One aspect that will be unique about the Red Line on College Avenue will be the raised triangular diverters placed at some of the intersections. This prevents drivers from making left hand turns. Left hand turns tend to be more dangerous than right hand turns. Yet another nod to a safety improvement, not a detriment. This intersection at 51st and College is still under construction, but there are some completed diverters elsewhere along the route:
This is the future station at 52nd and College, which is located a half a block to the south.
This is the sidewalk ramp to the future station:
Here’s the weekly IndyGo E-mail blast:
College Avenue:
- There will continue to be short-term lane restrictions at the College Avenue station locations over the next several weeks to allow for station structures to be installed. Flaggers will direct traffic through around the work areas.
- Kessler Blvd – one lane closure May 15 at the Kessler Blvd station for up to 3hours.
- 54th Street – one lane closure May 14 for up to 40 minutes and one lane closure May 18 for up to 3 hours.
- 42nd Street – one lane closure May 18 for up to 40 minutes
Meridian Street:
- Beginning on or after May 13, traffic patterns will shift at the 38th and Meridian Street intersection. Construction activities will move to the east side of Meridian, south of 38th Street, and traffic will be moved west of the work zone.
- Pavement patching will take place at locations along Meridian Street beginning May 23.
- Night work will begin on or after May 20 for bus pad construction. Work will start at the 18th Street intersection and proceed North to 38th Street. Each station area and adjacent intersection will be closed for one overnight and open from 7:00am to 8:00pm. All work will be completed within 1 week with no weekend closures.
Capitol Avenue:
- Pavement patching will continue at locations along Capitol Avenue through approximately May 22.
- On or after May 13, segments of Capitol Ave immediately adjacent to the 9thStreet and 14th Street stations will be reduced to a single lane to accommodate bus pad construction. This work will occur outside of the morning rush hour and last up to 20 hours at each location.
- On or after May 15, a segment of Capitol Ave immediately adjacent to the 18thStreet station will be reduced to a single lane to accommodate bus pad construction. This work will occur outside of the morning rush hour and last up to 20 hours.
- Starting on or after May 14, a half-block section of Walnut Street will be closed immediately east of Capitol Ave for up to 5 days. The Indianapolis Cultural Trail will remain open through this intersection. Walnut Street will remain open at Illinois and Muskingum Streets.
Shelby Street:
- One lane of Shelby Street will be closed for up to two hours at each station location for platform finishing work. Flaggers will be used to direct traffic during these short-term closures. This work will begin at Hanna Avenue, continuing north. The anticipated schedule for the coming week is:
- Raymond Street stations on May 15
- Pleasant Run stations on May 17
- Shelby Street is currently being resurfaced. There will be intermittent lane closures, traffic restrictions, and flaggers directing traffic around paving and pavement striping crews. This work will continue through the end of the week.
Virginia Avenue:
Virginia Avenue will be resurfaced beginning on or after May 15. There will be intermittent lane closures and flaggers around paving crews. On-street parking will be restricted in work zones. One travel lane will remain open with flaggers assisting drivers, and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail will remain open.
Illinois Street
- Signal modifications are underway on or after May 6 at locations along Illinois Street. Traffic impacts are not expected, however, minor parking and sidewalk impacts could be necessary.
Washington Street and Maryland Street
- Crews will be placing pavement markings, resulting in short-term traffic impacts at:
-
- Maryland Street, Capitol Ave to Delaware St on May 13
- Washington Street, Capitol Ave to Delaware St May 14
30th Street
- Curb and sidewalk work will begin on 30th Street beginning on or after May 20th , requiring some lane restrictions.
More information and a list of FAQ’s about the acceleration is posted on the IndyGo website:  https://www.indygored.com/
Those RTO diverters are a common feature of suburban parking lots, and even a few high traffic urban locations. In my observation they do not actually prevent left turns. They just make left turns harder and a little less safe.
Combined with the curb median hopefully it will be enough to dissuade most people.
Yes, Paul, I was going to mention that. Left hand turners would have to move past at least two raised obstacles.
Never underestimate the willpower of an SUV-driving parent running late to pick up or drop off kids.
But seriously…those diverters don’t require anyone to drive over them, just to jog right and turn the front wheels back to the left.
Here’s an urban one at the 16th/Meridian Walgreen’s: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7883899,-86.1578574,3a,60y,173.21h,77.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sA4px2xrSntVcnPIXOvw2yA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Here’s a first-ring suburban one by Menards at E42nd and Pendleton Pike: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8329771,-86.0320409,3a,75y,99.18h,79.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sf5-5pSyTdpMb0xjfRcTpMg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
(you can see a car that is turning left from the “right turn only” diverter).
