IndyGo Red Line construction diverts traffic, upsets Meridian-Kessler residents

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Construction on the IndyGo Red Line bus transit project has people in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood up in arms.

They say the detour is causing more problems than it’s solving. 

“Cars just go right through and they go really fast,” said resident Karen Kaufman, who lives near East 56th Street and Central Avenue.

News 8 caught up with Kaufman and her son Henry as they were letting their dog outside. It’s a normal task Kaufman said was once safe but now comes with risks with what some say are drivers speeding through the area. 

Kaufman’s concern stemmed from the IndyGo Red Line project. While College Avenue is inundated with construction for the project, traffic is diverting to Central Avenue.

“Because of the construction of College for the Red Line, they’ve turned these four-way stops into working red-light traffic lights,” Kaufman said.

Those four-way stops used to prevent drivers with lead feet. Now, people living in the Meridian Kessler neighborhood are putting their feet down and lining Central Avenue with signs asking for Mayor Joe Hogsett to reinstate the four-way stops.

The speeding problem was so prevalent even Kaufman’s 8-year-old son Henry noticed a change. 

“I saw some delivery drivers were just speeding down and, since the light over there was changed and since its not flashing red back and forth, it’s an actual light. So, people can just zoom down there,” Henry said. 

News 8 cameras even caught a car speeding to run a red light. But, speeding isn’t the only problem neighbors have an issue with.

Neighbors told News 8 traffic gets backed up and that makes it even more unsafe for kids. 

“We fought years ago for these stop signs. We fought for them because of the safety of the children that walk to school. There are four schools on this street. That’s 1,400 students,” said neighbor Karen Leone. 

“The children are taught to wait for the walk signs, but there are none,” Kaufman said.

As construction continues, neighbors living near 56th and Central hope the city will fix the problem before it gets any worse.

“I know we live on a busy street. We chose to live in an urban area. But, we did not choose to have this become College Avenue,” Leone said. 

Construction on the Red Line project was recently accelerated. It’s expected to be wrapped up by this summer. Red Line plans call for the stoplights to be changed back to four-way stops, but neighbors say they’re not so sure that will actually happen.

“They say it’s temporary, but they can always make changes so it’s not,” Leone said.