Carmel, Indiana, probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think about people-friendly city design and top-quality cycling infrastructure. But thanks to local Cycling Ambassador Mr. American Fietser, who moved to Carmel because of its outstanding cycling infrastructure, allowing him and his wife to live car-light in the United States, Carmel gained some more recognition. Several people have even said they followed his example. In fact, it all looked so good in his social media publications that I simply had to experience it for myself. It took a few years to get this far, but the total eclipse of April 2024, with Carmel in the totality zone, gave me another reason to travel there, and I finally made it to Indiana!
Carmel’s uniqueness seems to be largely due to the vision of one man: former mayor James Brainard (1995–2024), whom I’ve seen described as ‘a moderate Republican’. After a study trip to the UK in the early 1990s, he was inspired by the roundabouts he saw there and decided to implement them in his own city. The first Carmel roundabout was finished in 1997, and the following year two more were constructed. Apparently, they were a success. The city’s website lists all 150 roundabouts we can currently find in Carmel, proudly calling itself the Roundabout Capital of the United States. While they may be nothing special in European eyes (I’m almost embarrassed to say), they are for the United States. People can even watch a tutorial on how to navigate the many roundabouts in Carmel as a driver.
Roundabouts reduce speeds on roads and eliminate the need for traffic signals. I can’t recall seeing any traffic signals in Carmel. This means traffic flows slowly but steadily. When cars don’t have to idle at red lights, they consume less fuel. Other advantages attributed to roundabouts include a lower crash risk, and when accidents do occur, the consequences are less severe. This is why the city claims that its roundabouts have considerably reduced the number of serious injuries and even fatalities. The accident statistics for Carmel are better than a lot of other cities in Indiana.
But Carmel is not just a city of roundabouts. Under Brainard’s leadership, Carmel’s population grew from 25,000 in 1996 to 102,000 in 2021. In 2011, a 1,500-seat concert hall, “the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts”, was opened in a new downtown area called City Center. There was also the redevelopment of the oldest part of the city into a new Arts & Design District. Both of these areas are located on the Monon Trail.
The Monon Trail was a Rails-to-Trails project in the early 2000s. The part in Carmel (about 8 kilometers long) became an excellent 3.7-meter-wide asphalt path. But it ran through empty and industrial areas in need of redevelopment. The City Center mentioned earlier opened in 2011, but just a few years later, the six-block area just south of Main Street was transformed into Midtown Plaza, and there, the Monon Trail became the Monon Boulevard. The trail serves as a central focal point in this redevelopment. For this project, the city hired Danish Urban Designer Jan Gehl as the landscape architect. However, it was Jeff Speck who came up with the idea to make the Monon Trail the centrepiece of the project. With a team of architects and engineers, Midtown Plaza was further designed and cycling got an important role. It opened in July 2019, although parts of it are still under development. The project cost the city of Carmel $23 million but led to private development investments in the area of $175 million.
With all the positive aspects of Carmel*, one thing is incomprehensible for a European: the city has no public transport, none at all! This makes it all the more important for the cycling network to be further extended and for the existing routes to be better connected.
* (I haven’t even mentioned the 2007 Outdoor Water Park or the excellent public library – refurbished in 2022!)
All in all, Carmel is a gem and this city should be studied and replicated more! Especially for cities in the US it is perfect to refer to a project in their own country. I had the impression that the designers had studied design examples from the Netherlands really well, but it has all become American now. Worth to be copied! Yes, things can be further improved, and not all the design details are perfect, but it is already possible to live a car-light life in a Midwestern small city in the US and I think that that is worth to be celebrated. To get a glimpse of Carmel yourself, I made a video. Enjoy!
PS
Some very special moments during my few days in Carmel were when Mr. AmericanFietser and I were recognized twice within 24 hours. While we were enjoying a light show at night, projected onto the facade of the Palladium, a young man approached us, asking about the cargo bike. After a little while, Mr. AmericanFietser tried to introduce me, but this young man said, “I know, you are Mark! You have a YouTube channel.” It left me quite speechless, almost 7,000 km from home. The following afternoon, another man approached Mr. AF and told him he relocated with his family to the area thanks to the videos on Mr. AmericanFietser’s channel. We both maybe don’t realize enough that we sometimes touch people with our videos and that they can even be life-changing for some. A humbling experience, but also an incentive to keep doing what we do!
Update 8 May 2024
I uploaded an extra video showing 52 minutes of riding around in the core of Carmel. It is not just those 6 blocks in the center where you can cycle nicely!
BICYCLE DUTCH 
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