Here's the second installment of notes from the August "Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council (MBAC)" Meeting. As stated in last month's blog, in these meetings we talk about what is happening in the Indianapolis cycling world. We tend to focus on infrastructure and advocacy which is the intent of the meeting but we also cover upcoming events. In the past, we usually only talked about mountain biking when there were problems or some major issues came bubbling to the surface. But, that should hopefully all change now that we have Charlie Revard, the owner of BikeLine in Broad Ripple, representing HMBA. Also, this month, IUPUI's campus was well represented by Jeremy McElroy, a League of American Bicyclists League Certified Instructor and daily commuter. With that said, let's get to the meat of the meeting.

Bike Parking:

Meter Rings:

• As stated in last month's meeting, the 50 meter rings have been installed downtown and we are hoping to get feedback from users on placement. We want to ensure that locations are conducive to usage.

Bike Corrals:

Downtown:

There is ongoing discussion with ParkIndy about placement of a on-street bike corral on Washington Street near the intersection with Meridian (just south of Jimmy John's and east of bulb-out).

Broad Ripple:

Broad Village Association and the City are still working with ParkIndy on placement of two of the bike corrals set to be installed in Broad Ripple the other three corrals will not be placed in metered spaces so in those cases, this is not an issue.
Placement of these racks is as follows:

• In front of Union Jack Pub on Broad Ripple Ave
• In front of Starbucks on Broad Ripple Ave
• Next to Corner Wine Bar (SE corner of Guilford & Westfield Blvd)
• In front of Broad Ripple Tavern
• One rack in front of Bambu Salon

The first 4 bike corrals were purchased from Saris while the Bambu corral is being designed and built by a local artist.  The Bambu corral will be a piece of street art which is why the cost is so much higher than the Saris racks.  Here is the breakdown of the Bambu rack project:

Financials on Rack:

• Rack will cost roughly ~$4,500
• Office of Sustainability donated $1,300 
• BRVA doanted $1,000
• Online fundraising through INDYCOG $150
• Bambu Salon is donating ~$1,000 & is fundraising at the salon

For more information on the rack. 

Indianapolis Bicycle Master Plan:

The final draft of the Indianapolis Bicycle Master Plan is completed and now Jamison Hutchins from the Office of Sustainability will be working on organizing public meetings to get public input on the document. We will let you know when the public input process begins and we strongly suggest you get involved at this time.

Q; What is a "bicycle master plan" you ask?

A: A "bicycle master plan" guides the long range planning (in our case ~10yrs) on all things bicycle related. Amount of infrastructure being installed, bicycle safety programs, etc. So it is important that you get engaged when this document is open for comments.

Current Bike Lane Projects:

Shelby/Madison

• Street cleaning needs to be done

Illinois/Capitol (Fall 2012-Spring 2013)

• Illinois to be repaved between 16th and 38th
• Will be installing a 5' buffer on bike lane between 21st & Fall Creek

Lafayette Rd.

Symbol thinning

46th St Bike Lane

• Issues about people cutting off bike lane but no reported issues of drivers cutting of cyclists. We (INDYCOG) feel this is a non-issue at this time.
• There have been reports of debris in the bike lane.

Broad Ripple Ave Multi-use Side-path

• Constructed on South side of Broad Ripple Ave (E. 62nd)
• from Keystone to Allisonville will begin construction on Nov 1st.

71st (73rd & 75th) St

• Multi-use path, bike lanes & sharrows from Eagle Creek Park to Monon
• Bid was awarded
• Projected completion in 2012

Bike Lanes on Arlington between Washington and 10th

• Completed

Bike Lanes West 56th St between Guion and Cooper (sewer project)

• Work in progress
• Projected completion in 2012

Cultural Trail Update

• Washington St. between Capitol & West will be completed - Spring 2013
• Virginia from East to Fountain Square will be completed - Fall 2012

Maintenance of bike lanes

• Michigan & NY under I-65 bridge have a lot of sand that has been washed into the lanes due to the several rainfalls we've had recently
• 16th & 21st on IL - rough roadway (see resurfacing info. above)
• Madison -debris in bike lanes- City is working with street cleaning crews to increase the frequency of the sweeping.

Bike Map Status (INDYCOG)

• The map will go to printer the last week of August/first week of September
• Delivery Date of finished product should be mid-September
• DPW, Office of Sustainability & Indy Parks were asked to comment and make sure all data is correct.

Driver's education Program (Bicycle Indiana)

Program is still in progress but they are underwhelmed by participation
BI is working to inform more schools of the program. This has been an ongoing process since the beginning of the program.

IndyParks-Greenways Report

Fall Creek extender (Monon to Central Ave) @ the State (INDOT) for approval

South White River (Zoo to Raymond on West side of White River)

• Under Contract
• Construction should begin later this fall or early spring 2013

Monon hours

• INDYCOG is negotiating w/ IndyParks & Deputy Director Pittman to move towards 24/7 access
• Indy Parks is still analyzing trail usage data & peer city information (supplied by INDYCOG) to assist in the decision making process.
• We (INDYCOG & IndyParks) should have some type of resolution by mid-September

Mountain biking-HMBA

• No HMBA representative was present. No issues other than the standard (i.e. night use at Town Run & potential trails at Eagle Creek)

City Wide Bike Lane Open Houses

• Education sessions with residents from focus neighborhoods
• Some meetings were well attended and some not.
• All meetings are completed
• Connie Szabo-Schmucker (BGI Advocacy Director) would like to know if the city is planning on showing the educational videos they've created on network television
• Connie feels that we (City of Indianapolis) should try to get free airtime.
• Connie said she conducted a safety campaign a number of years ago and used a longitudinal study format to measure message saturation (survey on front and back end to measure increase in knowledge) and ran safety campaigns)
• Connie also pointed out that she got bicycle safety info. in August's water bill.

Complete Streets Ordinance

• Passed on Aug 13th & Mayor signed into law/code on 8/22

Federal legislation (MAP-21)

• BAC to write a letter to Mayor to discuss the importance of local funding options.

INDYCOG Neighborhood Planning Summits

• INDYCOG will be working with LISC to assist in final meeting planning
• INDYCOG is asking the City to print maps indicating current bicycle infrastructure of each focus area

Data Collection for Bicycle Facilities (i.e. Bike Counts)

• Sept 11th/12th and Saturday the 15th
• Weekday Times: 5 to 7pm
• Weekend Times: 12 to 2
• Jamison Hutchins from the Office of Sustainability has pulled together process and procedures for completing bicycle counts and sent it to all the members of the committee in an email - (Info from the National Biking Documentation Project)
• All organizations should try to help find volunteers for this activity due to the importance of documenting bicycle usage.
• Volunteers should contact jamison.hutchins@indy.gov 

Upcoming Events:

• Saddle Up (9/22)
• Hilly Hundred (10/19-10/21)
• Brown County Breakdown (10/12-14)