Fort Wayne’s streets can be dangerous without a car – advocates say the fix starts with a plan

At 1 a.m., while most of Fort Wayne sleeps, Cleophus Frison is beginning his four-hour walk to work. Financial difficulties prevent him from traveling by car and force him to walk along Fort Wayne’s dimly lit streets — at times made darker by early morning storms — as cars zip by. He pushes forward, determined to make it from Fort Wayne’s East Side Neighborhood to the Airport Expressway Amazon facility with enough time to rest before the start of his 6 a.m. shift.

For him, walking is not leisure. It is survival.

Frison represents just one example of the estimated 9,000 households in Allen County with no personal vehicle. According to a 2024 Community Needs Assessment, almost 52,000 households in the county rely on one vehicle. While the reasons vary, with no access to a personal vehicle, the individuals in these households all rely on public transportation, biking, or walking to survive, including attending medical appointments, going grocery shopping, participating in activities, and going to work.

But Frison's experience also raises another concern, since 2010, pedestrian deaths have risen by 77% in the U.S., reaching 7,600 in 2021, according to a study published by Harvard Public Health. In Indiana, pedestrian deaths rose 4.1% between 2023 and 2024, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.  As Philip LaBrash, traffic engineer for the City of Fort Wayne, told The Local in early 2025, Fort Wayne has generally followed those national trends when it comes to crashes.

Local advocate Cornelia Schulz says that scattered coordination among city departments and lack of a comprehensive multi-modal transportation plan leads to stalled efforts to improve transportation outcomes for pedestrians and cyclists.Nearly a decade ago, Fort Wayne adopted a “Complete Streets” resolution, pledging to consider road designs that benefit all users. In 2016, the city enacted a traffic calming policy, and also recently implemented a Community-Led Traffic Calming Demonstration Program. However, both initiatives focus on neighborhood streets, not the busy arterials where pedestrians and cyclists may face a greater risk, and both are pursued by neighborhoods themselves, not the city. Bike Fort Wayne and Walk Fort Wayne were adopted by the All in Allen Comprehensive Plan in 2010 and 2011, respectively, but local cyclist Cornelia Schulz says the city has changed a lot since then.

An advocate with Three Rivers Active Streets, Schulz says that the difficulty in addressing the concern of pedestrian and cyclist safety comes from a combination of scattered coordination across agencies and the absence of a fresh, locally owned plan to address these safety issues with expanded infrastructure or traffic calming devices.

She recently spoke at a city council meeting. That night, she pointed out to the council that scattered coordination across departments and a lack of a cohesive and updated comprehensive strategy for multimodal transportation present a “perilous environment for cyclists, which actively discourages the adoption of sustainable transportation methods.”

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The City of Cleveland recently turned to speed tables and mini-roundabouts to support its Vision Zero Action Plan, which seeks to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities from crashes.

Cleveland piloted 10-speed tables, raised sections of the road that are not as abrupt as a speed bump, across the city in 2022. The pilot proved successful, with average speeds dropping by 7.8 mph, and one street seeing a 16 mph reduction. Nearly 78% of residents surveyed said they wanted the program expanded.

Crews work to install a speed table in Cleveland as part of a growing effort to reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities.While it’s too soon for Cleveland to report significant crash data, a past study in Lawrenceville, GA, found a 38% reduction in total crashes and a 93% drop in injuries, though limitations in measuring the impact of traffic calming persist. 

Sarah Davis, senior active transportation planner for Cleveland, says the city has heard “almost overwhelmingly positive responses from our community. We have a huge amount of requests for more this summer, after such a successful implementation last year.”

In answer to the positive response from residents, and to take steps to support the Vision Zero Action Plan, this spring, Cleveland also adopted Cleveland Moves, a multimodal transportation plan that prioritizes traffic calming measures in high-crash corridors, encouraging safer driving speeds to reduce the severity of crashes if they happen. The plan will take five years to implement, refreshing outdated initiatives like their 2007 Bikeway Master Plan and consolidating separate walking, biking, and traffic calming initiatives into a single guiding force.

Fort Wayne officials point out that the city already participates in a comprehensive transportation framework: the 2045 Transportation Plan, a regional 22-year plan managed by the Northeastern Indiana Regional Coordinating Council (NIRCC). The plan incorporates multimodal elements and provides guidance for long-term investment across the region; however, even its website acknowledges that the regional plan is “driven by the comprehensive plans of the counties and communities within the region.” 

City officials also note that traffic calming is addressed through a mix of systematic changes done during resurfacing projects, capital projects, and neighborhood-level petitions.

