Indianapolis city leaders addressing long term traffic safety plans

INDIANAPOLIS — After its passing in August, the city of Indianapolis is moving forward with plans to improve the safety of its roadways.

Vision Zero is a plan utilized by many cities across the county that uses data-driven methods to improve road safety. The goal is to eliminate all serious traffic injuries and fatalities by 2035.

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“It's a multi-sector approach of bringing folks together and taking actionable steps over time to get to zero fatalities and serious bodily injuries,” explained City County Councilor Andy Nielsen.

The city of Indianapolis has had a growing problem with traffic safety after recording 684 accidents in 2023. 2024 is on pace to surpass that.

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“It's a problem that has a solution and the first step in solving a problem is realizing that you have one, and we do have one,” Nielsen added.

This week, the City-County Council announced that they have filled their eight seats on the task force and will hold their first public meeting in October. The task force’s other seven seats will be filled by the Hogsett administration.

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Eric Holt is the founder of the Indy Pedestrian Safety Crisis which tracks the accidents that occur in Indianapolis.

He is a supporter of Vision Zero but says the city needs quicker solutions.

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“It's great to focus on both the long-term policy like Vision Zero, but there are a lot of short-term things that we could be doing to get a handle on this. The reality of the situation is the city waited way too long to finally respond to this crisis.”

The first public Vision Zero task force meeting will be held on October 23 at the City-County Building.