My own city, which is not Indianapolis, has a few sections of trail that locals tend to avoid because they’re congested with homeless camps and while I’ve never had an issue, there is a perception of danger and it doesn’t make for a relaxing ride. I go in the day and in a group, but not alone at night.
I am planning a daytime ride in Indianapolis along the Monon Trail from Carmel to Downtown, then circling back using the White River. Are there any sketchy or outright dangerous sections of trail I should know about?
The city glows bright red on crime maps, but so does almost every downtown in every US city over 500,000 people.
I’ve looked at what’s available online. A lot of what I could find was either generalized or dated so I’m still looking for additional perspectives.
Carmel through Broad Ripple is really nice and totally safe. It starts to get less nice around the fairgrounds and 38th, but at this time of the year, in daylight and in a group, I think it would be perfectly safe
So I rode it from Waterpark to Wesfield and later from Broad Ripple to White River Park and the trail was 99% non-sketchy in the daytime in my assessment. I could see some sketchy areas one or two blocks back from the trail, but the trail has seemingly gentrified the blocks immediately adjacent in a lot of spots. The area just before Mass Ave where it runs next to the freeway is in need of some landscaping work but also didn’t feel sketch.
My biggest takeaway is that Indy traffic engineers slept through the lesson on right of way. The signs say to stop, but the cars usually stop for you. It’s ambiguous and dangerous and I think there is potential for improvement.
Thanks for weighing in so I didn’t go in blind.