Thank you.

Okay, well, I'm John Barth, I'm the chair of the Vision Zero Task Force.

Welcome to a big crescendo of a meeting.

Before I ask the members of the task force to introduce themselves, I'm gonna make a few comments to get started.

And my apologies to everybody watching at home, anybody who may ever watch this, or anybody here with us, it's gonna be a little esoteric.

I've had a big big day here.

Um due to my day job, I spent the in so two things.

Number one, today is uh giving Tuesday.

So if you um uh are so inclined and have the resources, today's the day to support a nonprofit that's doing important work um in the state or in your community.

Last night um uh during the council meeting, we um recognized all the volunteers at uh food pantries across the city who did so much during the SNAP suspension.

Um I reported uh last night that I visited the um boulevard place uh food pantry um which is in my district, and uh during during the during the time when the suspension was happening, and it was the day that um they had the highest volume of shoppers they've ever had, and also the most new shoppers they've ever had, pointing out that the SNAP uh suspension was having a dramatic and and problematic uh effect on the citizens of Indianapolis.

And um so please remember um all those folks who uh do such important work for us uh every single day.

And then concurrently I spent the or uh as it happens, I spent the entire day visiting community-based organizations in our city who are doing incredibly important work around literacy and working with seniors and working with people with disabilities, and it just reminded me that one of the things that really um matter come on, come right in.

One of the things that really um matters is this network of support we give to each other.

Um not I don't want to bring maybe just a tiny little monicum of politics into this discussion um by referencing what's going down today at the other end of Market Street, which is uh a purely partisan uh situation and uh in a situation that some would describe as as divisive.

And that's why I'm here and I'm happy to be here and thinking about what I just said about being giving Tuesday and these nonprofits working so hard, pulling together, trying to stitch together a universe upon which we can rely on to support those who most need support in our community is so important, and I'm thinking about that in terms of this work.

This this work that has been going on um this entire year has been um a significant challenge, and it takes a lot of um time and effort for a lot of people to be involved in this.

Um Vision Zero is a um initiative that only works, and I've said this many, many times, if we're all pulling from the same end of the rope.

Um of the reasons why I really wanted to do this is because from the time uh majority leader Lewis and I first passed complete streets, um, and then later doing an update to it, and then later doing multiple other um ordinances to address pedestrian and and cyclist safety.

Um we've had these many situations where we've had to recognize that pulling together and pulling these things um, I mean maybe revise it.

When we have done all that work and got those ordinances on the book, that's still just steps along the process.

And there are a lot of other priorities, and those priorities, I use this phrase a lot, are confetti in the air, in that every single piece of confetti in the air is something that's very important to a singular person.

That's their biggest priority.

But collectively, if we're gonna be successful and make the changes that we want to make, we need to have everybody pulling from the same end of the rope.

And the only way we can do that is by having a plan that we all agree on.

And pulling together the somewhat tortured analogy that I've been trying to make is thinking about it in terms of what I was saying earlier about these nonprofit organizations stitching together a vision and an approach for serving people who are most in need in our community.

We're doing a version of that.

We're taking hundreds of people's uh input that we took thanks to Health by Design and the work they did with pop-ups and online and and the online uh collection of data that we did, plus all the experts here in this room, and I'm looking at this group of people who work so hard to help get this done and who took time out of their their day job to be here.

Um all of us worked together to get this thing put in place, and then now we have, and I'm gonna say this with a huge amount of pride and pure celebration, you guys.

We have never had a singular tool um to manage safety for pedestrians, um cyclists, all users of the road ever.

Indianapolis has never had that, and now we have that.

This thing exists.

Here it is.

We actually have this document for the first time ever, where we took all those pieces of competti, we put them together in a plan, and then now it's time to um uh join together, rally behind it, and then execute on it and make it happen.

That that brings me a huge amount of joy and a huge amount of satisfaction.

And I had I want to take a moment to thank every single person who was involved.

Um, one of the things that's really meaningful to me is thinking about the day I spent at the Broader Pole Winter Farmers Market listening to folks who didn't know they would be giving um input into this process.

Um, but they saw uh me and Andrea and they came over and they gave us input.

That this mattered to them as much as it matters to anybody, but they just didn't have the pathway or the wherewithal or the understanding um how to go about giving their input, and they did.

They um gave us that input.

That input is just as important as anybody else's, and it really thinking about that day, it's uh it's really meaningful.

So I thank them, and I also want to thank everyone in this room, everyone who cares enough to be here on a cold uh snowy day, all these task force members.

Um I think something that's really singularly important is how difficult it is to pull something like this together across this enterprise.

Any big entity like this, 1.7 billion dollar enterprise has silos, it has challenges, it has communication problems.

Um having an initiative that requires all the departments, all the leaders to come together and weigh in on it, put it together, and to support it is a huge deal.

Not only across this enterprise, the city enterprise, this building that we're sitting in, but municipal corporations.

Um to my knowledge, this has never happened before.

I in my uh years on the council, which I'm in my third term, I've never seen something like this happen before.

That's a huge amount of leadership from everybody, everybody who's involved in this and making this happen.

I think that's really important.

So I want to continue my thank yous by saying thanking all these city employees, municipal employees, municipal corporation employees who weighed in on this.

Um BNN, um, we're gonna hear from them here in a little bit.

They've done the lion's share of data analysis and putting this together.

Um, I also want to want to thank I know I keep saying it's the entire city enterprise that that pulls this together, and um I think that's really important.

But I uh even though I say this repeatedly, and it's true, this thing doesn't happen unless the entire universe of the city enterprise comes together behind it.

There's one department that has heavier shoulders, a higher weight to bear, and that's DPW.

And and I I have um I don't know if Natalie is here, but hopefully she's watching or should I hear about this?

She did an incredible amount of work both in her previous position and her current position.

Um I if I this is you know, this is a um uh city counselor's version of the Oscars, and so if I start uh uh thanking people, I'm gonna never I'm gonna miss somebody, I'm gonna mess it up, so I'm not gonna continue going down this road, but I do want to thank Todd um stepping in as a new director, um, embracing this and and and and working with us.

