{"id":638,"date":"2025-12-17T14:27:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T14:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/?p=638"},"modified":"2025-12-17T14:27:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T14:27:59","slug":"lacy-school-of-business-students-drive-real-world-change-with-indianapolis-vision-zero-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/2025\/12\/17\/lacy-school-of-business-students-drive-real-world-change-with-indianapolis-vision-zero-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Lacy School of Business Students Drive Real-World Change with Indianapolis Vision Zero Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the Lacy School of Business, our students don\u2019t just learn about data analytics \u2013 they apply it to real-world challenges that make a tangible impact on our community. This fall, a group of senior students partnered with the Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) to contribute to Vision Zero<\/a>, the city\u2019s ambitious initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this collaboration, students worked on multiple projects analyzing live traffic data to identify high-risk areas across Indianapolis. One focus area was Michigan Road, where a significant number of traffic-related fatalities have occurred. By examining detailed data \u2013 including traffic speeds, patterns, and street usage \u2013 students developed actionable recommendations for improving safety, such as where medians or other traffic-calming measures could be most effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another project brought students directly into the heart of the city, in Fountain Square, where they studied the effects of a \u201croad diet\u201d that reduced lanes to slow traffic and installed urban safety devices. Using speed guns and pre\/post observations, students tracked vehicle speeds on roads with and without medians, giving them direct insight into how street design influences driver behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis project allowed students to see firsthand how data, design, and human behavior intersect on our streets,\u201d Dr. Jason Davidson<\/a>, assistant professor of management information systems, said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t just analyzing numbers \u2013 they were observing, learning, and contributing to solutions that could save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Natalie Bayes, a statistics major and data science minor, the opportunity to participate was both exciting and eye-opening. \u201cI\u2019ve never done research before, so when I heard about the Vision Zero partnership, I reached out to Dr. Davidson right away,\u201d she said. \u201cI was really excited to be onsite, collecting data and using speed guns \u2013 not just working with numbers on a spreadsheet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Jersey native was particularly impacted by the hands-on nature of the work. \u201cWorking with the Department of Public Works gave me a perspective on how the city operates,\u201d she explained. \u201cI got to work closely with the traffic signal engineer, and it was fascinating to conceptualize what goes into traffic planning. There are things you don\u2019t think about, and it was fun to contribute to solving real problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students presented their findings and recommendations at the City-County Building in early December, creating dashboards and actionable insights that directly inform the DPW\u2019s ongoing safety initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vision Zero reflects Indianapolis\u2019 commitment to creating streets that are safe, equitable, and accessible for everyone \u2013 whether walking, biking, driving, or using public transit. By partnering with local government on these initiatives, LSB students are not only learning critical analytical and research skills \u2013 they are actively helping shape a safer, smarter city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHands-on learning is so important,\u201d Natalie added. \u201cIf you stay in the classroom, you lose sight of the \u2018why.\u2019 Applying what you learn to real-world situations is exactly what you\u2019ll do in every career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the Lacy School of Business, our students don\u2019t just learn about data analytics \u2013 they apply it to real-world challenges that make a tangible impact on our community. This fall, a group of senior students partnered with the Indianapolis Department of Public Works (DPW) to contribute to Vision Zero, the city\u2019s ambitious initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2035.<\/p>\n

Through this collaboration, students worked on multiple projects analyzing live traffic data to identify high-risk areas across Indianapolis. One focus area was Michigan Road, where a significant number of traffic-related fatalities have occurred. By examining detailed data \u2013 including traffic speeds, patterns, and street usage \u2013 students developed actionable recommendations for improving safety, such as where medians or other traffic-calming measures could be most effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2812,"featured_media":676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,31],"tags":[],"coauthors":[38],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation-enterprise","category-innovation-enterprise-innovation-enterprise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}