A Place of Sense

Welcome to Indianapolis, NFL fans

If anyone in the area has not been to the Superbowl Village (i.e. Georgia Street) you are missing out on a truly unique experience.  This will be a watershed event, both for Indianapolis festival planning, as well as for the future of sporting events in the US.  We have set the bar pretty high on this one.

Indy Cars at a cross-promotion for the Superbowl

Here are some photos I wanted to share with everyone.  It’s only been up for a few days, so I can’t wait to see how it develops as we approach the weekend of the big game.  See you all downtown!

Superbowl Village is centered around the pedestrianized Georgia Street

JW Marriott has their spirit on

A favorite activity is ziplining above the crowds

Laces out!

Indy's finest are on foot this week (keep up the good work guys!)

At night the village comes to life with music

The main stage

Bret Michaels rocked it on opening night

Former Colts player Hunter Smith taking the Pepsi Stage

The Village People were a big draw

People are loving this place

In honor of IndyGo’s decision to offer FREE bus rides during the final superbowl weekend, Urban Indy decided to put on our drinking caps and start exploring what routes might be useful for a visitor.  The purpose was to provide a simple guide for anyone unfamiliar with the city and its bus system to explore some interesting neighborhoods while enjoying some good local beer and food.

We discussed potential routes and attractions, and debated what would be most worthwhile for someone making this trip.  We concluded that the best option was to focus on a single route that hit some of the best places for nightlife in the city.  We chose bus route #17, which can get passengers close to the Broad Ripple, College Ave, Mass Ave, and downtown nightlife districts in one single route.

We decided to test out this route last Saturday and it worked pretty well.  The buses were on-time, clean, and full of friendly people.  We added on a separate trip to Fountain Square at the end because of the new Fountain Square Brewery grand opening event, but in general the #17 line will offer more than enough choices for superfans.

But, please note there are some major caveats with this:

1. Bus service in Indianapolis typically ends much earlier than you would expect.  Always check the bus schedule for the day and time you want just to make sure there will be one available.  I recommend starting farther away from downtown and working your way back, just so you have the option to stay a bit longer at the last stop and walk the rest.
2. Indianapolis has a small number of buses and 30 minute headways on route #17, so plan ahead when ordering those beers and paying the tab.

If you decide not to do the bus #17 route, there will be some other options including a free shuttle service between the different areas with nightlife, walking/biking along the cultural trail, or taking a cab.  Whatever you choose, enjoy it and be safe!

In the end, I hope anyone visiting these places has as much fun as we did.  Here’s a sample of our night’s events:

One of my favorite parts of Indianapolis is Market Street.  The east side of Market Street once hosted two really awesome buildings, the City Market building which is still there and Tomlinson Hall which was lost to fire in 1958.

A view of Tomlinson and City Market from the old County Courthouse

My experience with Tomlinson Hall began when I worked as the engineer for the City Market renovations.  The market space was upgraded and people seem to love it.  What a shame that we lost its companion so many years ago.  There are still parts to admire including an old arch in the west wing plaza.  But if you think that is the only part left, you might be surprised.

This arch is the last bit of Tomlinson Hall above ground

Pieces of Tomlinson Hall sit just below the West Wing plaza.  And not just any random bits of structure, but one of the most impressive basements in Indiana.  This place is special, and people in the city refer to it as the “the catacombs.”

A forest of brick columns

The barrel vaults and brick columns

The foundations of Tomlinson Hall were built using some amazing materials and construction techniques, which you just don’t come across often.  The details of the masonry show an attention to detail and familiarity with brick and stone that is hard to replicate.

A lateral arch supports the barrel vault ceiling at a niche below the sidewalk

Some of Indy's best masonry work is hidden below ground

Although it was not in the scope for the latest renovations for City Market property, this is really cool asset that I hope the city finds a way to share with the public at some point.

A view of the massive cut-stone piers that once supported Tomlinson Hall

Recently, City Market opened a taproom on their mezzanine and named it in honor of Tomlinson Hall.  The catacombs aren’t accessible by the public yet, but anyone can stop in at Tomlinson Taproom and celebrate it with a fresh, local pint of beer.

Footnote:  You can watch a video tour of the catacombs on this Youtube video from 2009 (fast forward to 4:30).