And I especially want to thank uh LeAndre, who um is our Vision Zero administrator who um jumped in what May, am I right, Leandre?

And you wouldn't have known that he started in May because let's just pick a day, maybe May 2nd he started on May 3rd, he was crushing it.

And he was running across the enterprise and doing an incredible amount of work.

So I just want to take a second to thank everyone who I just cited um and make sure that we take a moment to really appreciate what we achieved here because this is monumental and really important.

So thank you to everybody.

In 2023, after uh the election, um, he and I met uh and had uh some beers at um uh upland at 49th and race at 49th and uh college, and I want to thank him for coming to District 7 uh and talked about all the things that have been done um on this topic um uh for so long.

Um the ordinances that have been passed, the the work changes that have happened, but what could we do next?

And we quickly narrowed it down to this, and um we started moving forward.

And um the result of that conversation um at uh at 49 college is we here we are today.

That was the acorn from which grew this um this process and and this um this report uh that we're gonna go over here in a minute.

Um I think I'll wrap it up by that um with that.

Um I do want to say that um the engagement process that um health by design ran is something I'm incredibly proud of.

Um I I I'll say it one more time.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in my time on the council, that kind of robustness and um intensity of that engagement.

Um I do recognize that folks wish that there had been more um uh opportunity to speak to the entire task force.

So we're gonna go ahead and take a moment for that today.

Um we don't have a huge amount of time, so we'll probably have five or six people uh who'll have two minutes each to make any comments they they want to tonight.

Uh if you do want to be one of those folks, uh let Leandre there know.

Can you just raise your hand one more time, Leandre, and he'll write your name down and call call you up when we get to when we get to that point.

Um with that, I'm going to um go ahead and ask all the members of the um task force to introduce themselves.

And um I'll start with uh counselor here on my on my left.

Thank you, Chairman Barth, Andy Nielsen, uh City Councillor District 14.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, Derek Cahill, City County Council, District 23.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Abby Brands, Business and Neighborhood Services.

Controller Abby Hansen Mark McAleavey, Chief Executive Officer of Health by Design and the Indiana Public Health Association.

Lucas Neekamp uh with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.

Megan Vukasic, Department of Metropolitan Development.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Todd Wilson, Director of the Department of Public Works.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Brooke Thomas, Chief Development Ufficer at NDGO.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

This is uh Bill Murphy from Indianapolis Public Schools.

Thank you, Chairman.

Uh Chris Bailey, Chief of the IMPD.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Addison Pollock, Director of Community Engagement with ARP Indiana.

Damon Richards, private citizen.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Ernest Malone, Chief Indianapolis Fire Department.

Thank you.

Um so now I'll move on and proceed with the agenda.

Um, and uh in my earnestness uh and wanting to make those comments I just made, I forgot to bring my agenda.

So uh uh Leandre, I believe the first uh item goes to you with uh an overview of the process so far, correct?

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um myself and Maria actually combined our presentation, so uh just to make a streamline for everyone so we won't go back and forth with technology.

That sounds like um and so um I just want to give the task force members uh this is gonna be a bit a bit of a presentation here.

We're gonna try to get through as fast as we can.

I want to be respectful of everyone's time uh and then be able to get through it.

Uh one formality, Mr.

Chairman, uh Aaron Vogel uh is no longer with Indigo and his uh replacement is Brooke uh Thomas.

So thank you.

So again, Task Force members, I would try to move along very quickly.

Um if there's any questions at all for myself or Maria on my right and Jeremy on my left with Burgers and IPL, uh please let us know.

Just a quick overview of this action plan report.

Uh we're gonna kind of go through a few uh agenda items.

One, we'll talk about the public feedback survey results that we did from July 1st.

We're gonna go over the current vision zero efforts, talk about funding prioritization, current data trends, and some highlights from 2025 so far.

Uh we'll talk about our next steps or implementation things we're doing right now, um, such as the Indy Vision Zero dashboard and annual reports that we'll be doing uh concurrently every May, and then Burgess and NIPA will actually go through the booklet document um highlight, highlight it.

I know it's 102 pages, and like I said, we're gonna try to get through this the best way we can.

Uh so if you remember back in June 25th, the last task force meeting, we proposed the matrix essentially.

Uh essentially outlines all the strategies that we um put together from Burgers and IP, but also to the recommendations that the staff and uh your agencies have uh recommended to us.

Uh to meet that deadline, we put together this matrix to again kind of talk about the high level uh strategies that we want to move forward with, and we also shared it with the public.

Uh so from July 1st to July 31st, we did a public feedback form requesting comments from the public on these strategies.

So, online feedback again was the draft strategies.

It was conducted from July to July 1st to July 31st.

We received 175 anonymous responses.

The responses uh respondents answered 16 questions.

Many of their uh feedback and suggestions were incorporated into the final action plan.

And so I will briefly go through those, gives kind of a high-level results of those and kind of wrap that up.

So the first question we asked how familiar with with Vision Zero Initiative.

Uh, fortunately, the majority is somewhat or very familiar with Vision Zero as a whole.

We asked, do they support the city overall goal of eliminate traffic fatalities of serious injury by 25?

95% said yes.

I'm not sure about those three, but that's okay.

I mean, this is public form.

Uh we also asked what's your biggest concerns about traffic safety uh for in your neighborhood throughout Indianapolis, you know, safe speeding, dangerous intersections, lack of sidewalks were some of the more common uh responses.

I think they have the option up to four respondents or top four response.

We asked, have you actually reviewed the action plan countermeasures?

Uh the majority said yes, at least reviewed them on some level.

Uh, do you feel like the um how would you rate the overall strategy outlined in the proposed action plan?

Majority said good or could have some type of improvement, which we did.

And so overwhelmingly the public, uh, at least the respondents said at least we're on a good track uh in terms of how we're going to move forward.

Do you believe the strategies will improve roadway safety for all road users?

Uh the majority, the least majority respondents said yes.