Most people driving on these side streets will be residents who know the layout. This is not the same to me as a strip mall exit, which can host anyone and everyone.
The people who live there have been used to crossing over or turning left at those corners for as long as they have lived there…in some cases, decades.
Funny thing…I have not yet seen any center barriers at any of the spots where I semi-regularly cross the Red Line CZs., and I don’t think you’ve had an pictures of them either.
I’m not saying that turning left will be impossible, but if this cuts out 99% of them, I think it’s worth it.
They will prevent a lot of people from trying to turn left, alas, not all. Regardless, if I’m stuck behind someone trying to illegally turn left, my car horn will get a good work-out!
Never underestimate the willpower of an SUV-driving parent running late to pick up or drop off kids.
But seriously…those diverters don’t require anyone to drive over them, just to jog right and turn the front wheels back to the left.
There’s an urban one at the 16th/Meridian Walgreen’s (go to Google Maps, 1530 N Meridian St, Indianapolis, IN 46202, and look at the 16th St. entrance).
There’s a first-ring suburban one by Menards at E42nd and Pendleton Pike (input 7701 E 42nd St, Indianapolis, IN 46226 to Google Maps and look at street view on E 42nd…you’ll see someone turning left out of the parking lot against a diverter).
[Note, the blog wouldn’t let me put Google maps links in a post.]
Check your comment above: I approved it, and the links are live.
Thanks Kevin. By the time I posted this message you’d already approved the one with links. Sorry for the duplication.
This is sooooooo… stupid I can’t believe my Tax dollars are building this.
Your tax dollars (and mine) also probably go a lot of other places that I don’t agree with, so let’s call it even.
It’s too bad that the designers/planners of the project don’t have the common sense to improve things that they are rebuilding. E.g. the excessively wide curb cut from College to the vacant Little Caesar’s at 49th & College. The curb cut is 33′ wide at its narrowest, more than wide enough for three cars, which would never be necessary for such a small site, and is even more unnecessary given that left turns would never be safe to make out of a curb cut so close to an intersection, and will presumably not be allowed across the curbed bus lane. It would be one thing to just ignore this overly car-centric situation, but they actually recently rebuilt the whole thing, just as it was before. Just wasteful and detrimental to making an area where people are more comfortable walking and more likely to ride transit.
They could’ve used the extra concrete to re-establish the public sidewalk on the 49th Street side of this property, which the owner apparently covered in asphalt at some time to use as their private vehicle area.
They could also require the removal of the blighted nonconforming sign that’s right up to the sidewalk at the corner (formerly used by Little Caesar’s, but the panels have been gone for much longer than the 30 days codified by the zoning ordinance to require its removal.
Unfortunately, this site is just one example of where this project is failing to make common sense improvements to the built environment. If I had more time, I could go on and on. Ideally, the City would hire some people who actually understand what makes an attractive place to not be in a car, and then empower them to make small changes that improve the built environment every time a project occurs. Until then, we get half-assed designs where they just rebuild things the way they are, if not make them worse, because it’s easy.
(Maybe this is visible if you click on the website I entered.)

Just wanted to correct the record. I went by here today, and it looks like they did actually reduce the driveway width at the sidewalk to ~28 feet. Still way wider than necessary for a two-car driveway to a tiny commercial site. Somewhat worse though, as they redesigned and rebuilt the driveway, they significantly increased the curb radius which will allow vehicles to enter the property at a higher rate of speed, so watch out pedestrians.
Another interesting design choice is how the sidewalk in front of the library actually gets wider the farther south you go from the corner of 42nd Street until it gets to be about 18-20′ wide, and then immediately converts back to the existing 5′ sidewalk. No idea what utility will be gained by all that extra concrete, nor why they couldn’t have created some additional green space there.
Paul — I reported the abandoned non-conforming sign structure at 49th and College to DBNS and they actually did open a violation case on it. The inspector’s comment says they will reinspect 30 days from 5/22/19 so I assume they define 30 days of abandonment by an inspector actually seeing the abandoned sign 30 days apart.
Fingers crossed!
Paul — SUCCESS: the non-compliant pole sign structure is gone. There’s some kind of major renovation being done to the building right now as well. Clearly the owner has no idea how much more profitable that piece of land could be if it were redeveloped in an urban orientation. There’s a reason all the fast food places keep going out of business there.