Council changes downtown speed limit to 25 mph, increases parking meter hours
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The City-County Council on Monday night approved laws to reduce the downtown speed limit to 25 mph and to increase the hours that parking meters operate.
The speed limit would be 25 mph for all downtown streets bounded by North, South, East and West streets, better known as the Mile Square. The 25 mph limit would also include streets bounded by and including 11th Street/Oscar Robertson Boulevard/10th Street, White River Parkway West Drive, Interstate 70 and Interstate 65, except state highways.
The same law also deletes and adds “no turn on red” restrictions at specific intersections.
The goal of the new law is to reduce accidents involving pedestrians downtown. The city’s Department of Public Works said in December that a majority of the areas with the highest number of serious accidents are located downtown.
The other measure approved changing the parking meter hours to 7 a.m. through 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday throughout the city. That measure was approved 21-3, according to a tweet from the city council.
The original pay-to-park measure called for meters to be in effect on Sundays as well, but that was earlier removed from the measure by a city council committee.
In the downtown, parking meters currently operate from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in other parts of the city.
Council President Vop Osili, the Democrat who introduced the plan, told News 8 in December that it could raise more than $1 million each year for the city. Money from the meters currently goes to infrastructure and roadwork. Osili wants to use the added money for two initiatives: city street-sweeping and homelessness prevention.
Also, the council re-elected Osili as president for 2019 on Monday night.