theindycog.com reader, Adam Barker, emailed me the other day with this--he took the Indy BikeWays plan map and punched it into Google Maps. Green represents the lanes already in place, and red are planned lanes. I imagine he's planning on keeping it updated to show how the plans are progressing.
At any rate, I thought this would be a great resource to share with everyone, and Adam agreed to let us post it on the Resources page, so we'll have it up there for future reference. Thanks, Adam!
For those wanting to celebrate the Pennsy Trail opening, here's some more info on the shindigs, compliments of Indiana Business Journal:
INDIANAPOLIS – (Sept. 24, 2009) Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard will join members of the Irvington community in celebrating the grand opening of the Pennsy Trail at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009.
Indy Parks & Recreation received a $900,000 grant to construct a portion of the Pennsy Trail project on the City’s Eastside as part of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ $19 million trail initiative for the State of Indiana. This 1.2-mile segment of the trail corridor is between Arlington Avenue and Shortridge Road and utilizes the existing infrastructure of the Shadeland Avenue rail bridge overpass preserved from demolition by INDOT specifically for this use.
A full assembly of Irvington Community School students joined Mayor Ballard, Department of Natural Resources Deputy Director Charlie White, Indy Parks & Recreation, and the Indianapolis Parks Foundation in breaking ground on the Pennsy Trail on Nov. 13, 2008, at Irvington Community Elementary School.
Bike, run or walk to the Pennsy Trail Grand Opening this Saturday to experience Indianapolis’ newest greenway!
WHO: Mayor Gregory A. Ballard, Indy Parks Director Stuart Lowry, DNR Deputy Director Jon Vanator, City-County Councilor Ben Hunter, Irvington Development Organization Corridor Development Director Amandula Henry WHAT: Pennsy Trail Grand Opening WHERE: On the Pennsy Trail at the Shadeland Avenue overpass (see map below) WHEN: 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009
This past weekend, I was travelling the newly resurfaced section of Allisonville Rd. and noticed that the fog lines and turn lanes have been striped, and were distinctly lacking in resurfaced shoulders or bike lanes except for a small stretch between 78th and 86th. My kneejerk reaction was an audible statement to my fiance, Brittany.
"That doesn't look right. Is that right? That can't be right...I think I need to call Andy about this."
So today, I got ahold of Andy Lutz, Indy's Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator/Senior Project Manager of the bike lanes project. And, this was his quick response to ease our minds:
Christopher,
Thanks for the question...what you see out there right now is only part of a pre-bike lane resurfacing project. Our bike lanes project is scheduled to bid through the Indiana Department of Transportation on August 12 and should get under construction by early September. We just asked them to stripe as much as they could to help cut cost on the bigger bike project. The bike project is totally funded and will run from Binford Blvd up to the resurfacing project to the north (approx. 79th Street). INDOT will also provide a bike lane as part of a later interstate project from 82nd Street over I-465 to 86th Street providing for bicycle access across the interstate. Let me know if there is anything else I can help with and I am still working on a comments page for the Sustain Indy website.
An awesome update on the bike lanes around Indy over at Circles and Squares blog, a well-spoken, well-updated Indy blog:
Adding bike lanes to Michigan and New York Streets seemed like a very long ordeal. A couple years of planning followed by an extended construction process. As I've mentioned, the results were worth the hassle. But I dreaded the thought that every added bike lane would go through the same long process.
Then one day I noticed bike lanes on a small stretch of Ritter Avenue between Pleasant Run Parkway and 10th Street. It was included as part of a repaving project. I was surprised to see it, especially since I hadn't heard anything about it.
And this week, while traveling to Wanamaker to see some friends, I noticed that a paving project on Southeastern Avenue between Five Points and Franklin Road was completed. And it included bike lanes.
We are being invaded by bike lanes! Where will they be popping up next?
It is encouraging to see all of these bike lanes popping up as part of the resurfacing projects. Andy Lutz over at the DPW seems to really be putting his time in to make sure they are included. I know that's a big initiative of his, and really, it just makes sense to add bike lanes during a routine resurfacing project. Glad to see Lutz is getting some work done, and if credit is to go to others besides/beyond Lutz, then by all means, great job to those others as well!
By this fall, several Central Indiana municipalities could receive federal funding to make their communities more environmentally friendly and efficient.
Officials from six cities and towns gathered today to discuss the application process for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, which is part of President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
(...)
More than $9 million has been allocated to Carmel, Fishers, Greenwood, Indianapolis, Lawrence and Noblesville, with proposed projects ranging from bike paths to more efficient traffic lights and street lamps.
After public feedback from a list of projects posted on a Web site, Indianapolis, which has been allocated more than $8 million, has placed a priority on developing bike lanes.
The goal is to construct bike lanes on the northwest side and southeast side that would become a part of the city's bikeway plan and connect with the Cultural Trail downtown.
Sustain Indy recently released a bike safety PSA featuring Mayor Ballard over at their site. It doesn't have any embed code unfortunately, but you can view it here. It's very "PSA'ish" quality, but it's nice to see how much the Mayor is getting behind cycling in Indy. Between this video, his unveiling of the BikeWays plan, and the Mayor's Bike Ride, I'm starting to feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.
