Want to get involved in improving transportation safety in Central Indiana? Typically, public input is gathered in a variety of ways, such as through meetings with the public and specific interest groups, official public hearings, emails, newsletters, social media, and other methods. The IMPO also has regular committee meetings including the Transportation Techincal Commitee and Transportation Policy Committee that are open to the public.

• Check our calendar to see what meetings are coming up
• Sign up for the teMPO newsletter to stay informed
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• Visit one of the individual project pages under "What's Underway" to keep track of project progress and opportunities for input and feedback.
• If you have a question or comment to submit through the website, you can do so with the general comment form, and we'll get back to you as quick as we can.

The Indianapolis MPO has a series of committees that each serve specific purposes and needs, which include:

• Transportation Policy Committee: Elected officials and town managers who vote to approve all federally required IMPO transportation actions. Meets bi-monthly, and meets jointly with the Transportation Technical Committee in the months of June and December.
• Transportation Technical Committee: Planners and engineers who provide expertise on proposed transportation policies and plans. Meets bi-monthly two weeks prior to each Transportation Policy Committee meeting, and meets jointly with the Transportation Policy Committee in the months of June and December.
• Executive Committee: A small, elected group of Policy members that oversee the operations of the IMPO. Currently, all the members are elected from the Transportation Policy Committee. As the IMPO grows into other areas, the Chair Person of other Policy disciplines (Economic Development, etc.) will be appointed to the Executive Committee. Meets monthly.

In 2022 the IMPO’s Safe Streets and Roads for All Safety Action Plan (or Safety Action Plan for short) was created and then adopted by the IMPO Policy Committee alongside an updated Vision Zero Resolution. This plan, intended to help address the rise in fatal and serious traffic crashes within the MPA, consists of several components: goal setting (the Vision Zero Resolution), safety analysis, public engagement, equity analysis, policy and process proposals, and progress reporting. This Annual Safety Report, to be published each year, fulfills the progress reporting aspect of the plan and will track the Indianapolis MPA’s progress towards its Vision Zero Resolution of reducing serious and fatal crashes by 35% by 2040. Click on the most recent report to see our progress.

On August 17, 2022 the IMPO Transportation Policy Committee adopted a Vision Zero Policy committing to reduce serious and fatal crashes by 35% by 2040. The IMPO considers this a starting point toward the goal of eliminating traffic deaths fully in the long term. Vision Zero is the strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries on all roadways. Vision Zero is built on the basis that traffic deaths and severe injuries are preventable. Vision Zero emphasizes a Safe Systems approach, which acknowledges that people make mistakes, and focuses on influencing system-wide practices, policies, and designs to lessen the severity of crashes.

Each year, more than 40,000 people are needlessly killed on American streets and thousands more are seriously injured. While often referred to as “accidents,” the reality is that traffic deaths from crashes are preventable. Vision Zero views traffic deaths as an urgent public health issue with the goal of using a variety of strategies to eliminate all serious injuries and deaths from crashes, not necessarily eliminate all crashes. This approach acknowledges that even the best drivers make mistakes so roads, vehicles, and health care responses must be designed to keep everyone on the road safer.

The Indianapolis MPO developed the Vision Zero Toolkit to inform Central Indiana residents about Vision Zero and provide realistic strategies for local action. While fully eliminating traffic crash deaths and injuries will require action from local policymakers, federal lawmakers, vehicle companies, and healthcare facilities, this toolkit is focused on plans, policies, and strategies that can actually be implemented on the local level.

The IMPO developed a High Injury Network (HIN) to identify the local corridors with the highest frequencies of crashes resulting in incapacitating injuries and fatalities within the MPA.⁷ The HIN represents the top 10% (234 centerline miles) of regional collector and arterial streets scored by the number of incapacitating injury and fatal crashes per centerline mile. The HIN enables IMPO and LPAs to prioritize safety investments and other strategies on the streets with the highest number of severe crashes to make rapid progress towards regional safety goals.

