The longest shutdown to the national government is over. The do-nothing Congress has given us a meaningless contest between an arrogant, cowardly Republic party and a disheveled excuse for a party of Democrats. And all the while the Indiana legislature slept.

It had study committees which are excuses for inaction. But none was focused on the pressing need for connectivity. Economic success, from ancient times, has been based on connectivity, the ability for getting goods, people, and ideas from one place to another.

Our basic connectivity remains the 19th century streets and roads of our elders. Yes, thanks to the federal government, we now have interstate highways, but fundamentally we live in a network of the past. Roundabouts are not the answer to our needs.

The legislature allocates money on the basis of linear miles of roadways. But we drive on lanes of travel. The distance of a roadway from Logansport to Fort Wayne (U.S. 24) is of lesser consequence than the lane miles which allow for greater volume and safer driving.

Thanks to the rural antiquarians of the General Assembly, the length of a roadway’s centerline is the key measure of its importance. Thus the Indiana Department of Transportation (InDoT) offers us statistics on 98,132 miles of Hoosier roads, from city streets to tolled interstates. The lane mile data are not available by county, but by InDoT districts which are a mystery to the general public.

Statewide, there are 2.5 lane miles for every mile of center lines. In the Greenfield district, which includes Marion County. Indiana has 2.8 lane miles per centerline mile, or so I interpret the data.

Why is this important? For years, urban counties have tried to get state funding allocated by lane miles rather than centerline miles. But since there is no effective lobbying force for the municipalities of this state, no vigorous coalition of mayors, no understanding by the public of the disparities inflicted on us by our rural mythology, center line measures still dominate the allocation of money, or so I believe.

But there are other data to support more roadway funding for urban areas. We could use Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled (DVMT in the shorthand of InDoT). For both all vehicles and for commercial vehicles (heavy trucks), Marion, Allen, and Lake are the top three counties for vehicular traffic.

The anti-urban bias of Indiana, the residual of a mid-19th century ethos, which infects most county governments, prevents us from having an effective allocation of highway funds. It does nothing to improve the connectivity of declining rural areas to nearby cities where hope lies for the survival of those areas.

And while we’re discussing connectivity, when will Purdue reveal its plans for high speed rail from its campus to the Lebanon Leap District right into the heart of Indianapolis?
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2025 Morton J. Marcus

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