Uh, there are some that said they're not sure, either other or no.

We asked which strategies are most important to you, safe roads was the top response uh along with uh a few others as well, safe people, safe speeds.

We asked which Vision Zero strategy could see some improvements in the action plan.

Again, uh, pretty consistently safe roads, safe people, safe speeds.

Question nine and question 11 particularly asked for a narrative response, and we cannot fit that on here, but basically that's where we got the bulk of the feedback from a narrative perspective uh compared to a multi um multi-response.

Uh, have you or anyone been personally affected or serious injuries here uh in Indianapolis?

The majority said yes.

We also asked for some demographic uh information about age group.

Uh it's pretty consistently uh when you look at ages 25 and older.

However, we got no respondents from ages uh under age of 18 and less than 3% from ages 18 to 24.

And with Maria will talk more about that, how that particular age group is critical.

We also asked the respondents for their zip code, just kind of show where the respondents um kind of gave some feedback, and we overlaid that with the transportation impacted neighborhoods where we know these are known communities where uh either zero households, social economic indicator, lack of transportation, lack of infrastructure in that particular community uh for a variety of reasons.

We also asked for the racial demographics.

Uh, this was an optional as you see the no data meeting, several respondents did not give their racial um uh demographics they reported, but uh 64% of the respondents did indicate they are Caucasian white.

And we asked, do you identify someone who primarily walks bikes or drive or use public transit?

Uh the majority or at least 85 said they that they drive.

So overall, feedback from the respondent highlight the strong desire for more action-oriented approach, including tangible infrastructure changes and priority prioritize safety across design enforcement and implementation.

Uh, while there is broad support for proposed strategies, the feedback reflects a community that is ready for vision zero and is calling for sustained committed safe to commitment to safer streets for all.

That was the overall uh summary from the respondents.

Uh, and we do have the more detailed matrix uh if anyone requests it.

Uh next, I will uh highlight a few uh items that has been kind of a public question about funding or how we support Vision Zero.

Uh this approach, our approach has always been that Vision Zero prioritization is a policy, not a program.

We know that a critical critical success factor for Indivision Zero initiative will be resources and able to meet those safety needs we need to achieve our vision zero by 2035.

Like other Vision Zero Cities, Indianapolis does face a unique funding challenges and stretch resources to support Vision Zero.

However, we believe these challenges should not deter our progress.

Funding prioritization will be key.

And this approach allows to let the public know that Vision Zero is a policy, not a program.

Indy Vision Zero, we are committed, it's a long-term citywide commitment that helps guide our decision making process when it comes to land use, transportation, infrastructure, you name it.

Unlike a traditional program, which is typically housed within a single department, tied to a single uh specific budget line item, it often limited the scope.

Uh Vision Zero is a shared responsibility amongst all the city agencies and task for members and ought to be used as a policy framework to how we move forward and make those investments moving forward.

This framework will allow us to make strategic and targeted investments moving forward and how we improve our public transportation systems.

Moving on, I do want to give a quick highlight of some current crash data statistics.

As of uh December 1st, there are 73 reported fatalities here in the city.

That is a progressively going downwards over most recent years.

Again, I want to let the public know that this is uh IEPD's collected areas and FARS data.

And so we are trending in the right direction, particularly post-pandemic.

Um the city is currently projected to continue a city downward trend in fatality crashes.

Uh this is a just a simple snapshot, it's not a the totality of what we're moving forward.

Uh, but this is consistent with other major cities.

I've asked several other my peer cities of what is what is the consistency in that.

What we've learned is that it has a greater impact on societal changes, meaning uh fatal crash rate is often correlated with overdose rates, is often correlated with homicide rates.

And as those trend down, fatal crashes sometimes trend down as well.

What we believe the bigger picture is has something to do with mental health.

So again, I'm not the expert in the mental health portion, but uh overall it has to do with what societal changes, sometimes outside of our control.

And and I also want to make a note that you know, even though this data trend is progressing in the right direction, it doesn't necessarily encapsulate how people may feel when they're on the roadway.

And so, yes, we are trending in the right direction, though, as we know that there are uh people in the community who have strong feelings about uh either certain intersection or overall infrastructure in general, um, even though data may say otherwise.

Uh now I want to share uh a few highlights that we have done so far this year in 2025.

First of all, I want to acknowledge the partnership uh this task force has had with many of the advocacy communities, particularly for the world day remembrance.

I know task force members, several were there along with our uh advocacy community to recognize all those who have died in our roadways just uh a month ago, uh more world day remembrance, and I think it's really important to make sure we have that sustained relationship, and but also to reminder of why this work we're doing is so important.

Uh so I want to thank our advocacy community for their uh efforts in making sure that we are aware of um the responsibility we have as a task force.

Also want to highlight some of the work the INPD has been doing, particularly IMPD announced uh just a few weeks ago, uh the transparency website, particularly for the traffic uh information that uh outlines the crashes, traffic stops, traffic citations or warnings that they will be compiling uh moving forward.

Uh this is an innovative and user-friendly dashboard that anyone in the public can view now and moving forward, and I want to commend IMPD's effort uh and transparency and accountability to the public that supports the Vision Zero efforts.

ARP earlier this year did a community challenge where any ARP awarded 7500 to community um to Chatham March Neighborhood Association to advance pedestrian safety intersections at 10th Street and Park Avenue.

Uh, this was in partnership with DPW.

We did a tactical urbanism project that was successful, and the data, preliminary data has shown that it did reduce speeding in that area, I believe by six percent.

So, again, continued partnership from AARP, a task force member and to improving uh pedestrian safety, but also to uh support our overall vision zero efforts.

The American prosecutors office earlier this year announced the deferment program for uh traffic violators, uh particularly changing it.

Um you know, essentially the standard of eligibility for the speeding infraction will be uh one to fifteen miles per hour uh overall.

This will deferment will allow uh individuals, individuals who are uh expedient assessed to have that opportunity to go through that program as well.

