INDIANAPOLIS — This week, the Fountain Square Neighborhood secured funding to start its own tactical urbanism project along Calvary and McCarty Streets.
The money was awarded through the city’s Community Powered Infrastructure Program. It allows neighborhoods to test infrastructure changes in their neighborhoods with low-cost, temporary projects.
The neighborhood association is planning to use the money to close the southernmost lane of Calvary Street between Virginia Avenue and Fletcher Avenue to vehicles to create a larger lane dedicated to pedestrians or bicyclists.
Water barriers would be used to separate the cars from pedestrians.
"We are starting here because this connects two of our neighborhoods,” said Dakota Pawlicki, the president of the Fountain Square Neighborhood Association. “We have a lot of our neighbors that are trying to go to Fletcher Place or go to downtown and this is a major thoroughfare.”
On McCarty Street, neighbors will also add “bump-outs” to the curbs to better protect pedestrians and slow down drivers.
"This gives us a chance to try out something new. See how we can calm traffic a little bit and improve bicyclist and pedestrian safety,” Pawlicki said. “Who knows, in the future, it could be a sidewalk expansion. It could be a dedicated bike lane. Who knows, maybe close off the lane completely if that's something we want to do.”
Tactical urbanism projects have been successful in other neighborhoods including Community Heights. In 2023, the community set up medians with water barriers to slow down drivers on East 10th Street. By the end of the study, neighbors saw a 74 percent drop in crashes.
As a result, Indy DPW now plans to redesign the busy corridor.
The Fountain Square Neighborhood Association is still working on a timeline for installing the barriers. They have a call with the city in January.