It’s no secret that pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries have been rising in our cities.  As more people explore active transportation options they are coming into conflict with vehicular traffic.  A recent article on USA Today shows that this is a real problem and it is reaching a new level of visibility in the debate on transportation in the US.

Most people understand that the faster a vehicle is driving, the more dangerous it can be for pedestrians and people on bicycles.  Risk is a combination of probability and consequence, and the data in the chart shows a surprising increase in the risk as the vehicular speed increases above 20 mph, as shown in the figure.

This data is well known amongst traffic engineers, and it causes them to design streets in a way that I don’t approve of.  Instead of designing streets that encourage drivers to be more aware of pedestrians and to drive slower, they isolate cars into traffic sewers and funnel them through the city at high speeds.  The problem is that this cuts up the city, street by street.  Pedestrians have only the option of staying on their own block or sprinting madly across several lanes of traffic. We need a better system, one that recognizes that there are places for traffic segregation and there are places for traffic integration.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds.  There are many successful models for building communities which are safe for pedestrians but preserve access for vehicles.  You can look to the dutch “Woonerf” or “Shared Space concept.”  The British have their own “Home Zone” initiative.  But you can also find great examples here in Indianapolis.  Our own Monument Circle is a fantastic place to see cars and vehicles negotiating space safely, and the finished Georgia Street is going to be a model for other cities for many years to come.

Georgia Street during construction (image credit: Curt Ailes)

The examples above are great for low speed interaction between cars and people, but we also have some great ideas when it comes to managing high-speed traffic issues.  The Cultural Trail is designed to move a large amount of people on foot or on bike through downtown, and it really elevates active transportation to the same quality and accessibility that vehicles have.

Indy's Cultural Trail (image credit: Curt Ailes)

These local examples show that there are two effective strategies for reducing pedestrian risks:

1. establish pedestrian zones where cars and people interact at very slow speeds – do this for both commercial and residential areas with local traffic
2. establish arterial zones where cars and people are segregated – give people and cars separate facilities where the speeds are too dangerous for mixing

Earlier this year I witnessed a terrifying event while out in my neighborhood.  Textbooks would refer to it as a “pedestrian-vehicle conflict”, something that can be observed at any number of intersections several times a day.  Seeing it play out in reality, I began to realize that our built environment has done a very poor job of training drivers to watch out for pedestrians.  One glance at the number of pedestrian fatalities statistics shows the devastating consequences on our society.

A Dramatic Encounter at the Intersection of Ritter and Washington

The situation happened along East Washington Street in a pedestrian friendly commercial district.  A car stopped at a red light and wanted to turn right.  At the same time a young family with a baby in a stroller arrived at the corner and wanted to cross the side street.  The family saw the “Walk” signal lit for them and proceeded across the street.  The driver, having earlier noticed the family, failed to anticipate that they were going to cross the street and shifted attention to traffic from the left in the main street.

What happened next is the stuff nightmares are made of.  When the family was halfway through the lane, the driver saw a break in traffic and began accelerating.  There was a loud noise and a scream, but thankfully it wasn’t what I feared.  The husband had slammed his fist down on the car hood and yelled “STOP!”, and luckily the driver found the brake quickly enough to prevent disaster.  It happened so fast that I could barely process that an entire family had almost been killed or seriously injured, just because they wanted to cross the street during a nice summertime day.

This incident reveals a larger problem with our transportation system.  Humans are great at identifying threats to them, but not so good at identifying the threat that they pose to others.  In addition to this, drivers often have a hard time recognizing pedestrians and cyclists as rightful users of the street.  They don’t realize that pedestrians don’t always stay on the sidewalk or that cyclists don’t behave like cars, especially if the drivers never spend time as pedestrians or cyclists themselves.

While this conflict had a fortunate resolution, many other conflicts don’t turn out so well.  Are there steps that Indianapolis and other cities can take to make street crossings more safe for pedestrians?  The answer is a positive YES, and that is one of the goals behind the movement referred to as Complete Streets.  It is surprising that more citizens haven’t actively supported complete streets here in Indiana (see Indiana Complete Streets Campaign), because it gives us something that has a huge amount of political support – better streets and more opportunity to walk and bike places.

