The City of Indianapolis recently selected the southern half of Mapleton Fall Creek for an exciting pilot project and invites us to envision how we ideally would like to use our streets to create a more pedestrian safe & bike friendly environment.
To kick this off this pilot initiative, we will gather at Free Wheelin’ Community Bikes, 3355 N. Central Ave, from 10am to 4pm on Friday March 4th. We will work in teams and walk the neighborhood identifying specific areas and brainstorming creative methods for quieting traffic and/or visually beautifying space. Attendance for the entire 6 hours is not expected. Coffee and light food will be provided. For those who cannot stop by Free Wheelin’ on Friday, additional time is available on Saturday March 5th at 10am.
To prepare for the March 4th brainstorming tour, please consider:
1) Where are the streets and intersections you would like for us to visit?
2) What are the problems, challenges and opportunities you see at those locations?
3) What solutions might we consider?
To help us gather input, click here to complete a survey monkey providing answers to the above questions as well as whether you can attend the March 4th primary session or March 5th alternative session.
If you’d rather answer the above questions in an email format, please send your thoughts to Doug Day, dougdayski@mindspring.com or you may call Doug at 978.397.4245. Please also indicate your attendance plans to the March 4th or March 5th session.
The budget for this initiative is relatively small, so changes to physical infrastructure in the short term cannot be enacted. Fortunately BIG ideas don’t have to be expensive. You are encouraged to think creatively about small, inexpensive, visible things which can be done in the short term. Instead of building bump outs on streets, we could PAINT them. Instead of building a rotary, we could paint it on the street. Done right, many of these temporary things will become permanent.
Here are some web sites that might help you get started:
http://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/interim-design-strategies/
http://creativeplacemaking.t4america.org/