Tashaj@indyrecorder.com
For one week, Indianapolis residents are being asked to find out what changes when driving is not an option.
From Oct. 1-8, a coalition locally led by Central Indiana Cycling, with IndyGo, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, CIRTA Commuter Connect, Health by Design, Third Space Indy, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, Pacers Bikeshare, Bicycle Garage Indy and People We Meet On The Bus, has partnered to ask Hoosiers to participate in Week Without Driving.
The idea is simple: people who can choose to drive are being asked to temporarily experience a limitation that other Indianapolis residents experience every day — including seniors, young people, people with disabilities and people who cannot afford cars or gas.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, one in three people in the United States cannot drive because of age, disability, income or other factors. In Indiana, 35% of the population does not rely on a personal vehicle for its daily transportation needs.
For participants, that can mean walking, biking, rolling or taking public transportation for some or all trips.
“Empathy” is not necessarily the word used by the campaign. But the exercise asks people to experience firsthand the barriers and challenges nondrivers face — and consider what those barriers mean for their ability to work, get to school, reach health care, buy groceries or participate in their communities.
Tonight, the coalition will host a panel discussion moderated by contemporary photographer and community activist Wildstyle Paschall at Brew Link Indy Downtown, 714 N. Capitol Ave. The location is on the IndyGo Red and Purple lines and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.
“I think this conversation is needed because for many of us, myself included, it’s more than a week without a car,” Paschall said. “Having conversations about safety and quality of alternative transportation is important to improving life for so many who cannot or choose to own a car.”
There are also health and environmental implications to reducing driving. Fewer vehicle miles traveled means fewer tailpipe emissions, including pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that are associated with respiratory and cardiovascular problems.
For people who replace car trips with walking or biking, transportation can also become a source of physical activity rather than an activity that requires additional time to exercise.
This week’s experiment is part of a national campaign, said Anthony “Tony” Cherolis, executive director of Central Indiana Cycling. The national campaign asks a more direct question: “What would change in your life if driving wasn’t an option?”
It asks participants to bike, walk or roll for some or all trips.
When asked, “How could Indianapolis become a city where driving is an option, rather than a necessity?” Cherolis said, “You know, I think the easiest thing the city can change is their parking requirements in zoning, especially with the bus rapid transit corridors that the city and the region kind of been invested in at a countywide scale.”
Cherolis argues that Indianapolis should rethink zoning rules that require developers to build a certain amount of parking, particularly around bus rapid transit and Greenway corridors. If residents have frequent transit nearby, he said, developers should have more freedom to build less parking and use that land for housing or other community needs.
Indianapolis has already begun moving away from mandatory parking in some areas. The city’s zoning code requires no off-street vehicle parking in the Mile Square Area or the MU-4 zoning district. The code also allows parking requirements to be reduced for qualifying developments near IndyGo transit corridors under Indianapolis-Marion County Code Section 744-403(D).
Cherolis’ argument is about going further — eliminating parking minimums in appropriate transit-rich areas rather than merely reducing them.
Cherolis isn’t saying ban parking.
He said, “Stop requiring developers to build more parking than the market actually needs.”
“I think neighborhoods along the Red, Purple, and Blue lines should be prioritized first because you actually wouldn’t need a car to live nearby since they have 10–15-minute service seven days a week til 1 a.m.,” Paschall said.
If readers want to participate this week:
4:30-8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5 — Week Without Driving Meetup and Panel Discussion, Brew Link Indy Downtown, 714 N. Capitol Ave., right there on the IndyGo Red and Purple lines and Indianapolis Cultural Trail. There will be free appetizers and safety swag — bike bells and light-up straps — while supplies last. The panel of bus riders, bike riders and bikeshare users will be moderated by Wildstyle Paschall. This is a free event.
4:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7 — Take the Bus to the SoBro Farmers Market. Transit ambassadors will be located at the IndyGo Red Line at 42nd Street and Broad Ripple stations to help you make this trip. Timeframe includes the entire time the IndyGo outreach team will be available at the stations. Free bus passes sponsored by the Broad Ripple Village Association while supplies last. Email Kayla Bledsoe at kayla.bledsoe@indygo.net if you have questions.
7-8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7 — Transit Riders Union, virtual meeting. For the agenda and virtual meeting link, contact Jakob Morales at jakob@centralincycling.org.
5 -10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8 — Third Space Indy | Bus Buddies, Bus Trip and Meetup. RSVP required. A casual evening for bus-curious people to learn to ride the bus and hang out. Join Michael Zarick and Seth Johnson for a casual evening hang where we ride the bus from Fletcher Place to Broad Ripple, eat some food, and ride back.
Contact health and environmental reporter LaTasha Boyd Jones at tashaj@indyrecorder.com or follow her on social media @iamtashajones.
This reporting is made possible by a grant from the Indianapolis African-American Quality of Life Initiative, empowering our community with essential health insights. https://iaaqli.org/
LaTASHA BOYD JONES
Tasha Jones is a poet, writer, researcher, and educator whose work explores language as a tool for liberation and resistance. She hosts In the Beginning: The Spoken Word Podcast, the #1 spoken word podcast on Apple and Spotify. Tasha is also the Poems & Parables Literary Journal editor and is currently writing Pyramids. Plantations. Projects. Penitentiaries. You can follow her on social media: @iamtashajones, @itbspokenwordpod, and @poemsandparables.
