Councilmembers contact Ray LaHood

August 3, 2010

Three Bloomington City Councilmembers sent a letter to US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, asking him to look into the way that INDOT is handling the SR 45/46 bypass project. Ray LaHood and his boss, Barack Obama, have independently made public promises to preferentially fund projects which embrace concepts such as complete streets and sustainable energy. The people of Bloomington want to know why INDOT -- which is largely regulated by the federal government -- hasn't gotten the memo yet.

Click here to read the letter.

Bypassing Good Judgment

July 20, 2010

Bloomington Transportation Options for People (B-TOP) today released "Bypassing Good Judgment: INDOT and the Overexpansion of the SR 45/46 Bypass."

The 20-page report details the many flaws in INDOT's sorely outdated Bypass expansion plan, criticizing its rural-style highway design, its faulty traffic projections, its blatant ignoring of public input and its disregard of local and federal policies on livability and sustainability.

"The design is basically 20 years old, and is no longer appropriate for this urbanized area," said Elizabeth Venstra, president of B-TOP. "It's over-designed for 50,000 cars a day and designed to handle 70 mph speeds. This is traffic Bloomington will never see, and speeds that will discourage walking, biking and transit. We're appalled by the plan."

"Bypassing Good Judgment" also critiques excessive road and intersection widths throughout the project, including double-left turn lanes at every crossing, which will increase stop times and pedestrian crossing distances tremendously. The report supports its findings with data on traffic counts, traffic delays, pedestrian crossings and transit growth, and offers solutions that will meet Bloomington's and INDOT's own purported objectives for far less money.

The complete report can be found at http://b-top.org/bypass/bypassing_good_judgment.pdf.

Next B-TOP meeting

Thursday, August 12, 2010, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Monroe County Public Library, meeting room 1A

B-TOP will have its regular monthly meeting on Thursday August 12th at 6:30 p.m. in meeting room 1A at the Monroe County Public Library (303 E. Kirkwood).