In 2017, the National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, selected South Bend to participate in the Safe Streets Academy, a program intended to help cities make tangible progress toward building safer streets for all their residents. As part of the program, the City is learning and using various best practices in safety engineering countermeasures, tactical urbanism, creative placemaking, and community engagement.
Applying this knowledge, the City is completing a series of demonstration traffic calming projects in the Near Northwest Neighborhood that include placemaking elements. Selected based on neighborhood input and traffic considerations, the following five locations feature demonstration projects installed for 30-90 days starting the week of April 16, 2018:
- Riverside Drive & Hudson Avenue: neighborhood traffic circle (art installation/painting to be completed April 21)
- Riverside Drive & California Avenue/Leland Avenue: bump out/pavement narrowing
- Van Buren Street & Cottage Grove Avenue: neighborhood traffic circle
- Lindsey Street, east of Sherman Avenue: chicane
- Lindsey Street, west of Cushing Street: chicane
These demonstration traffic calming projects are temporary installations for traffic study purposes. Because of this, the crosswalks are not meant to be ADA compliant as they are a representation of the location where an ADA compliant crosswalk would be placed in a permanent installation. If these temporary installations are successful, they may be made permanent with ADA compliant pedestrian facilities.