3-day summit focuses on bike and pedestrian safety

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Since 2015 the federal government has focused on Indiana because of its high rate of pedestrian and bicycle deaths.

To address the issue, a three-day summit kicked off Monday afternoon.

Organizers are talking about bike and pedestrian safety on trails, in the heart of cities, and around schools.

“Analyzing the area within a half mile of the school. We’ll look for sidewalk conditions, crosswalks, we’ll look for pedestrian signals,” said Allan Henderson, who led a Safe Routes To School seminar. “Really we’re just trying to get a picture of what’s happening around that school, what some of the major barriers are to walking and or biking to school.”

This is the city’s first Bike and Walk Summit.

“All about how we make Indiana communities more walkable, more bikeable,” said Kim Irwin, the executive director of Health by Design, a sponsor of the summit.

Back in May, Health by Design was successful in getting the city to approve its first pedestrian plan.

“There’s additional, frankly attention on the city and state as well as technical assistance that’s available to us,” said Irwin.

Bike and pedestrian safety has been an issue for years. In recent years the city started installing protected bike lanes.

Bicycle advocacy group IndyCOG said the protected lanes, like those on Pennsylvania Street in downtown Indianapolis and in the Fountain Square neighborhood can reduce bicycle deaths by as much as 90 percent.

Organizers said the conference is a chance to learn how to best make similar improvements elsewhere.

“It’s helping us understand what changes do need to happen, how we can prioritize those,” said Irwin.

Organizers said the discussions are open to the general public.