Indianapolis neighborhood’s ‘tactical urbanism’ project designed to slow traffic

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Temporary water barriers are now lining 10th Street on Indianapolis’ east side to help make the street safe from traffic.

The Community Heights Neighborhood Association managed the project. The group participated in what is called “tactical urbanism” and installed temporary measures to encourage the city government to create a permanent solution.

Organizers in this case say drivers are speeding and reckless on 10th Street because it is a wide road. There are also instances of cars using the left-turn lane as a passing or travel lane.

Leslie Schulte, president of the Community Heights Neighborhood Association, spearheaded the project. “Cars act like dragsters. So, they see this wide open road and they think, ‘I can go faster. There’s nothing ahead of me.’ And so that’s what we’re really trying to test here, if we break it up, do cars follow the law? Do they go the speed limit?”

The barriers will be in diamond shapes in spots along the center-turn lane along 10th Street from Emerson to Arlington avenues, a mile-long stretch. A bike lane barrier will only extend from Ritter to Arlington avenues due to road width considerations.

An additional installation will be put on 16th Street in front of Indianapolis Public Schools’ Anna Brochhausen School 88 to encourage safer driving there.

A Democratic nominee for a district seat on the Indianapolis City-County Council, Andy Nielsen said, “As we are sitting here right now, I think we can see a number of vehicles going really fast down 10th Street. It’s been a constant issue.”

Much of the project needs to be put in heading east toward Arlington. The bike lane barriers were not yet installed Tuesday.

Nielsen said, “So 10th Street is absolutely dangerous because … (truck speeds by honking). Look there’s one right there. He’s speeding right through.”

The water barriers are a temporary measure to allow the city government to get more information and consider permanent changes.

Schulte said, “At one point in time, someone was speeding down the center-turn lane, and they were going in excess of 100 mph.”

The first official and approved instance of tactical urbanism in Indianapolis was a group of three homemade bollards. Those were installed in the spring on 12th and Illinois streets at the I-65 on-ramp. That block is the only one without flexible bollards protecting the bike lane on Illinois. Carloyn Kawada was biking home from work on Illinois on that block, as she does daily. She said she feels safer with the bollards there to stop cars from clipping bikers.

“I really appreciate them just so cars can’t ram into me when I’m waiting for the light,” Kawada said. “It’s because people just want to zoom onto the freeway it seems like that is why this intersection is the most dangerous.”

These projects are legal through the city’s tactical urbanism program but paid for by the community where they sit.

The city is helping to match 50% of funding through the Indianapolis Neighborhood Infrastructure Partnership Program. Daniel Stevenson with the Department of Public Works said, “This will actually provide neighborhoods an easier route to get that funding to do these projects that they think they would like to see.”

Another instance of tactical urbanism seen in Indianapolis is painting the streets and bike lanes to call attention to those areas.

The Community Heights project will continue on Saturday.

Anyone interested in applying for a new tactical urbanism project can do so by submitting a form to the Department of Public Works.