Indianapolis considers defying Indiana law banning new no-turn-on-red stoplights downtown

Indianapolis city-county councilors, spurred on by advocates for traffic safety, are looking into a way around a state law that seeks to prevent them from increasing the number of no-turn-on-red stop lights downtown.

This spring, the council had been considering adding a blanket ban on vehicles turning right on red lights at local streets downtown in the name of increasing safety for pedestrians. But when Sen. Aaron Freeman, an Indianapolis Republican who once served on the council, got wind of it, he successfully passed legislation to prevent them from doing so.

And the way around that legislation? It appears to only target no-turn-on-red signs that are passed by Indianapolis after July 1. That would mean the city has about seven weeks to act.

"With the state law not going forward until July 1, we would encourage the city to continue forward with the proposal before July 1," Jason Tomcsi, spokesperson for AARP Indiana, told IndyStar Wednesday. AARP Indiana supports the downtown no-turn-on-red plan.

After IndyStar asked the City-County Council about the advocates' call to action, council spokesperson Sara Hindi said Council President Vop Osili, Vice-President Zach Adamson, and Councilor Kristin Jones, the co-authors of the downtown plan, would consider the idea of moving forward with the downtown no-turn-on-red plan before July 1.

There's some disagreement, though, about whether the loophole exists. And, if Indianapolis does move forward, the matter might be headed to court.

That's because Freeman thinks his law took effect when Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the bill May 4.

"We have told the city, a consolidated city cannot put these signs up," Freeman said. "The Indiana General Assembly has passed a law, if the city was to do something different with that, then there’s judges and courtrooms for that reason."

The City-County-Council's attorney also had come to the same conclusion on an initial read of the bill, which is why the council had initially announced Monday night that they were nixing the idea. Indiana Legislative Services Agency Executive Director George Angelone, though, said the measure takes effect July 1, which is what the text of the bill also indicates.

When IndyStar asked Freeman if he would take legislative action if the city moves forward with the plan before July 1, Freeman said he’ll deal with that if it happens but doesn’t want to speculate.

Osili, Adamson, and Jones told IndyStar Thursday that the council has been working closely with legal counsel for further guidance to interpret the effective date of Freeman's law, doing due diligence to ensure the city is not faced with a lawsuit by moving forward with the no-turn-on red proposals.

"We recognize the language within HB 1050 is confusing, and it goes to show the harmful impact that the Indiana General Assembly can have when it seeks to block local officials from enacting potentially lifesaving traffic controls on local roadways," their statement read.

Indiana and Indianapolis battle over pedestrian safety

No-turn-on-red, which advocates and Democratic councilors said is a well-established best practice to reduce the number of pedestrians and cyclists hit by cars, was first proposed by the City-County Council on April 3.

It passed out of the committee along party lines and was heading to full council for a vote on May 8 before the state law prompted the council to nix it.

The proposal would have banned turns on red lights at downtown intersections including all local streets bounded by 11th Street, Oscar Robertson Boulevard, 10th Street, White River Parkway West Drive, Interstate I-70 and Interstate I-65. That would include all of Mile Square, Mass Ave downtown, and St. Joseph Historic Neighborhood.

Kim Irwin, executive director of Health by Design, which has been a longtime advocate in the city's no-turn-on-red proposal, said she is disappointed by how Indianapolis was specifically targeted in the state law.

"It doesn’t need to be controversial," she told IndyStar. "And yet we find ourselves in political realities with the tension between the city and the state, and tension that exists among different councilors that is limiting our ability to put forth this very well-established, evidence-based policy."

Freeman has called the downtown proposal stupid, said it's part of a Democratic war on cars, and told IndyStar Tuesday that the best way to reduce traffic crashes is for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers to be aware of their surroundings and help their own personal safety.

He said he would have been fine with targeted no-turn-on-red signs at specific intersections but not a blanket ban.

The law is not retroactive, according to the City-County Council, which means the city can keep the no-turn-on-red signs already in existence. They plan to do so, councilors told IndyStar, and Freeman also told IndyStar he is fine with that.

This is just the latest legislation the Indiana Senate has championed in recent years that targets Indianapolis, including everything from trying to prevent IndyGo from expanding transit lines to preventing the city from cracking down on bad landlords to preventing cities from targeting puppy mills just as Indianapolis was considering a proposal to do so.

Advocates are also asking what the City-County Council can do next to address record high pedestrian fatalities and traffic safety issues, especially crashes downtown.

"We’re at a point in this crisis where we have to be bold," pedestrian and cyclist safety advocate Eric Holt, who runs the traffic crash tracking site Indy Ped Crisis, said.

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Osili, Adamson, and Jones said they remain committed to addressing pedestrian and cyclist safety.

"DPW engineers are currently evaluating alternate options for protecting the increasing number of people who walk in our downtown core, now that no-turn-on-red restrictions have been preempted by the state," Department of Public Works Deputy Director Aliya Wishner told IndyStar.

She added that millions of dollars of investments in pedestrian infrastructure are already underway in Indianapolis as a result of Mayor Joe Hogsett’s five-year, $1.1 billion capital construction plan.

Contact IndyStar reporter Ko Lyn Cheang at kcheang@indystar.com or 317-903-7071. Follow her on Twitter: @kolyn_cheang.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy considers defying state law banning new no-turn-on-reds downtown