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This is Indianapolis’ @IndyGoBus Red Line, one of the most remarkable recent transit projects in the US.
Indy is a tough place for transit: hostile state government (there’s a legislative requirement that IndyGo seek private philanthropic funds to run transit!), a large consolidated city that’s politically split, and, thanks to lots of post-WWII growth, a pretty car-oriented place.
But in 2019 they opened some really good BRT: a lot of dedicated lanes (thick line)…
… good frequency and span (pre-COVID weekday was 10 min, I believe)…
…strong connections to the rest of the transit network…
…and really nice stations with level boarding and great passenger information.
They’ve also done this without massive street rebuilds. Along much of the way, the bus simply took over existing lanes — streets were repaved but not widened.
In one narrow stretch it uses a two-way center lanes with buses passing at stations. This is in a residential neighborhood — the kind of place where NIMBYs often kill transit lanes.
That takes some political backbone. And the ambition of this project continues in the plan for the next 5 years: a network of 50 miles of BRT, stretching to the edges of the city in five directions, 70% of which will have dedicated lanes.
This is a huge improvement for a transit system that was struggling to fund even a basic bus network less than a decade ago. And it’s an example a lot of cities — including big ones like New York and Chicago — ought to be taking lessons from.
(Also a shoutout for the local bike infrastructure — the Cultural Trail in Downtown is spectacular.)
(I realized I didn’t mention another important feature: transit signal priority to minimize delay at traffic lights. It’s installed at 76 intersections, including ones that don’t have dedicated lanes.)