But I believe uh before it was uh 15 to 25 miles per hour was the previous that has now been lowered, and I believe this you only get one opportunity to go through this deferral program.

Reckless driving and more dangerous drinking and driving, you are not eligible for this deferment program, but it shows the prosecutor's office commitment for enforcement and vision zero efforts.

Uh walkability land use policies from DMD.

Uh perfect example of that is Georgia Street that is happening currently, it's currently on construction.

Uh previous um construction had a pedestrian focused approach to uh Georgia Street from convention center down to Gangbridge, but that is now going to be pedestrian entirely.

And so that is just show just one example of DMD's efforts to align uh land use policy, walkability policies with Vision Zero.

Of course, the blue line uh will be one of the last segments of the BRT that will be going that's in construction right now.

Uh that we know there will be 63 new upgraded traffic signals, uh 2.3 miles of new refreshed sidewalks, um, nearly 10 miles of sidewalk replacement, and many more ADA curb compliance and resurfacing uh on its way.

And of course, DPW as part of its complete street tactical urbanism, uh the opening of the nickel plate trail, which is 15 miles of uh bike and pedestrian friendly uh trail, tactical urban and the CPI uh that we've done earlier this year.

Uh we did 15 uh tactical urbanism community-led projects this year.

That's the most that uh the CPI has ever done.

I think in the last two years, I think within 10 total.

So we have more than doubled that this year.

We have several lined up for next year as well.

Uh the tactical urbanism project is a stepping block for any community who wants to have any type of um uh tactical urbanist traffic calming methods in their community, and we strongly encourage anyone who wants to learn more about it to go onto our website.

And of course, part of our two-way conversion that the city has been planning for the next several years.

We just opened um New York Street and Michigan Street two-way conversion in partnership with Indigo as well to make sure we have uh pedestrian safety infrastructure, but also to um reduce the speeds in that area as well.

And of course, earlier this year, the uh Indianapolis City Council approved $500,000 for the fatal crash review team, particularly uh for those recommendations.

Uh, we will be announcing those projects here at the next um uh public works committee of what those selection projects projects will be.

Uh also counselors also too did a fall fiscal of one million dollars for pedestrian traffic rapid responses.

Uh we still determine those projects within DPW, but ultimately they'll be used for low-cost adjustments and excuse me, low-cost countermeasures that we'll be having uh in the city.

And also top on top of that, the city council has approved 19 speeding reduction ordinances this year.

I'm told we have another nine on the docket to be approved.

And that's on top of the World Day Remembrance Resolution and the reaffirming of Vision Zero goals.

And so the next steps we'll be moving forward with is implementation is already moving forward, as I mentioned before.

I know some task force members uh have shared a few informations with me thus far.

They're they're in the progress to make sure they are moving ahead with those uh strategies.

Uh next, you'll probably see more publicly is the Vision Zero dashboard.

That is currently in development with our um GIS team.

Want to make sure that is uh available to the public probably early January or right around that first quarter.

And then, of course, uh the next time we will reconvene will likely be in May.

Uh per ordinance, the task force is to meet twice a year, likely one for uh the annual report in May and another time at the discretion of the chair.

Uh we also have newsletters update, and anyone wants to learn more about what's happening with Vision Zero, you can go to the um web page, uh, the topic page online, or you can email us email us at indivision zero at any dot go.

Uh and with that, I will turn it over to Maria.

Thank you, LeAndre.

Okay.

So LeAndre covered our process, the things that have led up to this, and now I'm going to share with you just some highlights of the pages of the 102-page document.

You have it printed out in front of you.

It's organized in this manner.

So there's an executive summary.

We talk about Vision Zero overall.

There are some folks that will pick this document up and we'll have no concept of what it is or the safe system approach.

We we want to share our process in this document.

But we want it to be able to be used as a tool for all of you when you're going around and speaking to the community, as well as for those of us to refer to it as a tool to say, oh, let's ref what did we say we were going to do?

Let's check and make sure we're doing it.

LeAndre is going to help support tracking these items in here as well.

I do think there's some great data points in here that I'd like to share and highlight with you.

And then we have our strategies.

That is the bulk of this document.

I'm not going to go through all of it, but it is that larger matrix that we looked at in January, broken down a bit more.

So we do have our support from our leadership, both a letter from the mayor and the pledge and commitment from all of you for this document.

So that's front and center in here.

But we do also have our timeline, right?

We know that this has been a process in uh intentional to be thorough, that we started back in August of 2024, and it shows the continuous work that's been done toward to getting to this point in time.

So you know, we've talked to a lot of people, both internally and externally, and with all of our partners, um, ensuring that we have uh feedback and input as counselor Barth uh mentioned earlier.

So again, the idea of explaining how do we reach Vision Zero and that safe system approach wheel that we have on here.

Now it's it's color coded to match some of the strategies further uh in the document.

So Safe Roads is green and safe vehicles is that dark blue, safe people is yellow.

Um but in along with those elements, these categories on how we uh put our strategies together, we're still referring to these safe system approach principles, the idea that injuries are not acceptable, that we know people make mistakes and we need a system that allows and accounts for those mistakes that we're going to be proactive and be redundant, and the layering of these stop signs is intended to reflect how how you layer these things together to get that redundancy, all of these strategies together.

If one part of the system fails, something else is there to pick it up.

So, for instance, if someone um you know makes the mistake or fails and participates in consuming um impairment substances, alcohol or or drugs, and then continues to drive.

Maybe they weren't the safest people, but hopefully we have streets that were um set to the safe speed limits and designed to those safe speed limits.

And if that still doesn't prevent the crash, it reduces the severity of the crash.

And then you have um you know post-crash care that can respond quickly to those scenes, and all of these things lessen both the likelihood and the severity of the outcome of those instances.

So that's all explained here.

And then again, sort of that shift from the traditional approach to how we've handled traffic safety to what vision zero, what makes it different.

We've always cared about traffic safety.

It's not that we haven't cared, but we're shifting by looking at being preventative with our high-risk network.

We're accommodating people's human mistakes, we're focusing on those worst crashes.

