My family will be moving to the Indianapolis area very soon and I am wondering how long it takes to get to downtown Indianapolis from the North side during rush hour. We are looking into The Fishers and Carmel area. I am hoping my husband does not have to commute any longer then half an hour.
You can make it downtown within 30 minutes IF you are on the south end of Carmel, toward Zionsville or even southern part of Fishers or Geist.
Hi, you are looking at areas where the commute will probably entail more than a 30 min commute, they are the fastest growing communities around Indy. There is a Fishers bus which does pick up at a central location and then goes directly to downtown. I believe the drop off is centrally located too. My daughter has used this service since October and loves it. Her commute is a little over 30 min but the break gives her time to destress, read, catch up on work or even take a nap. It has become so popular, particularly with the gas prices, that additional buses have been added. I think Carmel may also have this service. A high speed rail is being discussed but that will be awhile down the road. IndyGo provides the bus service but I am not sure whether there is staggering service. Meaning different buses at different times.
If he prefers to drive, his commute will depend but 45 min might be more realistic for most days, depending upon where in Fishers or Carmel you settle.
Best wishes! We relocated here years ago and like it very much. We do live in northeast Indy though, not a suburb.
My husband also commutes to downtown and during rush hour it will be probably around 45 min. commute. However, like the other response there is a very nice bus service that has started in both Fishers and Carmel which my husband takes. He loves it b/c he can relax rather than fight traffic. He is a totally different man when he gets home than when he was when having to fight rush hour traffic! Hope this helps :)
That particular corridor of the city is plagued with heavy traffic. There are no direct downtown routes from Fishers. The most direct route from Carmel is a straight shot, however it is not interstate and therefore can be pretty slow with all of the stoplights. I live in Fishers and work downtown from 7am-3pm so I'm fortunate to miss the height of rush hour traffic, and my commute still takes about 35 minutes. Depending on what part of downtown your husband will be working in and what hours, I would expect his commute to be more than 30 minutes.
L.,
Like others have said, it depends on where exactly you're driving from and to...one of my neighbors drives downtown and he leaves at about 7:45 to get to work by 8:30.
One thing you might not be aware of is that there's a bus that goes from Fishers to downtown (it's part of the IndyGo Bus system) that departs from a church parking lot at 106th Street and USA Parkway/Lantern Road. It only costs a few dollars a day, and the parking lot there's always full, so there's lots of people that use it.
FYI - and good luck!
We live in Westfield right on the North/East Carmel border. My husband works downtown and it takes him 55 minutes if he leaves works at 4:00. If he leaves at 5:00, it can take him up to 1 1/2 hours. Fishers will most likely be longer. It depends on where in Fishers. They do have a Indy Express bus that leaves directly from Carmel Meijers which a lot of people use to commute. Check up indygo.com if you want info about that. Hope this helps.
It will probably be closer to 45 minutes. Fishers has better rated schools than Carmel, but Washington Township actually has the best schools in the metro area according to a recent national study and that would cut his travel time in half!
What I noticed noone has mentioned yet is that it is likely that there will be some form of rapid transit from the Western side of Fishers/Eastern side of Carmel area to downtown by about 2012. When looking at where to buy, ask about the "northeast rail corridor" (the route that the fair train takes), this is the proposed route for the transit system. So, if you make your move close to this, in less than 10 years you could be using a light rail train or something similar to make a quicker, cheaper, and more time efficient commute (ie- you could read while riding).
Hi L.,
I commute downtown from Fishers. At peak times it will be a bit more than 30 minutes. Of course it depends on where in Fishers you live. There are some lovely neighborhoods that are just minutes from I69 off both the 116th street exit and the 96th street exit. The further you get from 69 the longer it will take. It also helps to go during non-peak hours. I usually leave home at about 6:45am and I'm at my office within 30-35 minutes. In the afternoon I find it is better if I leave downtown between 4:00 and 4:15. hope that helps! Katie
