Tag «Indyconnect»

Why investment in transit is important for Indianapolis

IndyGO Bus on westside of DT

If you are a regular visitor to this site, then you are undoubtedly familiar with our complete and undivided support for improvements to our region’s transit system. Sure, we all have specific talking points that we feel would represent SMARTER choices, but at the heart is this unifying vision of improved transit options. As advocates, …

What Indiana spends on its roads

Reconstruction of 465 on Indy's NS (Winter 2009/2010)

In light of my recent posts about Indyconnect gutting the light rail portion of the plan for Marion County, I thought it would be a good time to put some of this financial talk in context by displaying what some recent, and ongoing, roads projects in the Indianapolis area are costing us. This is a partial …

Washington Street BRT Under the Microscope

Phoenix, AZ and it's median LRT (photo: Flickr user CWaterhouse)

Last night I had the opportunity to finally attend one of the Indyconnect Round 2 meetings. It was a little different from the Round 1 meetings, in that it was more of a community meeting where one could sign up to stand and comment or ask questions. I was near the end of the roughly …

BRT and what it might look like in Indy

BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) Proposed Routes (click to enlarge)

Since the unveiling of Indyconnect’s long term proposal on Monday November 8th, those of us who were advocating AND EXPECTING light rail transit, are left to pick up the pieces. What we had been hoping for was light rail transit that would be implimented along Washington Street. Traditionally, light rail has been a GREAT motivator …

What Indianapolis Can Learn from Cincinnati’s Rail Lessons

In early February of this year, IndyConnect, the transit plan that focuses on altering the central Indiana transportation system away from its current auto-only orientation towards one featuring rail, was released to the general public.  In the ensuing eight months, public meetings have been held, discussions have occurred, and opinions have been shared about the …

Making sense of the latest Indyconnect documents, 8/2010

I was tooling around in my regular search for things related to light rail and Indianapolis yesterday and discovered that Indyconnect has created a “NE Corridor” specific portion of their wesite. Contained within, is a more detailed exploration of the process, and the documentation required, as it moves forward. Currently, as I have recently reported, …

Justifying Rail transit for Indy & where it should start

In February of 2010, the city of Indianapolis made an exciting announcement. Mayor Greg Ballard announced that a task force had been formed a year and a half prior to study the long term future of transportation in the Indianapolis area. They coined this marketing blitz, Indyconnect. This wasn’t simply public transportation, this was public …

Keep pushing for Indy Connect

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made a surprise appearance at the National Bike Summit in Washington DC. The Secretary made a strong pitch for diversified transportation options, as the Streetsblog article does a fine job of highlighting. This is another sign to me that the time is right for Indy Connect. To be honest, improvements like …

Indy Connect Justification Number 2:

Property Lines has posted about an abandoned apartment building due to be redeveloped that has hit a snag due to our infamous off-street parking requirements. How many of our historic buildings were lost due to parking? How many more sit vacant for the same reason? Instead of more people living in a part of Meridian …