To construct the HIN, the IMPO used spatially verified vehicle, pedestrian, and cyclist crashes that occurred in the public right of way between 2016 and 2020, excluding crashes on interstates and expressways (with the exception of at-grade intersections and ramp intersections).⁸ Severe crashes were joined to eligible intersections and roadway segments. Candidate corridors spanning two or more intersections in the top 20th percentile by severe crash frequency were then identified. Over 500 centerline miles of candidate corridors across the region were scored by the number of severe crashes per mile, with fatal crashes receiving a higher weight. The top 234 miles, representing approximately 10% of the 2,358 miles of arterial and collector centerline miles not owned by INDOT, were then assigned to the HIN.

The IMPO’s crash dashboard displays several years of fatal and incapacitating injury crash records in the 8-county region. The dashboard enables the IMPO’s Local Planning Agencies and the public to view the crash data with interactive filters that allow the user to select a specific year, crash type, or jurisdiction. Each individual crash location can also be selected for further crash details.

The Vulnerable Road User Crash Dashboard visualizes all crashes involving bikes and pedestrians. Often, these individuals fall under IMPO’s Vision Zero definition of a vulnerable road user. Tracking and reporting this data is an important step to make progress on the goals of Vision Zero. The data has been reviewed and corrected for accuracy from eight counties in Central Indiana (Boone, Hancock, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, & Shelby).

Overlaid layers include the boundary of the IMPO's planning area along with the boundaries of our local planning agency (LPA) communities. There is also a selection of trails based on the major bike paths and does not include all trail options.

The IMPO's Road Safety Audit identifies 19 high-crash locations within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA). This includes 5 high-priority pedestrian and bicycle locations. For each location, the team reviewed crash data and existing conditions, created a collision diagram, conducted a field check, met with local engineering and police representatives, and identified specific improvements to remedy existing safety issues. Recommended improvements range from lower-cost maintenance items, such as signage and pavement markings, to higher-cost capital improvements. The final result includes both a map and technical report with more information about the intersections.

This educational tool is intended to help teach road and driving safety through a fun interactive quiz. The quiz includes more than 75 questions in short 5 question segments. The quiz covers a broad range of topics but includes a focus on safety, especially for interactions with vulnerable road users. Take the Quiz.

The Central Indiana Ride Guide is an interactive map and resource for bicyclists and bicycle network planners. It maps all of the open bikeways in Central Indiana, streets identified as being low-stress for cyclists, and various cycling amenity locations. The bicycling amenities were identified by the public, bicycling organizations, and community engineers. Every May the IMPO asks residents to contribute to the map to help keep it as up-to-date as possible.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has assembled several resources to help communities and neighborhoods kick-start their Safe Routes to School (SRTS) planning. They include many resources such as talking points, event ideas, templates to help you create a SRTS program for your own school, and more.

As part of the 2023 Safety Action Plan Update, a risk score analysis was performed on the IMPO's road network. The analysis looked at higher-risk roadway attributes to determine the risk score. Visit the Risk Score page for more information and a map of projects.

Ensuring safe, accessible, and desirable transportation in Central Indiana is central to the IMPO's mission. Over the past few years the IMPO Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) has seen significant rises in fatal and incapacitating car crashes, a trend which, without intervention, is unlikely to reverse itself. In May 2022 the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) published a notice of funding opportunity for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Discretionary Grant. This program provides funding for both planning and implementation of infrastructure and initiatives designed to prevent death and serious injury on roads and streets. Building on its previous work on safety the IMPO pursued a Safety Action Plan that would meet the required program criteria and enable members to pursue implementation grants in 2022.

The 2022 Safety Action Plan was adopted by the IMPO Policy Committee August 17, 2022 and consists of several components: goal setting, safety analysis, public engagement, equity analysis, policy and process proposals, and progress reporting. Additionally, as part of this planning effort the IMPO adopted an updated Vision Zero statement which set a goal of reducing fatal and serious crashes by 35% by 2040. This Safety Action Plan represents the beginning of a more concentrated effort to improve safety in the Central Indiana MPA, and provides a foundation for the IMPO to pursue supplemental planning work on this topic. The plan will be updated annually throughout the life of the 5-year federal program to better understand the issues facing our region.

