The Mid-America Regional Council is currently developing a new long-range transportation plan for the Kansas City metro, and it includes a new land-use scenario that would encourage more compact, sustainable, and efficient development patterns.  The plan focuses new investments around existing infrastructure, which will help developing communities grow more efficiently and older communities redevelop more successfully. This new development model would facilitate better investment in sustainable transportation choices like transit, walking, and bicycling.  It is called the Adaptive Land Use Scenario.

While MARC has created a very good plan, local elected officials need to hear from constituents that there is public support for making the policy changes to implement this plan.  You can learn about the Adaptive Land Use Scenario in Transportation 2040 at one of these upcoming public meetings:

Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
7–8:30 p.m.
Johnson County Central Resource Library
9875 West 87th St., Overland Park, KS 66212
[Map] [Please RSVP]

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010
7–8:30 p.m.
Gladstone Community Center
6901 N. Holmes, Gladstone, MO 64118
[Map] [Please RSVP]

Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010
7–8:30 p.m.
Kansas City Public Library – Plaza Branch, Lower Level
4801 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64112
[Map] [Please RSVP]

Today the federal government announced billions of dollars in stimulus funds for high speed rail.  Over a billion dollars will go to upgrade the St. Louis to Chicago route to 110 mph. Missouri is also getting $31 million to upgrade the KC-St. Louis route to continue recent work to reduce travel times and increase reliability. That route needs a lot of work to get up to real high speed rail, so for now the state is working on projects to get the line ready for high speed rail in the future.

Kansas is also getting some money to plan for a new passenger rail service from Kansas City to Wichita, Oklahoma City, and Fort Worth, TX.

KC Light Rail has more details about today’s announcements.

Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders will discuss his plan for a regional commuter rail network across Jackson, Clay, Platte, and Wyandotte Counties.

Tuesday, January 26th at 11:45 a.m.
Central Exchange, 1020 Central Street, Downtown
Lunch included and registration required
$30 for non-Central Exchange members.

So  far few details have been released, so this is a chance to learn more and ask questions.

Check out this great article from the Washington Post on the problems that seniors are facing as they become too old to drive and find themselves becoming virtual shut-ins in the car-dependent suburbs. The narrowing of transportation options has a direct impact on the livability of their communities.

The generation that gave birth to suburbia and the two-car garage is reaching the age at which driving, for many, no longer seems like such a swell option…. “The concern is that when they no longer can drive, they will find themselves trapped in their homes in suburban neighborhoods where there are no sidewalks, or, if there are sidewalks, there’s no place to walk to”

While specific to the Washington, DC metro area, it certainly applies to Kansas City.  Seniors in KC are in an even tougher situation since our region lacks the suburban public transit network present in DC.  They also have many more walkable suburban town centers with services like groceries, doctors, shops, etc. in close proximity.

KC seniors who want to remain independent without driving are mostly limited to the Downtown/Plaza/Brookside corridor.  While there are a few fledgling possibilities in the suburbs (e.g. Zona Rosa, Downtown Lee’s Summit, or Prairie Village), these areas are islands unto themselves and lack the full range of services for shopping, health care, and entertainment.  Grocery stores and hospitals are usually beyond walking distance of even the best suburban downtown district.

Reforming our land use policies to encourage development of more mixed-use suburban town centers would give suburban seniors better options for “aging in place” in the communities where they have lived for decades.   Linking these suburban town centers with public transit would give seniors mobility around the metro area. People shouldn’t be uprooted from their existing social networks simply because they stop driving.

So far most efforts to dig out from the 2009 Christmas blizzard have focused on clearing streets for cars, trucks, and buses.  Most pedestrians are left to fend for themselves to navigate icy and snow-covered sidewalks.  Many end up walking in the street, often the only clear path available. Snow thrown aside by plows have left tall piles block many bus stops, again forcing people into the street to wait for the bus.

Many business districts like Downtown, the Plaza, and Brookside use private contractors to clear their sidewalks, but in residential areas it’s the property owners who are responsible for clearing their sidewalks.  The City has an ordinance on the books requiring sidewalks to be cleared, but doesn’t really have any personal to enforce it.

A pedestrian walking in West 39th Street at Pennsylvania Avenue.

Plowed snow blocking access to the Plaza MAX station on J.C. Nichols Parkway.

Lee’s Summit recently completed an updated Transit Demand Analysis (PDF) to determine what needs exist in the community, and what types of service are feasible.  Recommendations center around bolster the current express service to Downtown Kansas City and expanding the MetroFlex service that transports seniors and the disabled within the city.

