Comments on Advance Indiana™: $10 Billion For Mass Transit Plan?

Indianapolis is missing one thing in mass transit,...

2015-12-29T10:38:21.892-05:00

Indianapolis is missing one thing in mass transit, it is mass. Carmel, Westfield, Fishers and Noblesville high School students don't take buses to school, and the ones that do have their parents drive them to the bus stop. Now these kids when they grow up are going to ride buses to work? LOL

The politicians won't quit on this mass transit issue because if they spend our $1B or $10B they will be getting very large campaign contributions. They can't stay in office forever without the campaign money so they need to continue to feed their current and future contributors.

Just ask guys like Brainard, Dillinger, Altman, Cook and the infamous Pete Emigh.

10B is correct. They have a matter transit plan, a...

2015-12-29T10:28:01.335-05:00

10B is correct. They have a matter transit plan, and its cost was revealed by the Star. The story was revised to an approximation of a very expensive bus line for the sole purpose of convincing you that driving buses on existing streets costs 1B.

There's more to come after this.

The Red Line would snarl traffic even more on Coll...

2015-12-29T10:17:49.950-05:00

The Red Line would snarl traffic even more on College and lead to overdevelopment of the corridor in order to drive ridership.
There are groups forming in opposition to this.
Visit collegeavenueindy.org for more information.

What do they mean anyway by trans-portation?

2015-12-29T09:28:03.789-05:00

What do they mean anyway by trans-portation?

I just don't get it, with Tax caps, school sys...

2015-12-29T07:43:34.187-05:00

I just don't get it, with Tax caps, school systems are at a bare bones operations, public safety is worried how to fund daily operations, current road infer structure is suffering, yet these dreamers want a mass transportation system, I opinion I think that train has left the station years ago, our infer structure has been set, the cost is too prohibitive for such a project.

Not to worry folks, my $2 raise on my social secur...

2015-12-29T07:31:43.749-05:00

Not to worry folks, my $2 raise on my social security check will cover all things new!

Add in Brainard's tax raise, the increase in the assessed valuation of my home, sewer & water rate increase, the under estimated cost of 217 million in the next three years for more roundabouts etc., and according to the Carmel City website my share should be a little over their $22 a year estimated increase. (assume my share is $25 a year) I am already $1 in the hole before all the other new increases for medications, gasoline will be back up (road repairs), groceries are already out of sight and all the other items. AND wait for it, wait; the school referen-dumb coming soon to Car-mel will throw us all under the bus.

http://www.carmel.in.gov/index.aspx?page=25&recordid=1323&returnURL=%2findex.aspx

When you give something to someone in our society, you are taking it away from someone or something else. Our Governments, local, state and federal have just run out of other peoples money. Blood / turnip and drunken / sailor comes to mind.

Dem editerz 'n riderz ez shir gewd et meth

2015-12-29T00:10:54.770-05:00

Dem editerz 'n riderz ez shir gewd et meth

It was apparently supposed to read $1 billion. The...

2015-12-28T23:11:00.475-05:00

It was apparently supposed to read $1 billion. The Star updated the story tonight and changed the number from $10 billion to $1 billion. The updated story made no reference to the earlier error.

That has to be a typo. There's no way of bus s...

2015-12-28T23:08:50.207-05:00

That has to be a typo. There's no way of bus system costs 10 billion dollars. Not even in Indianapolis with all the graft invoved.

Pete and Guy - the Metro subway in Baltimore is ex...

2015-12-28T20:32:01.391-05:00

Pete and Guy - the Metro subway in Baltimore is exactly what you describe - a crime conduit. One stop is Mondawmin which is where in Fred Gray riots occurred. Shoplifting in Owings Mlls, rioting and mayhem in Mondawmin, murder downtown. All courtesy of mass transit.

Shelby used to be a nice lightly-travelled corrido...

2015-12-28T19:36:37.780-05:00

Shelby used to be a nice lightly-travelled corridor for going downtown. They're doing everything possible to ruin it completely.

Guy77money: Yes, white collar or otherwise, it wi...

2015-12-28T19:07:18.919-05:00

Guy77money: Yes, white collar or otherwise, it will be a crime conduit / corridor...

Lets try this again. The Carmel lawyers love light...

2015-12-28T18:39:44.654-05:00

Lets try this again. The Carmel lawyers love light transit. Much easier for them to hop on and conduct (paralegals and legal secretaries) business downtown. They want to go to Pacer and Colts games on their little trains. But wait till something goes wrong then they will be back to their cars and SUV's. I was on the L in Chicago and saw a ten year old thug throw his drink on a yuppie, the train stopped and they (a gang of 5 kids) threw a couple of cuss words the guys way and exited the train. We were on our way to a White Sox game. Bet you a hundred bucks that people from the suburbs of Indy would go right back to their cars once they encountered a situation like this. All it would take is a robbery or a shooting and ridership would plummet off a cliff.

Ok, Mr. Welsh's 5:31 post does put it in persp...