Joshua SchipperA growing number of curb extensions — or “bump outs” in Fort Wayne, like this one on Columbia Avenue, are designed to improve pedestrian visibility and vehicular speed reduction. This one was installed as part of the Historic Northeast 2035 Plan.Advocates argue, however, that what Fort Wayne lacks is a locally-owned plan with enforceable benchmarks that could bring efforts under one cohesive vision. Schulz, for example, says that, without this level of accountability and coordination, progress often feels too scattered and slow to address growing risks that pedestrians and cyclists face.

Cleveland Moves’ website provides residents with clear and concise information on what changes they can expect to see and when. The plan addresses multiple issues at once. For example, they promise not only to add new bike lanes across the city within three years, but also to update existing lanes that may be unsafe and implement traffic calming measures on streets with bikeways, including on arterial roads. This contrasts with Fort Wayne’s approach. For example, the city does not have a public strategic plan to address unsafe bike lanes like the one on Stellhorn Road, where vehicles have struck at least two cyclists — including one wearing a reflective safety vest. Even more recent bike lane additions, such as the one added to Lake Avenue between Lakeside Park and St. Joseph Boulevard, lack the infrastructure to keep cyclists safe.

According to the Department of Transportation, bike lanes are safest when separated from the road, stating, “Separated bicycle lanes can mitigate or prevent interactions, conflicts, and crashes between bicyclists and motor vehicles. In fact, converting traditional bike lanes to a separated lane with low-cost flexible delineators can reduce bicycle-vehicle crashes by up to 53 percent.”

Notably, Stellhorn Road also lacks sidewalks or trails in some areas, meaning pedestrians hoping to walk in those areas must take detours through neighborhoods – some of which also lack a complete network of sidewalks.

Cleveland’s plan also welcomed extensive community input, with infrastructure experts helping connect resident feedback to specific design choices. Outreach included several community-centered events, a more proactive approach than NIRCC’s traditional model of publishing plans for public comment.

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Advocates say that Fort Wayne has an opportunity to act on three fronts to improve outcomes for pedestrians and cyclists. First, develop a refreshed, comprehensive transportation plan for Fort Wayne that reflects the city's growth, with clear and measurable goals. Second, expand the traffic calming program beyond neighborhood streets to include the arterials where high-speed vehicles interact with pedestrians and cyclists. Third, utilize the updated plan to coordinate efforts across departments, ensuring that trails, streets, and safety measures are planned as a cohesive, interconnected system.

Joshua SchipperFort Wayne recently completed improvements to a section of S. Anthony Boulevard as part of the Southeast Strategy. Advocates say that, while targeted improvements improve outcomes, the city would benefit from the enhanced coordination.When reached for comment, the City of Fort Wayne pushed back on the idea that discoordination exists among its agencies. LaBrash says in an email that, “The neighborhoods are best served by directly addressing each need on a case-by-case basis, rather than a blanket prescription city-wide. This approach tailors traffic calming projects to each neighborhood’s unique needs. This approach also is a more fiscally responsible way to manage our limited resources by targeting improvements where there is a need, rather than needing to improve the whole network where it may not be most effective or desired.”

Fort Wayne continues to make record investments in neighborhood infrastructure through more individualized strategies, such as the Southeast Strategy and the Northwest 2035 Neighborhood Plan, and work is underway to build a pedestrian bridge across Coliseum Boulevard to continue the Pufferbelly Trail. Additionally, on Aug. 26, the City Council approved $4.26 million for improvements to neighborhood streets and sidewalks, improved neighborhood lighting, the Hanna Street Trail, and continuation of the Connected Neighborhoods initiative.

Cleveland’s speed-table pilot showed how small-scale projects can win public support, and its new multimodal plan sets a clear blueprint for wider change. Fort Wayne has the opportunity to do the same by combining data, community engagement, and planning into a comprehensive approach that makes streets safer for everyone across the city – not just in individual neighborhoods.

While he says that the walkability of routes on his daily journey to work has improved, Frison expresses frustration that Fort Wayne is “making improvements, but it's not coming fast enough.”

Joshua SchipperInput reported on the enhanced pedestrian crossing at the corner of Columbia Avenue at Conjure Coffee in February, an effort aimed at calming traffic and enhancing safety.For Frison, who now travels by bike, safer streets would mean more than convenience. They would mean the chance to work, thrive, and contribute without the constant burden of danger — a reminder that in Fort Wayne, walkability and bikability are not just about leisure. For many, it is survival — but Frison does have hope for the future.

“I know I'll be okay,” he says, “because my Lord has already worked it out for me. I just got to walk that walk to see exactly how it's going to pan out, but he has already worked out for me.”

His resilience is clear. But his safety — and that of many others — shouldn’t depend on faith alone.

Thanks to our Presenting Partner, Parkview Health, and to our sponsor, Citilink, for making this story possible.