brian-willsey

 

Rapid transit would be a draw for Indianapolis, downtown

I’ve lived in Indianapolis my entire life—south side born and raised—and I have never needed to use the city’s public transit system. But I visited New York City for the first time last Christmas on vacation, and I walked and took the subway everywhere. It was the coolest thing ever, how easy it was to get to places, how reliable the transportation was. I can see why people want to live in a city like that.

It got me thinking: What does Indianapolis need to continue to grow, to bring top talent here to make our downtown a viable, cool place where people want to be? Obviously there are lot of motivations for people to be in and around a city, but one part of that is getting rid of this mentality that you’ve got to have a car and you’ve got to park right next wherever you’re going or it’s not worth going at all. Rapid transit is a pretty good step in the right direction, a way to make our city a little bit more attractive to a younger generation and set us up for new opportunities.

The issue I have with transit in Indianapolis now is that it’s not as reliable as a subway car coming every 15 minutes. With something like that, I know that at the most I’m going to have to wait a couple minutes before I can get on with my duties and obligations for the day. If I could hop on and go the distance from downtown to Fishers in 20-30 minutes, that would be something I’d be extremely interested in. Maybe it would open up different parts of the city that I don’t spend much time in now.

With a better transit system, maybe my wife and I wouldn’t have to be a two-car family anymore. Maybe we could just get by with one car. I’m excited to see how rapid transit develops here, not only personally but for the city itself. Change is difficult, and I know it’s going to be uncomfortable sometimes, but I just see this investment in the future—if it’s done correctly—has so much potential.