We can't get rid of every property damage crash, but we know we we do need to be able to uh travel without injury.

Um again, that shared responsibility.

That's why we have so many organizations participating here, and again, that proactivity, and again, instead of saying, well, you can either have safety or you can have mobility, we're going to shifting our focus to safe mobility.

Again, we've talked quite a bit about our public engagement, so we highlight all the locations where we've had our pop-ups, the general feedback that we heard from the community.

We talk about the types of questions that were asked and a map here showing that we were able to reach every township in person, and then the lar the little dots there just reflect some of that public input from the markup the map that we had.

So again, the reason we're here is because we want to save lives.

We we need to be able to make it home without injury or death.

And we know that the data that we looked at, so the time that we started looking at this back in January, we had full data sets from 2019 to 2023 through Aries.

Um, and in that time, and we'll be updating it through our annual reports annually, getting the most updated information.

Um, but we do know that 296 people died as motor vehicle occupants, 135 people were struck and killed while they were walking, and 22 people were riding bikes.

Again, these are people, not just crashes, but they are people, and then we show the trends as well for serious injuries there to the right.

We also showed comparison, not just using Aries data, but FARS data.

This is the data that is collected nationally, and we wanted to compare Indianapolis to the state and to the country, and to show that some of these trends are not unique to Indianapolis.

There's some nuances, sure, um, but we do know that these trends and the five year rolling average.

So, you know, we know with COVID we had certain anomalies with behaviors during that.

But if you take that five year rolling average of what's happening, we are still trending upward nationally in the state and in the city.

But if you look from 2017 to 2023, um, the five-year rolling average there for fatal crashes has increased in Indianapolis by 45%, which is not a small thing.

Again, we talk about speeds, and we've talked a lot about uh people walking and how speeds affect them, just a small change in speed from 20 miles an hour to 40 miles an hour and 40 miles an hour being more of a relative speed that people drive that it results to a much greater risk of death for people walking.

But let's not forget that most of the people we talk to, and the data shows most people are commuting inside vehicles, and they are also very vulnerable to small changes in speeds.

And if you go from 45 miles an hour to 56 miles an hour, and we have the citation of this study in our plan, um, 56 is not a typo, it's just what 90 kilometers translates to in miles per hour.

Um, that small difference in speed for someone striking a utility pole or a tree really, even with a seatbelt on an earbag, can yield to this severe of an outcome.

So, again, we really want to focus on speeds, and again, we're seeing that yes, most people do commute through by car.

Our our input also said more people would like to be able to uh walk or take the bus or ride their bike if conditions were changed.

But we do know that even though just 2.9% of the people are commuting by bike and by walking, they are overrepresented in representing 35% of those fatal crashes.

So, yes, more people are being killed in cars, but they are being people walking and biking are still overrepresented, and that's why we do want to still make sure we accommodate all road users.

So the data again, it is important to look at which data we're using for which thing for our high injury network that looks at existing crashes on Indianapolis roads, not including interstates.

So FARS may have a different number because it doesn't weed out the interstates just looking at the city overall when it looks at data.

So just to be mindful of that if you see some small variations in data.

But when we looked at our high injury network, we're looking to see what Indianapolis can control.

So that includes all the roads that you maintain and manage, and so we've come up with that high injury network, which just shows a small set of our streets yield most of those fatal and serious injury outcomes.

And then on the right, in a more proactive manner, is our high-risk network for vulnerable road users, where we look at street characteristics that were happening on those high injury streets.

Where else are we likely to see challenges for people walking and biking?

And so that's what that map on the right is showing us.

And it is both of them are overlaid on the transportation impacted neighborhoods map that LeAndre mentioned earlier.

This is where we just know that people have different challenges about how and when and where they travel based on some of their circumstances, whether it's income, socioeconomic households with um without vehicles are higher in these areas.

So we looked at all of this information, and uh repeatedly in your strategies, you'll see reference to this data the high injury network and the high risk network and the transportation impacted neighborhoods, where we want to focus our efforts on these areas to have the greatest impact with our limited resources.

Another big highlight was this peer city comparison.

Um we took the data, um, some of this was initially provided by Health by Design.

We added to it, including miles of road maintained.

Um, but what we did is we compared other cities that of similar population and land area to Indianapolis to see, you know, what kind of fatality outcomes were they happen having.

And what we noticed is the locations that had a higher population density tended to show a lower fatality rate.

So Indianapolis falls sort of in the middle of their peer cities here with that.

But what we did also note is that Indianapolis does maintain a lot a much larger amount of roadway than its peer cities.

So that was worth noting.

Again, we talk about the safe system approach, our strategies and action steps.

One of the bigger comments that we had in July from the public was a desire, a need to want more to know more details about all the strategies.

Well, how much money is going to be for this?

What are the next steps?

How many people, what are the resources, and some of the challenges are that some of that is yet to be worked out.

And so these strategies were written and formulated to provide flexibility, enabling the subject matter expert to use best practices for the most effective approach based on available resources.

So our safe road strategies, again, I mentioned we use that high injury network, the high risk network, the transportation impacted neighborhoods.

So HIN, HRN, TIN to strategically prioritize the investment of the limited road users or limited resources for all road users.

Again, we want to incorporate proven safety countermeasures.

These are again the best practices, and they are included but not limited to leading pedestrian intervals, access management.

So looking at how more crashes may occur near intersections where there are a lot of driveways, and that can provide challenges.

We look at optimizing signal timing for safety and looking at road safety audits, just to name a few.

We want to influence long-term outcomes through policy updates, clarifications, and publications.

This isn't necessarily publicly exciting because people don't see it, but it has big long-lasting impact to look at the policies and how we approach future design, development, and and more.

Again, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of infrastructure improvements after they're implemented.

So that's something that we're going to make sure that the city continues to take a look at.

So here is an example of what one of the pages for safe roads strategies and steps looks like.

Again, this is the bulk of the document.

