Indy Upgrades Illinois Street Bike Lane

Downtown Indy's new Illinois Street bike lane

I hadn't biked into downtown Indianapolis for a while, so when I turned the corner from Michigan onto northbound Illinois, I was astounded to see that the bike lane stripe at the right-hand side of the road had been scraped off, even though the "Bike Lane" signs were still up. It took a block or two before I noticed the bright green lane on the far side. Yep, Indy has (finally) moved into the '90s when it comes to bike lanes.

It happened, so I've learned, because the southbound bike lane on Capitol was removed to make room for the IndyGo Red Line, which jogs west from Meridian onto Capitol at 18th. Between Washington and 18th, then, there's a two-way dedicated bike lane occupying the entire left-hand lane of Illinois. It's "bicycle green" with a center line (like the one so many people ignore on the Monon) and directional arrows. A row of plastic bollards separates the bike lane from the traffic and, for part of its length, from a parking lane. Do note that the bollards are for visual separation only: you can bend one over by hand.
At corners, cars have a left-turn arrow and "Left on arrow only" signage; there are special, separate traffic lights to control cycle traffic, with little red and green bike silhouettes – how European! Of course, when the protected lane ends at 18th, cyclists must navigate back across three or four lanes of drivers, some of them angry about "losing a lane," to get to the original bike lane beside the right-hand lane.

Why the city, which prides itself on its bicycle-friendliness (mainly evidenced by rental bikes and the Cultural Trail), hasn't publicized the change remains a mystery. Two local television stations have done brief segments on the change, which appears to have taken place about August 1, but there's been little other information released as of this writing.

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