As part of the 2023 Safety Action Plan Update, a risk score analysis was performed on the IMPO's road network. The analysis looked at higher-risk roadway attributes to determine the risk score. Visit the Risk Score page for more information and a map of projects.

The IMPO began a project in 2017 to correct the locations of the ARIES (Automated Reporting Information Exchange System) incapacitating injury and fatal crash records. The IMPO’s Crash Dashboard displays over 9 years (2015 – May 2024) of fatal and incapacitating injury crash records in the 8-county region. The dashboard enables the IMPO’s Local Planning Agencies and the public to view the crash data with interactive filters that allow the user to select a specific year, crash type, or jurisdiction. Each individual crash location can also be selected for further crash details. Please contact Jennifer Dunn for more information on the Crash Dashboard or the corrected ARIES Crash Data.

The Vulnerable Road User Crash Dashboard visualizes all crashes involving bikes and pedestrians. Often, these individuals fall under IMPO’s Vision Zero definition of a vulnerable road user. Tracking and reporting this data is an important step to make progress on the goals of Vision Zero. The data has been reviewed and corrected for accuracy from eight counties in Central Indiana (Boone, Hancock, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, & Shelby).

The time frame for the data is January 2022 through March of 2024. Overlaid layers include the boundary of the IMPO's planning area along with the boundaries of our local planning agency (LPA) communities. There is also a selection of trails based on the major bike paths and does not include all trail options.

The IMPO developed a High Injury Network (HIN) to identify the local corridors with the highest frequencies of crashes resulting in incapacitating injuries and fatalities within the region.

To construct the HIN, the IMPO used spatially verified vehicle, pedestrian, and cyclist crashes that occurred in the public right of way between 2016 and 2020, excluding crashes on interstates and expressways (with the exception of at-grade intersections and ramp intersections). Severe crashes were joined to eligible intersections and roadway segments. Candidate corridors spanning two or more intersections in the top 20th percentile by severe crash frequency were then identified. Over 500 centerline miles of candidate corridors across the region were scored by the number of severe crashes per mile, with fatal crashes receiving a higher weight. The top 234 miles, representing approximately 10% of the 2,358 miles of arterial and collector centerline miles not owned by INDOT, were then assigned to the HIN. The HIN represents 29% of crashes resulting in an incapacitating injury or fatality reported on local streets between 2016 and 2020 but is made up of only 10% of locally owned collector and arterial streets and roads.

The 2023 Intersection Safety Studies Map identifies 19 high-crash locations within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA). For each location, the team reviewed crash data and existing conditions, created a collision diagram, conducted a field check, met with local engineering and police representatives, and identified specific improvements to remedy existing safety issues.

The 2019 Safety Study map identifies 24 high-crash locations within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA). This includes 5 high priority Pedestrian and Bicycle locations. For each location, the team reviewed crash data and existing conditions, created a collision diagram, conducted a field check, met with local engineering and police representatives, and identified specific improvements to remedy existing safety issues.

The 2016 Safety Study map identifies the top fifty (50) high-crash locations within the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA). For each location, the team reviewed crash data and existing conditions, created a collision diagram, conducted a field check, met with local engineering and police representatives, and identified specific improvements to remedy existing safety issues

The IMPO now has a license with Replica for traffic data from mobile data sources. This replaces our previous StreetLight license. All the IMPO’s member agencies will have direct access to the Replica tools. There is no limit to the number of users an agency can have and there are no use restrictions. Anyone with an email domain from one of the IMPO’s member agencies can create a Replica account. Learn more

The 2022 Central Indiana Regional Freight Plan (approved August 2022) includes information about regional planning needs that will be used to help prioritize multimodal infrastructure improvements and policy recommendations that will work to enhance the freight corridors and areas in the region. Check the Regional Freight Network page for a link to the plan and accompanying dashboard.

Categorization helps us to understand how an individual part performs as part of the overall network. For roads, that organizational system is called the Functional Classification System (FCS). Roads are categorized by a number of factors, but mainly categorization is determined by the function of the road. Roads that are designed to move vehicles faster have a higher mobility function; roads designed to provide access to homes and businesses have a higher access function.

This is a resource for bicyclists and bicycle network planners. It maps all of the open bikeways in Central Indiana, streets identified as being low-stress for cyclists, and various cycling amenity locations. Annually, during the month of May (Bike Month), the IMPO offers a version of the Ride Guide that allows visitors to add missing amenities to the map & leave a note on existing ones to share helpful details. Check out the Central Indiana Ride Guide page for more information.

As part of the planning effort to assess Central Indiana's ability to handle current and future shocks and stressors, the IMPO conducted an assessment of Central Indiana's roadway and bridge network to determine which assets were most vulnerable to four prioritized threats to the region- flooding, extreme heat, tornado, and severe winter storm/snow. The analysis included two scores - risk and criticality.

In 2023 and 2024, the IMPO developed a new Active Transportation Plan (ATP) for the Central Indiana Region. The document includes a storymap page outlining existing trails, bicycle level of stress, gaps in the existing bike network, and gaps in the existing sidewalk network.

Each year, the IMPO is allocated federal transportation funding from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) passed through the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). This funding is distributed to local public agencies (typically cities, towns, counties, and transit organizations) by the IMPO to support transportation improvement projects (roads, bridges, trails, transit, etc.) in the IMPO’s planning area.

Working with local public agencies, the IMPO prioritizes, selects, and awards funding to projects that address needed transportation improvements. To select projects to receive the IMPO’s funding, the IMPO issues an annual “call-for-projects”. During the call-for-projects, local public agencies choose projects to submit for consideration by completing a data-driven application and committing to locally fund a portion of the project cost. Typically, the MPO funds up to 80% of construction and construction engineering costs with a 20% local match from the local public agency. The local public agency provides 100% of the funding for preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition, and other project costs.

The IMPO reviews all applications and develops a list of projects recommended for funding. This recommendation list is guided by the allocation goals of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, the requirements of federal transportation programs, and the scores of projects ranked through the IMPO’s TIP project selection (scoring) criteria. The recommendation list is then reviewed, amended as needed, and adopted as a TIP amendment by the Transportation Policy Committee.

The IMPO's TIP Project Funding Storymap display the results from the last 6 call for projects.

Environmental Justice (EJ) refers to the process of evaluating and analyzing the planning process in reference to the most disadvantaged populations. Environmental Justice populations are identified by the federal government as low-income and minoritized populations. As part of our planning process, we identify these disadvantaged populations on our Environmental Justice Map and others and evaluate the impact our projects have on them.

A Red Flag Investigation (RFI) is a quantitative analysis of infrastructure, water, hazardous materials, historical features, and other data within a half-mile of a proposed transportation project. The MPO has created a standard procedure for developing an RFI that is based on Indiana Map and other readily available datasets

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) establishes minimum floodplain management standards. FEMA encourages states and communities to adopt higher standards that are more protective than the NFIP minimum requirements. The Indiana DNR Division of Water has completed a dataset that incorporates detailed floodplain data from the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) and enhanced it with additional floodplain data. This dataset is known as the Best Available Floodplain Layer (BAFL).

The BAFL is presented as a statewide GIS data layer and can be viewed from the Indiana Floodplain Information Portal (INFIP). Data can be downloaded by county and is available as a Representational State Transfer (REST) service as well. The BAFL dataset serves as a companion to FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL), which is a digital representation of the FIRMs.

Check out "Our Planning Area" for a map of Central Indiana's Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) and Urbanized Area Boundary (UAB).