Central Indiana transit funding in danger as a consequence of Hoosier Travel Counts survey

Central Indiana might miss out on hundreds of thousands of federal {dollars} towards transportation and infrastructure tasks for an earthly cause: too few persons are responding to a survey.

After this week, a quarter-million households could have acquired the Hoosier Travel Counts survey, final performed in 2009. Regional transportation planners use it to find out about folks’s every day journey habits to tell future tasks like bridge repairs, highway widenings and bicycle lanes.

But the meager survey response price thus far might have excessive stakes, planners say. Without extra suggestions, planners cannot guarantee the info is actually consultant and essential tasks might miss out on funding in years to return.

Sean Northup, deputy director of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, blames the lackluster response on a mixture of elements that plague civic engagement extra broadly: confusion, apathy and distrust.

“Everything looks like a scam now. Everything,” Northup stated. “We have a very, very hard time getting people to respond to the surveys, to show up to public meetings.”

As planners mail out the ultimate 50,000 surveys this week, here is what to know in regards to the course of.

What is the Hoosier Travel Counts survey?

The survey will assist planners perceive the journey patterns of residents from 9 Central Indiana counties. It collects knowledge on all varieties of journey, whether or not persons are driving, driving public transit, bicycling or strolling.

The outcomes will help functions for federal cash to fund main regional tasks corresponding to bridges, roundabouts and bicycle lanes. The IMPO in 2025 awarded $80 million to 26 projects throughout Central Indiana, together with bridges over busy roads on the Monon and Nickel Plate Trails in Indianapolis, bus replacements for IndyGo, and new roundabouts throughout the area.

“Whether a bridge gets built or whether a roadway gets widened or whether a trail gets funded and built depends on knowing that people will likely use it,” Northup stated.

How can I take part within the survey?

To guarantee knowledge comes from a consultant pattern of residents, not simply anybody can fill out the survey. Throughout this 12 months, 250,000 randomly chosen households had been mailed flyers with an entry code to take part utilizing one in every of two strategies:

• Residents can report knowledge for each family member by monitoring their journey for one week by way of an app known as rMove.
• Another possibility is to fill out a one-time survey on-line at or over the cellphone by calling 1-888-828-0870.

The planning organizations pays $50 to every grownup who completes the one-week journey journal and no less than $40 to every family that fills out the one-time survey.

The market analysis advisor Resource Systems Group, Inc. will accumulate the info on behalf of regional planners IMPO and Heartland Metropolitan Planning Organization. The survey will ask for exact places and journey instances in addition to demographic details about who lives in every family.

How can I test whether or not I’ve acquired a survey?

Flyers had been mailed to pick out residents of the next 9 counties: Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Morgan and Shelby.

If you are not sure whether or not you acquired a survey, one of the simplest ways to test is to name 1-888-828-0870 or e-mail assist@hoosiertravelcounts.com. Include your mailing tackle in your inquiry for a faster response.

Households that acquired surveys at any level this 12 months are inspired to fill them out now, planners say. About half of the invites had been mailed out this spring. The response assortment interval will wrap up within the coming weeks.

Email Indianapolis City Hall Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09