Yesterday the KCATA’s bus cuts took effect.  The cuts are in response to two problems. 1)  a decline in the transit sales tax due to the recession.  2) an additional cut from the City of KCMO cut money from the bus system to pay for traffic lights. Compounding the problem, an ineffective lobbying effort failed to get emergency help from the Missouri General Assembly. The ATA says that the Google Transit trip planner has been updated with the new schedules.

The Star interviews some people affected by the cuts.

Details of reduced bus routes from the KCATA.

The City Council is currently working on a new policy to improve the city’s sidewalks.  Right now it is quite generic, but it does set a goal of bringing the sidewalks into good repair and sets up a systematic approach to inspecting and maintaining sidewalks. The new resolution is sponsored by Councilmembers Russ Johnson, Terry Riley, Cindy Circo, and John Sharp.

One caveat, this policy will focus on maintaining existing sidewalks.  Neighborhoods without any sidewalks will be the subject of another future effort.

Read more on the Council’s Transportation & Infrastructure blog.

Resolution 090500: “Directing the City Manager to establish a long-term, sustainable City-wide curb and sidewalk improvement program to improve the conditions of the City’s curbs and sidewalks to approved industry standard”.

Yesterday the KCMO City Council finally approved a complete overhaul of the city’s outdated planning/zoning/development regulations.  The new development code is a huge step towards more compact, sustainable, and multi-modal development.

Some highlights…

1. Pedestrian Zones: Ensures walkable streetscapes that are safe and inviting for pedestrians.
2. Reduced Parking Requirements: Businesses have to provide less parking -  facilitating redevelopment of older areas, paving less green space in new developments, and encourage more transit usage.
3. Bicycle Parking: new businesses and multi-family housing required to provide bicycle parking for visitors and customers, as well as enhanced bike parking for residents and employees.
4. Traffic Impact: developers must now study the impact on bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit users when their projects generate additional automobile traffic.

Read more about the development code…

The new code will start being phased in over six months and be fulling enforced in one year.  Advocates spent many hours negotiating with city staff and private developers, and many of you testified at public hearings or wrote letters to city officials.  All of that work paid off with a much better end result.

Tonight the Regional Transit Alliance will hold its annual meeting.  The featured speaker is Art Guzzetti, Vice President for Policy at the  American Public Transportation Association.

While the RTA did choose a venue with transit service, that stretch of State Line Road does not have sidewalks.  Bus riders and pedestrians will be forced to walk in the dirt along a busy five lane road to get to the building.

Reception: 5:00 p.m.
Program: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Alexander Majors Home
8201 State Line Road, Kansas City, MO
Details and registration

Tonight the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation is hosting a public meeting with the Missouri Transportation Alliance.  This is the private group putting together the next initiative petition for future MoDOT funding.  Most recently they led the successful Amendment 3 campaign.

Most of the group are the usual suspects of people who want new and bigger highways, so it is very important that they hear from Missourians who want some of MoDOT’s funding spent on transit, walking, bicycling, etc.  To date, tonight is the only meeting that MTA is holding in Kansas City.

Having a voice in the future of MoDOT funding is especially critical given recent news that MoDOT used taxpayers’ money to lobby against a Complete Streets bill that would have made them take alternative transportation more seriously.

Missouri Transportation Alliance Public Meeting
Tuesday, May 19th
5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Mid-America Regional Council, Broadway Room – First Floor
600 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO

Bicycle Parking is located on the northwest corner of the building.
Buses #106, #129, and #37 serve the location directly, and several routes are available at the 10th and Main Transit Center.

Motorist Orlando Gentry has received a three year prison sentence after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter of James Green.  Gentry ran over Gentry at 39th and 71 Hwy on November 14th, 2008. Unfortunately, the Star chooses to use the word “accident” its headline, even though crash was obviously avoidable.

KC Star: Driver in fatal hit-and-run “accident” is sent to prison.

This request comes from Deb Ridgway, KCMO’s Bike/Ped Coordinator. Getting an accurate measure of bicycle and pedestrian traffic is a critical first step for efforts to build more bike lanes, trails, and other facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians.  Please volunteer if you can.  The first count will occur in KCMO, and hopefully suburban cities will participate later this year.

In an effort to document the actual number of cyclists and pedestrians in Kansas City, the City of Kansas City, MO will be conducting a test run of the survey/counts national tool in April. We will participate in the National Survey in September with citywide coverage.

Counts/surveys will be done at three locations on two separate dates/times. We need a total of 12 volunteers; 2 people are needed for each location on each date.

Volunteers will be required to attend a training session. Volunteers will receive their assignments, survey packets and ID at the training.The training will take place, Wednesday, April 22nd, 4:30 – 5:30 PM at the KC Design Center, 1018 Baltimore.

Volunteers are needed for the following dates:
Thursday, April 23rd, 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Saturday, April 25th, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

Please email Allison Macon, Bike/Ped Data Collection Assistant if you are interested in volunteering with this project. Her email is: alii16@ku.edu.

Thanks so much for your support of this very important project.

Deb Ridgway, MSW
Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator
City of Kansas City, MO

This week we have two great pieces of news for transportation choice in Kansas City!

First, the federal economic stimulus is enabling MoDOT to speed up construction of a pedestrian/bicycle path over the Missouri River, on the Heart of America Bridge. By 2010 cyclists and pedestrians will have a safe and convenient way to cross the river.  See KCBike.Info for more details on this cool surprise.

Second, the debut of a new interactive map of park-and-ride lots in the KC metro area.  The RideShare map shows all of the park-and-ride lots and details about the bus routes that serve them.  It’s tied into Google Transit so you can quickly plan a bus ride from the parking lot to your destination.

This new map is much more user-friendly way for people to learn about transit options.  It’s a good start and hopefully in the future they will add direct links to bus route info and include details on bicycle parking facilities at each commuter lot.