Indianapolis drivers - obeying cross walk laws and pedestrians waiting

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by grmasterb

Some of your criticisms of things up here are justified. But the way you like to take a broad swipe at Hamilton County comes across as petty, immature and ill-informed.

I should note that I have some family and a lot of friends in HamCo, and many of my broad jabs are in jest. I always forget I have no friends here and can not say some things in jest.

Obviously, if I am getting run down in a cross walk, the last thing in the world I am thinking of is spotting a 49, 29, 32, or 41 on the plate.

[Ravekid]

Originally Posted by TheRickShawMan

This lead me to make this thread from my observations walking through downtown and the IUPUI campus.

I am a student at IUPUI and I mostly walk to school in the mornings.

One of these days, I won't be surprised to see a student get hit and killed here in the downtown area and will show up on local news.

I went to school at IUPUI. I also worked there for many, many years. There wasn't anyone struck and killed until a university vehicle drove _upon_ the sidewalk and struck an elderly man. While there haven't been any pedestrian struck deaths, they have had their fair share of folks who were hit and hurt pretty badly.

If you go to IUPUI, you shouldn't be crossing the street at any of the crosswalks that are not at the stop lights. In fact, there is no reason to every cross Michigan Street at surface level. IUPUI provides nine skywalks:Three skywalks over Michigan St., one over New York Street, two over University Blvd, one over Walnut St., two over Barnhill Dr., and one over Blake Street. In fact, state law dictates using these when they are available:

IC 9-21-17-8 Pedestrian tunnel or overhead crossing; yield of right-of-way to traffic
Sec. 8. A pedestrian crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Under this law, those people who cross at Blake St. and Mich. St. are:
#1: Not crossing at a cross-walk and
#2: Breaking the law posted above as the SPEA building skywalk is right there.

For six years I took classes at IUPUI. While I didn't walk to school, I parked pretty close to Lockefield and other areas where people did live. I purposely walked a farther distance just to hit the skywalk that went from North St. garage to SPEA/business school. I even walked up the stairs to get to it.

Originally Posted by TheRickShawMan

I guess the police in Indy are more busy with snow storm warnings and checking out the east side of town.

IUPUI at least put up some money for additional crosswalks, signs, and lights. Even with that, no law written on paper will stop the laws of physics. What happens if someone is driving down Mich. in a Toyota? Just because the pedestrian has the right-of-way, the driver wants to stop, the Toyota might not!! This is why I walked well out of my way to hit skywalks. Unless traffic was very, very light on Mich. St., it was just and easier and safer way to get to the academic buildings. As far as the police comment, if you only knew. IUPUI has their own police, so Indy police really aren't the ones who will be watching for crosswalk violators in this part of town. Secondly, IUPUI PD need _two_ Captains to get schooled on how things are done:

The Exponent - Purdue's Student Newspaper

West Lafayette and Purdue Police joined forces to patrol the new crosswalks near campus and did a Blitz campaign the first week of school. For five days, between two and six extra officers were out watching the heavy crossing areas. Since then, police have been watching the crossings while on normal patrols.

Chin said there was interest in this program from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and two policemen came to observe the logistics.
“I know IUPUI did send up two captains to watch our operation and see how we did it,” he said.

Originally Posted by chalcedony

But if police don't cite drivers, then it's never going to change.

And the cops won't cite drivers, because if drivers start getting cited, they are going to demand that lazy, in a hurry pedestrians get cited as well. At IUPUI, on any given day, there are _thousands_ of people who just can't wait an extra 45-60 seconds for a light to cycle. They run out into a four lane street just as Mich. traffic gets a green light. I don't care if they cite drivers or not, but they need to cite pedestrians as well. I can't believe we have nurses and doctors, two fields that require some good smarts, who are that stupid when it comes to crossing a major road. My guess is none of them work in the ER, or they likely would pay a little more attention to their surroundings.

[Miserable Midwest]

Originally Posted by grmasterb

Fishers has been slowing developing its trail system to connect most subdivisions. Carmel is actually embracing density and a more pedestrian culture. New developments up here must include sidewalks.

Yeah, I have to give Carmel a lot of credit for embracing density. That's the only way we'll ever get rid of this urban sprawl. They also have lots of independent businesses as opposed to the normal box stores/chain restaurants that usually fill the suburbs (Avon, anyone?)

My only problem with Carmel is the insanely low speed limits around there.

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by Miserable Midwest

My only problem with Carmel is the insanely low speed limits around there.

It is ridiculous, and obviously designed to increase the number of speeding tickets.

[plaidmom]

Originally Posted by Miserable Midwest

Yeah, I have to give Carmel a lot of credit for embracing density. That's the only way we'll ever get rid of this urban sprawl. They also have lots of independent businesses as opposed to the normal box stores/chain restaurants that usually fill the suburbs (Avon, anyone?)

My only problem with Carmel is the insanely low speed limits around there.

Traffic calming.

Lower automobile speeds=more pedestrain friendly.

[plaidmom]

Originally Posted by domergurl

I wouldn't call Indianapolis a very pedestrian friendly city at all. This is mainly due to lack of law enforcement on the street.

It would be interesting to see if the enforcement picks up as Indy gets ready to host the Super Bowl . We'll have a lot of out-of-town guests downtown during that event. It will look bad if the navtives are running down our visitors with their cars.

[Colts]

Yeah, IUPUI was a mess. It's still a suburbanesque school, so there's going to be lots of cars. Trying to cross West Street during midday or rush hour was like a game of fr0gger.

Not all people are like that. It's not a very pedestrian friendly city, but most cities in the Midwest and Northeast do have aggressive drivers. I'd suggest crossing at lighted intersections only.

It may seem like many Indy drivers are not courteous, but nothing compares to the Chicago transplants. Now THEY will mow you down if you don't hustle across fast enough, sound the horn a nanosecond after the light turns green, etc. Here's lookin' at you, DG.

Edit: Why is Fr0gger censored on this site?

[wh15395]

Originally Posted by plaidmom

Traffic calming.

Lower automobile speeds=more pedestrain friendly.

Well on streets like 116th, 35mph is just too slow. Also, if they keep Keystone at 40mph when the construction is done I will lose it.

[Miserable Midwest]

Originally Posted by wh15395

Well on streets like 116th, 35mph is just too slow. Also, if they keep Keystone at 40mph when the construction is done I will lose it.

Tell me about it. It feels like you are crawling. I would love for someone to find another example of where a limited-access freeway turns into a city street that the speed limit actually increases. Heading South on Keystone once you leave the freeway portion and cross 98th street the speed limit increases to 45. This makes zero sense as the freeway portion is obviously much safer to travel faster than the area around 96th street and 465.

[TheRickShawMan]

I mostly use the crosswalk signal these days. But I really feel very sorry for the IUPUI students who have to cross Michigan Street every morning and wait a decade until the previous intersection's traffic light turns red. That's when the hustling and bustling/speeding cars stop zooming down Michigan St. temporarily.