The analysis found strong community demand for improved transit service in Lee’s Summit.  This fact should encourage city leaders to take a more active role in planning for a regional bus and rail system in the Missouri suburbs.  Lee’s Summit already has a leading role in planning for a combined rail and trail corridor on the old Rock Island Line, and is working with neighbors to secure funds to purchase it.

Identified transit needs in Lee’s Summit:

Commutes to Downtown KCMO
The current #152X Raytown/Lee’s Summit route was expanded in 2008. Additional needs include new express routes from the western and eastern parts of the city, plus a mid-day service to improve the flexibility and convenience of the service.

Commutes within Lee’s Summit
There is no fixed-route service for residents who work within the community.  Dispersed housing and employment centers will be a huge challenge for addressing this need.

Senior and disabled service
Population growth and dispersal are increasing the need for more service over a larger area. As of January 2010 the #252 MetroFlex service will increase hours and cover a larger territory of Lee’s Summit, providing better access to medical care, shopping, etc.

Reverse Commutes
Service into Lee’s Summit from other cities is difficult since the #152 express only stops at a park-and-ride lot, and there is no intra-city service to transfer people to their workplaces.

Commutes to other suburbs
Demand is growing for service to Johnson County, especially the College Boulevard corridor.

Additional data:

70% of Lee’s Summit residents work outside of the city, yet the southeast suburbs have the least amount of transit service in the metro area.

Lee’s Summit only spends 30% of the federal transit money available to it, even though a quirk of its Census designation means that the city’s local match is much less than other metro suburbs. This means modest local investments could have a huge impact.

3% of people who work in Downtown KC use the #152X bus.  5% would be a realistic goal in the near term.

A new analysis of data from the federal economic stimulus reveals that investment in public transit has produced almost twice as many jobs as the investment in highways.  Every $1 billion spent on roads and highways resulted in about 8,700 months of work.  For transit, it was over 16,000 months of work for the same investment.

Locally, jobs-rich transit projects are getting very little of the available money. In Missouri, 11% of the stimulus went to transit.  In Kansas it’s only 8% for transit. To be fair to MoDOT and KDOT, much of the funding distribution was determined by federal formulas and not state discretion.

The main criteria for the transportation stimulus was 1) speed of construction and 2) number of jobs created/retained. This new report shows that any future stimulus program should make a bigger investment in transit in order to maximize its job creation and retention benefits.  It also indicates that state and local governments could better stimulate their economies by increasing local investments in transit systems.

Analysis Finds that Funding Public Transit Creates More Jobs Than Funding Highway Projects
by Center for Neighborhood Technology, Public Interest Research Group, and Smart Growth America.

MoDOT ARRA projects (PDF)

KDOT ARRA information

MoDOT and the Union Pacific Railroad recently opened a new rail siding in the town of California, just west of Jefferson City.  The new track allows long freight trains to move off the main so Amtrak passenger trains can pass.  It’s one of many projects to reduce delays, improve speeds, and lay the foundation for future high speed service between KC and St. Louis.

Ongoing efforts to improve Amtrak service across Missouri just resulted in 100% on time performance during the busy Thanksgiving week.

The River Runner morning trains depart KC and St. Louis at 7:30 a.m. and arrive at 1:10 p.m. in the opposite city. The evening trains leave each city at 4:30 p.m. and arrive at  9:40 p.m.

Johnson County Transit is experimenting with a new weekend service to the Country Club Plaza for shopping and viewing the Plaza lights.  The new Route 901 runs every 20 minutes on Friday nights and Saturday/Sunday afternoons and evenings.  The service starts at the NE JoCo offices at Martway and Lamar in Mission, and the fare is a cheap $1. The pilot project runs through December 27th.

It will be interesting to see how The JO’s foray into evening/weekend service works. Hopefully it leads to expanded service in the future.

JO Route 901 info, map, and timetable.

Taking the bus is a great way to avoid the traffic jams and garage queues at the Country Club Plaza lighting ceremony.  The KCATA will be running extra MAX service, every 15 minutes, between 4:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Park-and-ride lots are located at 3rd and Grand in the River Market and 74th and Wornall in Waldo. MAX will be diverted from its regular Plaza station, and stopping at 47th and Main Streets instead.

Other buses also serve the Plaza, but will be running on reduced holiday schedules.  The #51-Broadway bus runs once an hour from the park-and-ride lot at Ward Parkway mall, 89th and State Line Road, or the 10th and Main Transit Center.  The #57-South Oak runs once per hour from 3rd and Grand.

See the KCATA rider bulletin for more information.