What we did from that original matrix that we saw is we added a general cost estimate of we think you know whether this will be a lower cost dollar amount, medium, or higher dollar amount just for relative context, and again a time frame and what emphasis areas is included by these strategies.

Some may have multiple emphasis areas.

So the task leader is also shown in here.

Some of these were tweaked slightly after having further conversations with each of you.

Then the safe speed strategies.

We know safer speeds can be influenced through setting context appropriate speed limits, having that self-enforcing street design, right?

Designing to the speed to encourage people to naturally drive that way.

Again, enforcement optimizing when and where those patrol resources are utilized.

And we know that automated enforcement is a proven safety countermeasure endorsed by both FHWA and NHSA, but is limited by state law, so we acknowledge that in our strategies that we uh would like to support that further.

And again, uh the adjudication process, engaging the judicial system to uphold traffic safety enforcement.

We already acknowledge that you know, we have the deferment program has been improved to really allow second chances for people that have some mistake, but the egregious offenders, you know, don't have that opportunity anymore.

And we also know speed is related to culture, and so the strategies acknowledge that as well.

And again, just an example of part of the matrices.

Um, it's it would take probably all day to go through these.

So we're on a limited uh timeline here.

But again, safe people and encourage safe responsible driving and behavior by people who use our roads.

We want to raise awareness and provide education about road safety.

We know again, culture plays a vital role in shaping the traffic safety outcomes, and we want to remind the public that commuting is not an individual act, it is a shared responsibility.

So, again, lots of strategies around safe people from all of our partners here.

Those are in yellow, and then our post-crash care policies.

We want to enhance the survivability of crashes through the expedient access of emergen emergency medical care while creating a safe working environment for the vital first responders and preventing secondary crashes through robust traffic incident management practices.

So again, um we want to build safe roads, but make sure that those things that we build are still supporting quick access to first responders.

So some examples of the post-crash care strategies are in here.

And then our safe vehicles.

So making sure fleet vehicles are equipped with basic features such as lane assist and you know, airbags are pretty common now, but um as we update our fleet vehicles, improving that process and determining which uh features should be standard in those fleet vehicles.

And then the general strand strategies will be a lot of homework for the your vision zero administrator and uh those of the folks that he recruits to support him.

Again, it's putting that um dashboard in place, having annual updates and newsletters, and improving communication and transparency, uh, which is what I'm gonna be talking about next to help support this action plan.

So there will be key performance indicators and tracking of metrics.

That'll include the annual fatalities and serious injuries and by mode of those.

Um we want to know what percent of high injury network streets um get safety interventions, will have speed reduction interventions, including enforcement metrics, and some of that's already available, and some of that dashboard, um, progress of that city fleet uh that can be equipped with safety technology, um, how many public education events, how many enforcement events there are happening, all of this is part of that transparency and reporting that we're looking to in the future.

So the plan is published.

Our task force has paper copies, but it is available at this QR site or at Indie Vision Zero at Indie.gov uh if anyone wants to look at it in more detail.

Um excited and to continue moving forward.

So that is the conclusion of this presentation.

And there's a next step for you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Maria.

And and again, thank you to the Burgess and NIPL team who has done such incredible work on this.

Um again, I think this uh work product that we have is uh uh impressive and it will be a guide for us to achieve our goal over the coming years.

I also uh would note that um I think one of the things that's most important in this next phase is this uh dashboard and the ongoing reporting of metrics in a dedicated um uh sessions that will be uh the ongoing work of this task force in addition to the dashboards and the data that Leandre and Rain noted.

Um my thought and my plan is to uh continue oversight of the implementation of this, similar to how I oversee the process of the Thrive Indianapolis plan.

So if you um Thrive Indianapolis is another uh major plan we have uh to address environmental sustainability in Indianapolis and the committee I chair, the environmental sustainability committee um reviews that uh at least on an annual basis and more frequently in that um reports out to the community exactly where um the city is in achieving all those goals.

So this will be conceptually similar in that there'll be an ongoing home for this reporting out and um opportunities uh for feedback from the public.

Um so again, thanks so much for all this incredible work.

Um I want to turn it over to the task force for comments.

I know um our rep from the ARP uh has some comments he wants to make, so I'm gonna go to him after I uh go to my two fellow counselors and see if they have any comments to make.

Um, either of you would like to weigh in, folks.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh I just want to acknowledge the uh the work that uh has gone into this.

Uh I uh appreciate the the work simply in assembling it, uh putting it into such a uh professional-looking document.

But the the work that went into collecting all the uh items and developing the the tasks that will uh will guide us in the future here.

Uh but more importantly, the members of the task force and the agencies they represent for the commitments that are here because that is the real work that uh is now uh before us for the uh the next years to come to try to drive this number down to zero.

So thank you.

Councilor Nansen, please.

Uh thank you, Chairman.

Uh excuse my voice, everyone.

Um I'll be short.

Um just to emphasize the the points by both my colleagues of just uh where we started and where we're at now um at the World Day of Remembrance.

I also emphasize that it's important that the community continue to show up and hold um elected officials uh appointed public servants and others accountable to this plan as well.

That's a key part of this plan's success.

Uh part of that is the chairman indicated is the task force will continue to meet and hear updates on progress of the plan, but a lot of this work will happen through the usual business of city government in the legislative process.

So for folks watching, um it also requires that you you continue to be engaged in that uh that usual process of attending committee meetings, working with your counselors, et cetera.

Um I also want to emphasize a few pieces of the of the report that really stick out, and I think um again for the public, if you're still learning about what vision zero is, I would encourage you to read pages 23 and 20 through 25.

I think re-emphasizing um uh how we shift our mindset in this work and how uh specific roles uh what our specific roles in that process are.

I think it's very important.

And I think uh page 54, looking at the Pierce City review, both I think in a numerical way, uh, really emphasizes the challenges that we do have, but I think as public servants uh in this work, we also have to see that as the opportunity ahead.

So um chairman, I thank you for your leadership on this.

Same for you, Counselor Kay Hill.

Um and with that, I look forward to hearing from other task members.

So thank you.

