Indianapolis Transportation
Airports
Indianapolis International Airport serves Indianapolis and the surrounding
areas. Indianapolis is building a New Airport with the addition of a new
midfield passenger terminal, concourses, air traffic control tower, parking
garage and airfield and apron improvements.
Highways
Six major Interstates serve the Indianapolis area including I-70, I-74,
I-65, I-69, I-465 Beltway, and I-865 Connector. Future plans include
extending I-69 southwest to Evansville and construction of a new beltway
outside I-465: the Indiana Commerce Corridor.
Transit
Indianapolis's transit provider is the Indianapolis Public Transportation
Corporation, also known as IndyGo. The Indianapolis Public Transportation
Corporation was established in 1975 after the city of Indianapolis took over
the city's transit system. Before 1997, IndyGo was called Metro.
Taxis do not roam the streets of Indianapolis as they do in most comparable
cities, thus rendering the hailing of cabs impossible in the city. Taxi
companies are listed in the local telephone directory.
In 1953, the last streetcars ran in Indianapolis. Trolleybuses made their
last run in the city four years later in 1957. Since 1957 Indianapolis has
had an all-bus transit system.
Central Indiana Commuter Services (CICS), funded by IndyGo to reduce
pollution, serves Indianapolis and surrounding counties.
The People Mover
The Clarian people mover connects the Indiana University School of Medicine
and adjacent hospitals with Methodist Hospital and is available for public
use. Other buildings under the Clarian Health Partners / IUSM umbrella are
currently being built along the route (6/2006). Plans for a more expansive
people mover system are being considered; this would operate throughout
downtown Indianapolis. The existing people mover is sometimes inaccurately
described as a monorail, but in fact rides on dual concrete beams with the
guideway being as wide as the vehicle.
Transportation Issues
Indianapolis has managed to sustain a "relatively low" amount of traffic
congestion for a city its size [7]. This could be due to its relatively flat
topography which has allowed for an extensive network of roads and highways.
This network might also have been the reason Indianapolis has not further
developed its mass transit system. As the 12th largest city in the US,
Indianapolis has repeatedly been ranked below 40th in Mass Transit
Availability.
Some complaints include:
the bus-only city mass transit system; the absence of rapid transit and
light rail.
the undue emphasis on automobile travel in city planning; the lack of
sidewalks and bike paths.
excessive automobile usage resulting in resulting in environmental
degradation (specifically air pollution), as evidenced in the city's often
poor air quality
the lack of cross-town bus routes, forcing bus riders to travel downtown to
cross from one side of the city to another, often doubling or tripling what
the trip distance would have been with a direct route.
the "lack of vision" in building a transportation network based entirely on
non-renewable resources and old technology
the paucity of scheduled bus routes, often forcing riders to choose between
arriving at a destination extremely early, or late.
the lack of night bus services, which forces those who work late shifts to
find other ways to get around. These can be much more expensive.
the fiscal costs of building (for instance liens), repairing, and replacing
roads
There are other concerns over a lack of safe walking paths in many areas of
the city. Many suburbs which were incorporated in the nineteen seventies are
now geographically near the center of the city, and don’t have sidewalks.
This often forces pedestrians, from children to the elderly, to navigate a
narrow road shoulder near high-speed automobile traffic.
