Indianapolis' 38th Street runners seek traffic changes

Around sunrise after a quick stretch, a group of six North Meridian Street Historic District runners start their trek west on 38th Street. They eventually cross 38th Street toward Meridian. The sky paints their journey yellow, until they see red.

Stopped at a light at 7:15 a.m., cars aggressively honk and speed by. One runner says she can feel the cars passing. With hearts racing, the group waits and stares past traffic and the historic "redline" they’re working to put behind them.

Unifying the east and west sides, 38th Street acts as a highway for some Indy residents although it has historically also acted as a dividing line between more urban neighborhoods to the south and Butler-Tarkington and North Meridian-area communities to the north. In the late 1930s, lending institutions promoted segregation, classifying Black and minority neighborhoods south of 38th Street as higher investment risk. The 1968 Fair Housing Act later prohibited discrimination, but speeds and traffic on 38th Street have gone on to divide communities, one runner says.

"I mean, it's Maple Road. And it has, for a number of years, been a unifying road, but for way too long, it's been divisive," said Marc McAleavy, a running group member who works at the University of Indiana in Indianapolis. "It's divided our neighbors."

McAleavy and his friend Amy Breman are members of the Saturday group the Maple Road Runners, named for 38th Street's old name.

Growth has now widened the street to seven lanes in stretches, and the intensified traffic has made it increasingly dangerous, Breman said. Drag racers frequently zip by, she said, creating a dangerous and socially isolating situation for her family members.

"Maybe there is no perfect answer, but there's ideas that we could start discussing and getting feedback and even testing out and just seeing what works, what doesn't. It might never be perfect," Breman said. "It's always going to be a major thoroughfare, but it doesn't need to be quite this."

She and neighbors want the city to adopt safety measures like adding physical barriers and narrowing the street to slow the speed on 38th Street. Breman, who lives near Tarkington Park, believes even simple measures like staggering the timing of traffic lights may help.

Breman hopes that safety measures will gain traction in her neighborhood after the city commissioned engineering firm WSP to study 38th Street. In March, her family lobbied the city to release the study’s results.

The study will help the city explore options like implementing new signal timings that will reduce speeds and lane reduction, according to Kyle Bloyd, spokesperson for Indianapolis' Department of Public Works. Reducing the number of traffic lanes is also a possibility.

Community leaders and city councilors have started to embrace pedestrian culture by backing Vision Zero initiatives. But Indianapolis has long been the home of the Indy 500, and cars are built into its DNA, the group said.

Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, a runner and the Episcopal Church's first Black woman diocesan bishop, created the 38th Street run crew to build community across lines. She recruited McAleavy and Breman to be leaders.

"We wanted to unite both sides," she said. "And the reason why we met was because, in the pandemic, I'd sit on my porch during meetings, and Marc would run past the house crossing 38th. Now we get to run together and are finding all these ways that we're connecting across the city."

As a spiritual leader, she believes social cohesion is essential for a community’s well-being.

“Where people know each other, it reduces loneliness and sense of isolation," she said. “And 38th Street has been a place that might reinforce isolation and separation, and I think it could be otherwise."

Experts agree, finding streets specifically designed with pedestrian safety in mind correlate to increased social interconnectivity and vibrant, livable neighborhoods, according to a study in the Journal of the American Planning Association.

In his recent budget pitch, Mayor Joe Hogsett proposed allocating each district city-county councilor $1 million to address up to three of their most hazardous intersections for improvement. The allocation may also be divided for park improvements, according to staff.

Indianapolis City-County Council member John Barth has championed a pedestrian-first approach and said he wants to see "a comprehensive traffic mitigation plan" for the area.

Indy DPW, in coordination with CICF as part of the Connected Communities initiative, is investing $1 million to implement upgrades in the coming months, according to Barth.

Michael McDaniel is the city government reporter at IndyStar. He can be reached at [email protected].