After the senseless death of local cyclist Frank Radaker at Monon Trail and 86th Street (October, 2021), members of the Indy bicycle community asked Indy officials for changes to make cycling in the city safer. To our knowledge, there has been a change. By “a change,” we mean only one: traffic engineers reprogrammed the crossing lights for that one intersection; giving trail users a window of a few seconds while no motor vehicle lane has a green light. Now, if those engineers could just reprogram the drivers who ignore those highly visible “no turn on red” signs at the intersection…
Although it's certainly dangerous, in our opinion the intersection where Frank died is not the most dangerous street crossing in Indy, and not even the most dangerous intersection of a multi-use trail with a street. Without further ado, here is our next nomination for the bottom six street crossings in Marion County; the site where Radaker was killed…
Number 4: Monon Trail at 86th Street
Traffic coming from either the north and south is forced to turn onto an ordinary sidewalk along the shoulder of 86th Street before making a 90-degree turn at the stoplight serving shopping center entrances on both sides of 86th. Control buttons for the crosswalk signals are, as is often the case, mounted on the left side of the sidewalk, and southbound trail users must stop to hit the button before making a hard right down a slight incline to street level.
Although the pedestrian crossing of 86th is of suitable width for the amount of traffic the trail carries, trail users are immediately funneled into much narrower stretches without proper room to make a turn. This is especially true for northbound trail users; as there is insufficient room for traffic in both directions on the sidewalk.
Vehicular traffic levels through the intersection have also increased since the arrival of a large liquor store on the north side of the street. Some wags have suggested that trail traffic be split, with northbound traffic crossing at the current location and southbound traffic re-routed west to the stop light at Evergreen Ave. Seriously, however, a bridge would be safer. Ain't gonna happen, though.
Although this crossing has been much in the minds of the local cycling community because of the recent death, in truth the probability of an accident at the intersection is proportionally higher than average because of the amount of traffic the trail carries. The Monon between Broad Ripple and Carmel is one of the most heavily traveled stretches of multiuse trail in the metro area.
Grade: D+ [Engineering: D, Traffic: C-]
Dishonorable mention: Monon Trail at 91st street – underbrush and untrimmed weeds often obscure trail users' sight lines to the east, especially when approaching from the north.
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