Hundreds of school buses, one parking lot, and a major economic development

Looking at the former Coca Cola building at Mass Avenue & College Avenue in Indianapolis, a sea of yellow school buses sit idle. There I sit as the 10th car back at the stoplight in the middle of rush hour. The children have already been delivered home and their 100+ buses are parked while traffic inches by. I make the assumption that there are people whose full time job is driving these busses, however their two routes a day leave most of the day unused. Additionally, there are three months of the year when there is no bus service at all. I hear the mass transit debate in Indianapolis, and it appears to me a combined system of IPS and IndyGo buses provide at least an option for increased efficiency and service. Is that really such a big leap?

Aaron Renn talks about successful public transit connecting “transit addressable trips” to create a system that works. It seems to me that there are thousands of students in the downtown area who depend on these busses that are necessary “transit addressable trips” that are already being addressed in a completely separate set of costs. (Makes me wonder…have I seen school buses in Manhattan?) Anyway, with IndyGo’s need to increase routes and cut back expenses, an exploration of this combination seems at least a scenario to consider and do some serious studies to figure out. In addition, it would open up a large tract of developable ground to bring more development downtown Indianapolis.