Uh thank you, Councillor Nielsen.

Um Addison, I hope I'm not too present presumptive, but I believe you said you had some comments to make, so I'm gonna go to you next and then um to uh away for oh that's for folks that raise their hand.

Sure, thank you, Chairman.

Uh briefly, I just wanted to say that this is a great opportunity for all of us partners uh up here, whether you work within the city or outside of the city, such as advocates such as help by design, we can um we can really leverage this and use this as ways to carry the spirit of this going forward, creating opportunities, whether it be funding, outreach opportunities to engage the community.

This is as we talked about a shared process with the community.

So we want to create those avenues and work for the Andre and the city to make that possible for everyone.

So just wanted to mention that.

Thank you.

And I and I appreciate everything the AARP um does.

I know you've had grant programs and a lot of public advocacy as well as public policy development, all critically important.

So thank you.

We really appreciate you being at the table.

Okay, folks, uh other task members.

Uh please just uh raise your hand and uh we'll go to you.

Yep, please proceed.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um Brick Thomas, Chief Development Officer at Indigo again.

Uh safety is job one at Indigo.

I don't think we talk about that enough, but we safely transport millions of people every year.

Um and every trip begins on foot or by bike.

Um we also probably don't talk about that enough.

Uh so in addition to what's in this plan for Indigo to help lead, um, we will continue to use our limited resources to attract federal funding when we can, bring that here to Indianapolis so that we can go farther and go faster than we could otherwise for many of the bus stop improvements and pedestrian infrastructure improvements that are needed beyond the BRT routes.

Um of course we wouldn't be able to do any of it without our partners at DPW and and from time to time in DOT.

So incredibly uh grateful for that.

And then a moment of privilege, if I may, Mr.

Chairman and fellow committee members.

As a resident and a mom of two boys that walk to and from school, I am beyond proud of my community for putting this together.

Thank you.

I uh I also walk with my kids to school and I live where I live, so I can walk to St.

Thomas.

It's uh the the uh primary driver of living uh just a few blocks away from our uh parish and school.

Um I'm just gonna take just a I'm gonna take my own moment of personal privilege and say that the red line in my district caused a lot of anxiety for a lot of people, but now I routinely, routinely have people say how much they now and feel safer and calmer driving down college because the the street is calmer, the the traffic is slower, uh and and they feel safer driving down college, and that's all because of the red line.

So thank you when you go.

Anyone else?

Mark and then Todd.

Thank you very much.

moment of personal privilege and say that the the red line in my district caused a lot of anxiety for a lot of people but now I routinely routinely have people say how much they now and feel safer and calmer driving down college because the the the street is calmer the the traffic is slower and and and they feel safer driving down college and that's all because of the red line so thank you and you go anyone else mark and then Todd thank you very much um counselor Barth I I just wanted to share my uh deep appreciation for all of the leaders driving this process you know I've been in this work for 25 plus years and it is never this uh smooth and I know that it wasn't always smooth so just um just to be clear you know I think this was an amazing process and um and I and I'm really proud of where we're at and I and and what an opportunity we have to change the story uh in our communities and and we can and I think as as the you know representative of the organization that did the community engagement work um you were constantly at Health by Design considering um and and focusing everything that we do on our community and on our people and um and this is uh you know I and I think that we um I think that uh we had a really good run with that and and had some really great opportunities to engage with neighbors in this process and uh and it and I and I also will just um there's more to come you know our commitment to this work as you noted uh is um is in the plan and it talks about the work uh that we will continue to do to uphold those so those safe routes to schools and and later this month we have some really great news to share um and I can't wait to share that uh with you um but I'm just gonna give you you know the edge of the seat I mean you can have the whole seat but you only need the edge with that teaser um more to come and lastly um I want to say that you know we will continue to think through ways to center our work on the amazing leadership in our neighborhoods and communities and you know folks that are here today took time out of their days to to be here to make sure that they're a part of the process and they're they're a part of democracy and I think that's so commendable and it's so critical um especially in the time that we're in and I think that the work that we're doing is um is necessary for the work of strong healthy communities it's not just because I like to ride my bike or I like to run this community or that I that I also grew up you know riding my bike to St.

Thomas which was the the parish that I was baptized in and my parents were married in so it's a funny full circle moment and I um and I just want to say that we are committed to working um uh as a as a continued member of this task force to find ways to make sure that the the voice of our community members and leaders who really demanded this you know who who really raised the flag and said we you know we are here to make sure that our our streets are safe um that they don't have vision zero at some point you know I think uh that that we that we owe um a debt of respect to them uh by engaging them in the process but that the vision zero starts to become the you know the vision guard end right let's you know it when we get to stop when we get this claim this vision zero when we don't have any fatalities and we don't have you know uh uh lack of safety in our streets then will we have vision abundance right then we have vision what you know we get to fill in those blanks and I think getting to that um visioning of what our roadways can be is going to be really exciting together and I look forward to that thank you mark um director Wilson thank you Mr.

Chair and I would uh also thank you for your opening comments the compliments that you give to the department to the task force I want to thank all the task force uh members also for your input and your your time here today I also like to thank our uh department of policy and planning head up by Daniel Stevenson formerly Natalie Van Dong but uh Daniel's running that now and the hard work that uh LeAndre uh has done uh to help put this together and guide this process um again DPW as I said before um our guide encompasses safety in everything we do not only just how we design our roads but how we maintain our roads how we uh maintain the vehicles that we have uh just simply removing snow is a big safety um commitment uh filling potholes uh uh designing you know intersections that that that work properly so um just to be brief I just wanted to thank uh everybody involved with this process and uh we do have a lot of work to do uh the department and the task force um here's uh the the community and uh we got a lot of work to do so thank you very much and and I'm gonna just um take this opportunity to once again to thank the DPW team I'm I'm genuinely impressed with that team um uh Daniel uh he and I have now been um at two tactical urbanism projects uh one spending the better part of a day really painting on Illinois and the other day the other one he did the work and I stopped by to thank volunteers

And and I'm gonna just um take this opportunity to once again to thank the DPW team.