There's actually a good bit of activity going on over at Sustain Indy's site. It's great to see some updates on their site, especially in the BikeWays sections. I was starting to feel like there was some foot-dragging going on, but it looks like things are getting moving.
Ben and I both think that there should be a link on the site that would allow individuals and organizations to donate directly to the BikeWays fund. I've been meaning to call them to see if something like this is in the works, but I've not been able to get around to it due to a hectic life. I'll try to get that done soon and let everyone know what I hear.
Thanks to Kevin over at Urban Indy for uncovering these informational PDF bike lane maps on Sustain Indy's website. These maps show the potential progress for bicycle friendly streets in Indianapolis.
I think this is a great stride for the city, but who really wants to wait 10 years for this plan to develop? The public needs an easy and convenient way to donate towards the Bikeways project. With the right initiative I believe the cycling and bicycle friendly citizens of Indianapolis can cut into this 10-year plan, why not do it in 5 years?
The 10 year, 107 mile, subject to change Bikeway plan for Indianapolis. Click on the map for a detailed PDF and visit Sustain Indy's website for complete details on the Bikeways phases.
My girlfriend Cheryl and I as well as 500+ citizens of Indianapolis ventured out on a dreary Saturday to take a ride with Mayor Ballard and his team of tactical bike cops! It wasn't the best day for a ride, but this being such a unique event for the city there wasn't a chance that we would miss this.
As soon as the PA announcer signaled the start of the ride it obviously started to rain. There wasn't a mass exodus nor did Mayor Ballard bail to get into the comfort of his SUV escort. We rode on... for 10 miles into the steadily increasing rain. It wasn't miserable.. hell, I think the rain lifted the spirits of some the cyclists. (maybe it was just me) it was also pretty entertaining to see Mayor Ballard with mudbutt all the way up to his neck. (In all seriousness, Mayor Ballard, MASSIVE respect for sticking this one out.)
The near East Side of Indianapolis was definitely entertained by the cyclists as well. People were on their porches and sidewalks cheering, mocking and generally in awe of the amount of cyclist that had taken over their streets... On the other hand, I don't think the motorist were very happy about the situation. This ride had basically taken shape into a city/corporate sponsored Critical Mass. There were police escorts at every intersection ensuring that cyclists got through and blocked traffic quite a bit on North/South corridors. Michigan & New York Streets were almost completely Bike Avenue for a few hours that day!
In congruence with Indiana Weather Laws, as soon as we rolled back up to the Veteran's Memorial Plaza to conclude the ride the rain stopped and the clouds even let the sun peak through. We weathered the storm and the bicycle gods were smiling on us.. you know, if you're glass half full type. Official Indy.Gov Recap
Even though I was opposed overall to the stimulus plan, I can at least be glad that some of it might be going to some worthwhile bike initiatives, and especially glad that Indy is lobbying for some of its plans. Indy BikeWays, anyone?
Folks who enjoy biking -- for fun, fitness or frugality -- might be winners under the federal stimulus plan.
Biking and hiking trails are among the user-friendly "green'' projects Indianapolis and some suburban communities hope to pay for with federal stimulus money.
Here's the official word from Andy Lutz, Sr. Project Manager for the Indy BikeWays plan, about the bike lanes and some specific answers to questions that have been posed.
The Delay The city contracted the job out last fall, with the project scheduled to be finished by Dec. 15, 2008. The contract had a stipulation that every workable day past Dec. 15th is penalizing to the final cost of the project, leaving it in the contractors hands to weigh less money vs. working conditions. The delay has been on the part of the contractors, citing weather conditions. According to Lutz the lanes, complete with signage, are due to be Project Complete by Monday, March 23rd.
Re-striping of Michigan St. The lanes are designed to be a minimum of 5 feet wide at any given point. After the initial striping of Michigan St., city inspectors found the stripes to have missed the minimum standards by 3 inches, and had them re-striped. The cost of this, as I understood, is on the contractor, including the penalities for late work.
Issues with Parking Along New York St. Lanes The city's maintenance crews were supposed to have the parking meters taken out and proper No Parking signage up by the time the lanes were complete to prevent parking problems. "This was a simple logistic mishap on the city's part," Lutz said, taking responsibility for the issue. He continued to say that crews should be out today placing No Parking covers on the parking meters to prevent parking over the weekend, until DPW crews can remove them, which is scheduled to happen early next week.
For those of you who aren't following our Twitter, and were wondering about the sudden lack of the lanes on Michigan St. the past few days, we thought we'd let you know that the Michigan St. bike lanes have been repainted.
We tried contacting someone at the Dept. of Public Works to get an official word on it, but didn't hear back from them before simply seeing the trucks out repainting the lanes.
We're guessing they were just placed wrong, crooked, or something of the sort and needed to be re-striped. Either way, the lanes are back, so no need to worry if you were. Alls well that ends well.
