The cultural trail is an eight mile pedestrian and bicycle path that connects our cultural
districts, our entertainment venues, a number of historic places in downtown Indianapolis.
It feels different when you're riding a bike. I mean it's just a different feel to it because
of how it's been built and what's underneath it. But it's the part about connecting up
everything that's really made it dramatic and is getting the international attention.
Great thing about the Indianapolis cultural trail is that it's a really pretty high quality trail.
The pavers are really tight interlocking pavers. I was actually very questionable when they said,
you'll be fine on a bicycle. I thought you'd feel it. The bioswales are incredible,
the plantings on it, the signage. I mean everything, just the greatest detail.
The vast majority of the trail has these bioswales and these storm water planters. All the landscaping
on the trail actually serve as a natural barrier protecting the cyclists and the pedestrians from
both vehicle traffic and from each other. Some places on the trail it's a separated section where
the bicyclists have one path of the trail and the pedestrians have the other side.
To really make people use it, we felt like it had to be big, bold, capture people's imagination.
It was about changing the way people thought about walking and running and jogging. We had to
create a new kind of place to grab and change behavior. We couldn't just do a bike lane and
change behavior. We had to create a new street. Thorough fairs downtown are huge. Everything's
got 12 foot lanes. We pinched lanes and scooched the curbs over to steal space to build the trail.
Every once in a while we stole little parking spaces. The overall cost was 63 million dollars and
there were no local tax dollars put into that. We had the Glick family who gave us 15 million
dollars and then Brian fundraised some other money. One of the linchpins for finishing the
project was we received one of the first tiger grants and we got 20.5 million dollars and that
enabled us to finish the last three segments. We knew that the city didn't have any money and that
if I had to wait for the city to have money this project would never happen. So we started with
philanthropy and we were able to raise money because we didn't talk about this as an infrastructure
project. We talked about it as a quality of life and an economic development project.
There's a big debate ranging about transit and more transportation and more options for people.
You'll never go wrong providing people transportation options. You won't.
This cultural trail has represented an influx and it's yielded an influx of business interests
and we're seeing businesses who are willing to make investments not only to put Hoosiers back
to work but to help create and expand Indianapolis's brand and image as a world-class city.
You go down into Phan Square area and that used to be kind of a blighted street now just with the
cultural trail as it was being built not necessarily finished as it was being built you could see the
development around that street. All of this development right here this used to be a brown
field a vacant lot these two abandoned buildings down here are now full with businesses that
have actually both expanded in the two years they've been in there. I feel like the completion of
the trail has helped Fletcher Place Holy Rosary Fountain Square have really taken off in the
last year gives it more of a neighborhood city feel which Indianapolis lacks in a lot of areas
but the trail has helped tremendously. Indianapolis has made a huge commitment to infrastructure and
improving the infrastructure for cyclists so we now have the cultural trail we've added bike lanes
and those bike lanes and the cultural trail all connect to other trails and other infrastructure
that allow cyclists to ride to places. Traditionally Indianapolis has about about 50 miles of
existing greenways and so what's great about the cultural trail and and how it circulates the
inner city is that we're able to have separate spurs like the one down Virginia Avenue that will
bring us within a quarter mile of that greenway and then we're able to put in you know protective
facility to get people from that greenway to here. We really wanted to make sure that all the
users felt comfortable felt protected we use the green paint here on all of the you know ingresses
and egresses those are concrete underneath those casings what's not just a plastic flex post.
So this is actually an example of where the cultural trails tries to incorporate art but
functional art so this is a bus shelter that provides shelter and light and actually when
the sun is correct these words from this poem are projected onto the ground there was I believe
two million dollars worth of commissioned art all along the trail that some of the functional
and some of it just is aesthetic. The safety of the trail you know is paramount we're gonna
bring a million people and run them down the street every year and to decrease the opportunities to
have conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians or vehicles and bikes we did things like all
the little streets we raised the the level of the street to be at the level of the trail so
instead of dropping down and crossing the street the street has to climb up and cross the trail.
Crosswalks are done with a product called Durathirm and basically what happens is you
heat up the asphalt and then this is like a stamp and it stamps in and then you lay in this
thermoplastic and then when it cools it's level with the street so our snow plows don't hit it
but it provides a really great visuals for cars so that they know that they're approaching a
special space. We put up a lot of signage because this is different we put up instructions to
the motorists you know that they have to yield to the pedestrians on the trail we put up signs
for the trail users because you know there really aren't there really aren't rules of the road for
this. We're trying to get people excited about commuting and thinking about commuting and so
here at the hub we've got BGI right behind us so any maintenance needs your bike may need and then
also if you need equipment or gear they're here and then the other side is is the Y part and
that's what's convenient is is to have showers and towels so after you've biked downtown to work
we get you all cleaned up have amenities for you keep your clothes while you're at work and then
you come back and you can ride home. It draws people back to downtown it gets people out of
their cars it gets people participating you know just in in street life and it's it's been a lot of
fun to watch. And you see people going up and down it all day weekends are heavier but I mean
people are constantly using it. People are commuting to work they're running errands on
their bicycles people are doing lots of leisure rides they're riding to dinner riding to get
coffee with friends riding to lunch. So when the mayor was elected in 2007 we really had zero miles
of on-street bike lanes and and this year with projects just getting ready to start up we've
got about 70 to 75 miles of existing on-street bike lanes. The mayor ultimately wants by 2015 a bike
network so greenways and on-street bike lanes a network of 200 miles. You can never do it alone
so you always have to get advocates and champions and partners and you have to bring them in and
that's to be not just your idea it has to be all of your idea.