2015-12-28T18:21:05.643-05:00

Ok, Mr. Welsh's 5:31 post does put it in perspective. Which flaw firms are involved in this scam?

The problem with light rail is it doesn't move...

2015-12-28T18:16:24.225-05:00

The problem with light rail is it doesn't move commerce. Buses are more economical because they move people from close to their houses to very close to their place of employment. Lets start with the people that would use it. This includes all of the inner loop (inside I465) and most of the east and west siders (the apartment dwellers) that would reap the benefits. The people in Greenwood, Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Zionsville and Westfield would be better served by express routes via interstate to downtown. Very few of these people are going to take a bus anywhere else in the city. Even a billion sounds absolutely insane.

To put it into perspective, the cost of extending ...

2015-12-28T17:31:53.953-05:00

To put it into perspective, the cost of extending I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis is about $2 billion.

Blue cars, red busses, but no black and whites - h...

2015-12-28T17:16:09.779-05:00

Blue cars, red busses, but no black and whites - how visitor friendly.

Amusing that the Republicans think that the rest o...

2015-12-28T16:42:49.072-05:00

Amusing that the Republicans think that the rest of Indiana will support being taxed for this stupidity.

Crass transit is a public treasury as ATM- sham. ...

2015-12-28T16:38:16.816-05:00

Crass transit is a public treasury as ATM- sham. These are nothing less than specious schemes to illegally / unConstitutionally leverage the public treasury.

10 Billion!!!?????? For buses!!!!!!! They better ...

2015-12-28T16:03:09.279-05:00

10 Billion!!!?????? For buses!!!!!!! They better have gold faucet and urinals! While we are at it how about a butler to serve drinks from the bar. Maybe a mini Starbucks to serve the morning commuters. Oh did I say no poor people allowed on the express run from Fishers, Carmel, Westfield and Zionsville.

Anon2:48, I also support public transit as a way t...

2015-12-28T16:02:12.287-05:00

Anon2:48, I also support public transit as a way to move people around as long as it it self-funded and not paid for via the threat of force. Since this plan uses the threat of force for funding, I oppose it.

The Indygo people have told me that north of 66th ...

2015-12-28T15:56:55.149-05:00

The Indygo people have told me that north of 66th street the redline buses will be using "mixed traffic" lanes with other vehicles.
That means that they will be just like a regular bus.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose that they want to spend all of this money on?
The buses will be subjected to the same traffic jams that the cars are and they won't possibly be able to run on the every 10 minute schedule.
We are being sold a bill of goods here by the city that this will be some sort of panacea to bring people to Indy.
Rather it will be a high-priced, underutilized government project that can't possibly pay for itself.
It makes far more sense to put the line up Keystone, if at all.
Steve O'Neil

Anon. 2:34, The referendum is county-by-county to ...

2015-12-28T15:55:57.834-05:00

Anon. 2:34, The referendum is county-by-county to increase the local income tax to pay for the proposed mass transit improvements. It seems they've decided to push forward with it before a measure is put on the ballot by leveraging federal dollars and the election year money Pence is throwing out there for these regional initiatives to go ahead and start on it. That way when it comes up for a referendum they can argue about how it would be a waste not to follow through with it since we've already spent X dollars developing the first phase of it.

Pretty sure the 1.2-1.3b is for the first line, so...

2015-12-28T15:34:01.020-05:00

Pretty sure the 1.2-1.3b is for the first line, so 5 lines being 10b doesn't seem like a stretch. Perhaps dubious decision, but math works.

There is a very vocal group of neighbors who oppos...

2015-12-28T15:14:08.827-05:00

There is a very vocal group of neighbors who oppose this boondoggle for the very reasons you cite. One additional point is the simple fact that this line cannot possibly go north of 66th Street on College. North of 71st Street, College is 2 lanes, so College would have to be widened, which would take part of Park Tudor's athletic fields, part of Marott Park woods, part of the Indiana School For the Blind, and homes and properties in Meridian Hills and Williams Creek. This will never happen, so all of the claims about ridership of college students and commuters from Hamilton County are pure hogwash. An express bus from Hamilton County direct to downtown Indianapolis, with no stops, already failed for lack of interest. As you point out, if such a line were appropriate for Indianapolis, the more logical north-south route would be Keystone, which already has a median and parking restrictions. A bus rapid transit system is supposed to be used to connect riders with jobs, shopping and employment. There are no large sources of these on College, but on Keystone, there are Target, Wal-Mart, Meijer, Macy's, Glendale Town Shops, Keystone at the Crossing, Woodfield at the Crossing, two Kroger stores, two Marsh stores, an Aldi, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and multiple other restaurants and shops. There is a 454-unit apartment complex at 66th & Keystone. At Glendale, there are an IU Health and Eskenazi outpatient clinics. If the route turned east at Fall Creek, it could be used to access activities at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. It is designed to turn onto 38th Street, then south on Meridian. Putting a median down College Avenue and restricting parking and left turns will drive out small restaurants and businesses for no good reason. There is very little ridership other than during rush hours. Running a bus every 10 minutes will not change this.