I'm I'm genuinely impressed with that team.

Um Daniel uh he and I have now been um at two tactical urbanism projects.

Uh one spending the better part of a day really painting on Illinois.

And the other day, the other one, he did the work, and I stopped by to thank volunteers, but still I was there.

Um but that shows you how the DPW is um committed.

And Daniel's a great example.

He's out there in the streets doing the work.

That's really impressive.

And I know sometimes it's it's tough, and DPW take takes some hits, but the changes I've seen in the time I've been on the council and in the um meaningful uh adjustments and approaches have been um impressive, and I think that's this is we're still you know working our way through everything, but I I have genuine thanks um um to DPW.

So thank you, Director Wilson.

Any other comments for the task force we go before we go to any public comments.

Okay, uh Leandre, do you have any folks who would like to comment?

Yes, Mr.

Chairman.

We have two that have signed up thus far.

Uh first we have Connie Schmucker from Bike Garage Indy.

Okay.

Two minutes.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, everyone.

Um, thank you, everyone, for your work on the Vision Zero Action Plan.

Um, as you know, action plans only are successful with investment.

And I encourage the city to make significant investments.

Um starting with those five percent of the streets, 205 miles, that account for 43% of crashes.

You would get a long way towards vision zero by focusing on those five percent.

Um budgets reflect priorities.

I'm really thankful for the council efforts um with funding, providing funding for some Vision Zero implementation in the fall fiscal.

Those aren't budget dollars.

We need budget dollars for 2026, ideally, and 2027, definitely, um, in order to actually see any progress in Vision Zero.

Um the uh vision zero network just did an article, which I'll send to some of you, um, about the cities that are seeing progress in Vision Zero, and it's because of the investments that they're making.

Um and the ones that aren't making investments aren't seeing any progress, even if they have a nice policy.

Um three things.

Triage is quick build.

There's something wrong, you go and you fix it really quick.

Intensive care is focusing on the high injury network.

And prevention is adopting the necto standards as guidelines as your standard.

Going forward.

Um this work is extremely meaningful to me.

Um, and all of us at bicycle garage and um four years ago, one of our employees was uh killed at the Moon on 86th Street, and I've focused a lot of my effort in the last four years on trying to get changes to that intersection.

Um and last month, one of our employees was in a very um serious crash when he was riding his motorcycle to work.

Um so it hits home for us.

We want to see safer roads.

Thank you.

Next, we have Doreen Crenshaw.

Thank you, Leandre.

Thank you, Councillor Barth, for allowing uh public comment.

I just hope that going forward you continue to do that and let us know ahead of time.

I would have planned something other than thanking you all.

Um I look forward to seeing the vision zero, and thank you for all your work.

That concludes public comments in terms of sign-ups.

Good evening.

Thank you first of all to the committee for the work that you've put in and for uh bringing this plan up to the public.

Um something we've been looking forward to for a really long time.

Uh my comment is really, really quick.

Um, it's just about density, and I think it was brought forth that density directly correlates to how safe the roads are.

Uh so ask counselors as you do your day to date tasks that don't have anything to do with this committee.

Uh consider density, right?

Anything that you can do in terms of transit oriented development, funding for indigo, um, making parks and places that are beautiful to live in.

Um that's that attracts people who want to live in the city, it attracts businesses who want to cater to those people.

And so the more you can push for density in every other aspect of your work, I think it's gonna be really important and it's gonna make your job a hell of a lot easier.

So, hello, my name is Elizabeth Voss.

Um, thank you for letting me uh have a moment to express my gratitude for this plan, and I really look forward to it being implemented.

Um I know it's exciting to have it done, but I look forward to the proof of seeing everything implemented and seeing those numbers go down.

And real quick, I wanted to talk about the this quick build funding and um for projects that we know do work and do decrease speeds and increase safety.

For example, at uh 52nd in the Monon, I helped with the tactical urbanism project there.

We decreased the speeds and increased the likelihood of cars and trail users yielding to each other.

Um but now the project had to be taken out for snow plow season.

So now that we know that worked, can we put it the project back up?

Is there something intermediate that could be done and not just there, obviously, but throughout the city.

If we know that something has been done that works, um it would be great to be able to quickly uh move some resources there so that we can continue to see the increased safety before in five years when there's time and money for a real revamp of the location.

Um so I look forward to seeing what comes out of this, and thank you.

Thank you.

Um and thanks to Elizabeth.

Uh she and she's a district seven constituent.

We've had coffee, and she let's just she was uh uh should we say the driver be behind the the um the TA project at 52nd in the Monon, the the person who uh really um owned it and made it happen.

I think that's fair to say.

So thank you for that work.

I think it when I have uh talked to people about it, um 100% of the people I've talked to have uh noted boy that really needed to happen.

So great work.

Um Elizabeth, and that's a great example of how we have to all pull from the same end of the rope, like I keep um had saying.

Okay.

Well, with that, we're to the point um where we need to formally adopt this.

And so I'm gonna defer to uh uh Councillor Nielsen to make a motion.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um I move that the Vision Zero Task Force uh adopt the Vision Zero Action Plan dated December 2025 as presented today.

Second.

Okay, we have a motion that's been properly seconded.

All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, same sign.

All right, we have a fully passed Vision Zero Action Plan.

I'm gonna say again, this has been a long haul to get here, you guys, but we did it together.

Um I we I thanked everybody again.

I'm gonna resist the urge to go through the whole process again of rethanking people, but I I feel a huge amount of uh satisfaction and uh um appreciation um that we've gotten here.

So I hope that everybody takes a minute to to to thank each other and to thank the folks who worked on this and to some of the speakers' points.

Um now it's time to take this this only matters if it turns into reality, right?

And so now we have to turn it into reality.

I ask that everyone be patient.

Um we're gonna keep working on this, it's gonna happen step by step, but we have a plan now, and now it's time to have the discipline to make sure it happens.

And with that, I'm gonna wrap up this meeting.

Thank you very much.