The Regional Active Transportation Plan builds off the foundation provided by the previous Regional Bike Plan and Regional Pedestrian Plan, holistically evaluating multiple forms of non-vehicular transportation within Central Indiana. The plan addresses transportation on bike, on foot or with mobility device, and via emerging modes such as shared scooters.

About the TIP

Among other tasks, the IMPO tracks and distributes funds through a program known as the Indianapolis Regional Transportation Improvement Program (IRTIP), or “TIP” for short. The TIP is a four-year plan for Central Indiana infrastructure. Depending on the type of project, the TIP tracks, schedules, and funds projects in Central Indiana based on regional priorities and cooperative input from communities throughout the area.

Project Tracking

The TIP provides scheduling and tracking information for federal transportation improvement investments in Central Indiana, as well as other projects considered regionally significant for air quality. It is fiscally constrained, meaning it only includes projects that have realistically anticipated funding. Projects are developed in partnership with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), regional transit providers, local governments, and with input from residents. The IMPO also collaborates with INDOT to align with the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP).

The IMPO's online database known as "MiTIP" allows the public to view programmed transportation projects contained in the TIP online. MiTIP represents the most current version of the TIP at any given time. Information from the TIP database may also be provided in other formats and languages for viewing online or in-person at our offices. For more information contact staff at info@indympo.org or 317-227-5108 or visit our offices at 200 East Washington Street, Suite 2322, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

Project Funding

Each year, the IMPO is allocated federal transportation funding from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) passed through the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). This funding is distributed to local public agencies (typically cities, towns, counties, and transit organizations) by the IMPO to support transportation improvement projects (roads, bridges, trails, transit, etc.) in the IMPO’s planning area.

Working with local public agencies, the IMPO prioritizes, selects, and awards funding to projects that address needed transportation improvements. To select projects to receive the IMPO’s funding, the IMPO issues an annual “call-for-projects”. During the call-for-projects, local public agencies choose projects to submit for consideration by completing a data-driven application and committing to locally fund a portion of the project cost. Typically, the MPO funds up to 80% of construction and construction engineering costs with a 20% local match from the local public agency. The local public agency provides 100% of the funding for preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition, and other project costs.

The IMPO reviews all applications and develops a list of projects recommended for funding. This recommendation list is guided by the allocation goals of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, the requirements of federal transportation programs, and the scores of projects ranked through the IMPO’s TIP project selection (scoring) criteria. The recommendation list is then reviewed, amended as needed, and adopted as a TIP amendment by the Transportation Policy Committee.

Complete Streets are roadways designed to safely and comfortably accommodate all users, of all ages and abilities, including but not limited to motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, transit users, school bus riders, delivery and service personnel, freight haulers, and emergency responders.

The IMPO's Complete Streets Policy was adopted in 2014 and amended in October 2016. The policy requires projects using certain IMPO managed funds to implement complete streets where reasonable. These requirements include either a sidewalk, multi-use path, or bike lane.

Embracing the complete streets concept will help create balanced transportation systems by providing accessible, safe, and efficient connections between destinations. Integrating sidewalks, bike facilities, transit amenities, and safe crossings into the initial design of a project spares the expense and complications of retrofits implemented at a later date. Furthermore, proactively planning for a multimodal transportation system can promote its integration with land-use policies to encourage more sustainable development. The National Complete Streets Coalition provides numerous resources for local municipalities who may wish to create their own complete streets policies.

The IMPO's local technical assistance program provides funding to local public agencies to complete plans or studies and support local or regional planning efforts. The overall goal of the program is to support the implementation of the IMPO’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) and improve the region’s performance on federal performance measures.

The IMTAP program successfully funded projects in 2017 and 2018 supporting seventeen plans for sixteen jurisdictions within the region. In 2022 the program was updated call for projects was intended to continue the program’s success with updated goals, project focus areas, and selection criteria in relation to the adopted MTP and funded 5 plans for 3 jurisdictions within the region.