2 cars spotted on Monon Greenway within days in Carmel
CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) — For the second time in less than a week, a car has been spotted on the Monon Greenway.
Both times, it happened in Carmel near 111th and 116th streets.
Ben Matthews said was riding to work around 7 a.m. Monday on the pedestrian and bicycling trail when he saw headlights coming toward him. Luckily, the car was not driving very fast when it passed him and no one was hurt.
“They seemed to realize they made a mistake by turning onto the Monon, but they did drive about half a mile from 111th to almost 116th before they finally turned around,” Matthews said.
On that same stretch, a witness last week snapped photos of a sport-utility vehicle driving down the Monon. Carmel police said driving on the Monon is illegal.
“It might be people that are not familiar with the area,” Matthews said. “At the same time, every crossing does have flashing yellow lights.”
Matthews said the Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation staff does a great job maintaining the trail, but he would like to see barriers blocking cars near the entrance.
“It would be helpful,” he said.
Parks and Natural Resources Director Michael Allen said the department usually keeps steel posts, called bollards, at the entrances, but not in the winter.
“There’s operational challenges in the winter when you have freezing temperatures and then those cannot be easily removed in the event of an emergency or plowing operation,” Allen said.
In the winter, Allen said, the department uses cones to block the entrances.
“We’ll start looking at it closer, but we look at it every day. There might be an opportunity for us to keep the bollards up, but, again, it’s all based on conditions,” Allen said.
According to Matthews, the cones weren’t at 111th Street on Monday. Allen said it is possible someone in the general public removed the cones without the parks staff knowing about it.
The trail’s crossing at 111th Street is also marked to warn drivers that pedestrians and bicyclists might be there.