Freeman
A Republican senator from Indianapolis is backing off this year on legislation that would have repealed a city ordinance banning right turns on red at certain downtown intersections.
Sen. Aaron Freeman instead offered an amendment Thursday that would require the city to pause the installation of any more no-turn-on-red signs until July 1, 2025. The amendment was added on voice vote to Freeman’s Senate Bill 52, which would put a one-year moratorium on IndyGo’s usage of dedicated bus lanes for the Blue Line..
Over the next year, a state task force would assess both the impact of IndyGo’s dedicated lanes and the city’s no-turn-on-red restrictions. The task force would be required to submit a report to the Legislature by Dec. 1, 2024.
Freeman called the amendment a “compromise between [him] and the city of Indianapolis.”
In a statement, city spokeswoman Aliya Wishner said discussions with Freeman over city authority and data regarding the traffic restrictions led Freeman to drop his initial bill to repeal the no-turn-on-red ordinance, which city officials say is intended to improve pedestrian safety.
“Senator Freeman heard those concerns, and instead of moving his bill forward, offered an amendment to pause installation of new signs for one year to allow for further study of the effectiveness of these traffic controls,” Wishner wrote. “We look forward to submitting the data that supports these critical safety measures next year.”
The change is a rare glimpse of compromise in what has been a very rocky relationship between Freeman and Democratic city leaders.
That friction is best exemplified this year by the bill that now holds the no-turn-on-red amendment. Senate Bill 52 would prohibit IndyGo from using dedicated lanes for the Blue Line project, a measure the public transit agency says will effectively kill the project. That bill now awaits a vote in the full Senate.
Freeman filed similar bills in previous sessions that made it out of the Senate chamber but failed to gain House approval.
Last year, Freeman sought, but failed, to block the no-turn-on-red ordinance. His legislation banning such an ordinance in Indianapolis was signed into law, but it was written in a way that allowed the Indianapolis City-County Council to enact the ordinance before Freeman’s state legislation could take effect.
Despite the new compromise, city officials haven’t been shy about saying that Republican legislative proposals targeting Democrat-controlled government in Indianapolis have been a thorn in the city’s side.
“If you have people who are as passionate as some legislators seem to be about the direction that Indianapolis is taking … I’d encourage them to consider leaving the Legislature and come run for the City-County Council,” Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett told reporters during a media briefing on Wednesday.
Freeman was a city-county councilor from 2010 to 2016.
By Taylor Wooten, Indianapolis Business Journal