Just wanted to throw out a reminder to everyone that IndyCog’s 2nd annual Tweed Ride is this Saturday from 11am – 5pm.  Go to their event page for more information.

event flyer

If you are anxious to celebrate the last bit of good weather for this year, you should consider the Full Moon Ride tomorrow night (Tuesday Oct 11). Just like the Moon rides in other cities around the US, this one will feature a lot of biking and some good conversation.  It’s also a great place to meet people from all different backgrounds.

Full Moon Riders of Indy

The Riders leave from City Market about 9pm-ish, some people gather at Tomlinson a bit earlier to chat.

It’s a fun and active gathering of people who spend a bit of time each month to pedal around downtown Indy.  If interested consult the facebook group and sign up to hear about similar events coming in the future.

Someone please correct if I’m wrong, but I believe that Indy regulations require a working front and rear light.  Also recommended are:  helmet, a bike in good working order, and some cash money and ID in case you wanna buy anything after the ride.

Hey Indianapolis!  I’ve been away from the keyboard for a while, but I’ve been busy studying cities at Ball State’s Indianapolis Center.  The one thing I noticed in my studies was how much parking lots we have in our cities, so I’m going to bring you a few posts that focus on them and what we can do to minimize their impact.  Let’s start off with a competition of sorts – What is Indianapolis’ worst parking lot? 

Recently, Indianapolis finally gave up big plans to redevelop the old Market Square Arena site.  This was my hands down favorite for worst parking lot (WPL).  For a decade, citizens endured an enormous gravel parking lot adjacent to the densest urban neighborhood in the state.  In its place, we now have a paved lot (hooray?).

The previous title holder for "WORST PARKING LOT IN THE CITY"

So, we bid farewell to our old gravel lot, which clearly held the top spot as worst parking lot in the city.  Not only for being gravel, but for occupying a valuable space in the city and destroying the connection of downtown to the near eastside.

We have a few contenders that I want to nominate for consideration (and please feel free to add your own in the comments).

WPL Candidate #1:  Under the freeway
If you have ever driven under I-65 along the north side of downtown, you have probably noticed that this space is used as a parking lot.  It’s a subtle reminder that freeways kill urban land use.  It’s dark, depressing, and without value.

If you like raised freeways, you'll like this parking lot too

WPL Candidate #2:  The Zoo Lot
The environmental costs of building a society dependent on automobiles are often hidden, but the Indy Zoo shows how our priorities affect the world around us.  We have marginalized nature, even in the places where we seek to celebrate it.  The Zoo fights hard to create special places for the animals, but its difficult when they need so much space for visitors to park.

A great view, but a bad parking lot

WPL Candidate #3:  The Market Square Arena
The previous title holder isn’t giving up that easy.  It wants you to know it is still here, and still taking up valuable space in downtown Indy. Is this really what we want fronting our Cultural Trail?

The new paved and landscaped parking lot

WPL Candidate #4:  The Northwest Side (aggregate lot)
Sometimes it seems like this part of the city is nothing but parking lots.  We’ll just lump them all together, because the effect of that much paved surface is 1 big dead spot.  The sad part is that this is adjacent to the only rail transit we have in the city (people mover), and also within walking distance of the canal, the central mall, downtown, and the cultural trail.

Is it parking lots like these that are truly responsible for urban design crimes like DeRimini?

Lots of Parking on Indy's NW side (image credit Curtis Ailes)

WPL Candidate #5:  IUPUI Campus (aggregate lot)
IUPUI has a land use other than parking lots somewhere (because the parking lots are always full), but I think the proportion of parking lot to academic space makes for a very non-urban place.  It is also lacking that “integrated campus” feel, because the only thing continuous throughout is the paving.  This place has a history of being a commuter campus, but what’s so wrong with buses, bikes, and walking as a school transportation policy?

Surface and garage lots leave less room for campus

Due to personal reasons, the author will be taking an extended vacation from updating this site for the foreseeable future.

The city welcomed St Patricks Day on Thursday by dyeing the canal green and holding festivities around town.  Judging from my scenes out of my window, the revelers started early and kept going late into the night.  I’m sure the fact it fell on a Thursday and featured beautiful spring weather helped the turnout.  I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and is looking forward to more sunshine, warmer weather, and more streetlife.

The Indy Canal near the Govt Center