INDIANAPOLIS – City and community leaders say they’re taking a big step toward making Indianapolis streets safer.
The new Vision Zero Task Force hosted its first meeting Wednesday night.
The task force, made up of 14 members including three city-county councilors, aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Indianapolis by 2035.
“I’ve seen my fair share of plans that have been made that everyone supported but no one ever saw again. That’s not what’s going to happen here,” said City-County Councilor John Barth. “A, we have this task force here that’s going to meet in public. B, because we have the community to hold us accountable. And C, because we designed the ordinance in a way that connected the budget process to this planning process.”
Barth is one of three councilors appointed to the task force that’s assigned to draft a full plan by next summer, before the next budget comes together. The other members are:
- City-County Councilor Andy Nielsen
- City-County Councilor Derek Cahill
- DPW Director Brandon Herget
- Deputy Controller Abby Hanson
- Health by Design Walk & Bike Program Coordinator Taylor Firestine
- AARP Indiana Director of Community Engagement Addison Pollock
- Deputy Prosecutor Lucas Nickamp
- Metropolitan Development Director Megan Vukusich
- Department of Business & Neighborhood Services Director Abbey Brands
- IMPD Chief Chris Bailey (absent from Wednesday’s meeting)
- IFD Chief Ernie Malone
- Recreational cyclist representative Damon Richards
- IndyGo COO Aaron Vogel.
“That is a years-long effort that is intentional and takes step after step after step. It doesn’t change the urgency of the right now needs,” said Barth.
That urgency stems from high rates of crashes involving drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians in Indianapolis. In the coming months, consultants will meet with leaders from cities of similar sizes that have already implemented “Vision Zero” strategies, assess the existing resources here in Indy, and build the beginnings of a plan – one they hope will change the culture around traffic safety.
“Getting away from that thought that – ‘traffic crashes happen, oh well.’ 40,000 people is not an ‘oh well,'” said Maria Cantrell, Vision Zero coordinator with Burgess & Niple.
Local advocates have spent years working to get this off the ground.
FOX59/CBS4 talked with the advocacy director of Bicycle Garage Indy who says she’s always going to push for enhanced safety measures, and more quickly.
“I’m glad that there is a Vision Zero Task Force,” said Connie Szabo Schmucker with Bicycle Garage Indy. “I’m glad they’re going to have a safety action plan. I would like it to be four years ago, 10 years ago when it was first talked about.”
Consultants will return to the City-County Building with information to present the task force at its next meeting in December.
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