in that section," Bailey said. “Also, we were able to receive an approximately $20,000 donation from community members to add moving radar to our motorcycle units — that will outfit eight units with moving radar.”
But hurdles remain.
"The challenge with an initiative this big and this bold is that it really takes a lot of internal coordination. So, we are taking the opportunity to really share what we're doing, what the progress is, and what the next steps are," Councilor John Barth of District 7 said.
PREVIOUS | Vision Zero task force to meet Tuesday night as Cyclists push for safer roads
"The peer comparisons with Indianapolis and sister cities that are similar to us, I think, was very eye-opening to see," Taylor Firestein with Health by Design said.
Now what's next? The city will hire a Vision Zero Administrator, seek updated crash data analysis from 2019-2023, and explore public engagement for this plan.
Health By Design is now part of the Vision Zero task force. It will offer surveys asking for public input to understand Vision Zero.
