INDIANAPOLIS — The City of Indianapolis is currently reviewing a proposal to construct a 700-space parking garage in a location where a mixed-use building with affordable housing and ground-floor retail could stand. The parking garage, its proponents argue, is necessary to support adjacent commercial development. The commercial development, they say, requires parking. The parking requires public subsidy. The public subsidy crowds out other investments.
And so the cycle continues.
I want to be clear: I understand why people drive in Indianapolis. The city was built for cars. Transit service to most of the metro area is limited, slow, or nonexistent. If you live in Fishers and work downtown, or in Lawrence and work in Speedway, the math on driving versus transit is not close. You drive because that's rational given the options available.
But here is the trap: When we build more parking to accommodate more driving, we make it economically harder to justify the transit investment that would give people a real choice. We build the infrastructure for one mode and then wonder why no one uses the other mode.
Indianapolis has made real progress on transit. The Red Line on College Avenue is a genuine success — reliable, frequent, walkable from dense residential areas, attracting new development along its route. The Purple Line on Washington Street will open the east side to real transit access for the first time. These are investments worth celebrating.
But they are the exception, not the rule. For most of Indianapolis, getting anywhere without a car remains genuinely difficult. And as long as that remains true, the pressure to build parking will continue — because car-dependent development demands car-dependent infrastructure.
The Choice in Front of Us
Every parking garage we build in a location that could have supported transit-oriented development is a 50-year bet that car dependency is permanent. I don't think that bet is right. I think Indianapolis residents want choices. I think younger residents especially want to live in walkable, transit-connected neighborhoods — and many are choosing other cities because Indianapolis doesn't offer enough of that.
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