This week our neighbors on the other side of the state celebrated the opening of the new Gateway Transportation Center, a multimodal facility that serves as the hub Amtrak intercity trains, Greyhound intercity buses, and local bus and light rail. The center is located at 14th and Hwy 40, just a block south of the Scottrade arena and a block east of Union Station.

Even though light rail is on hold here in KC, St. Louis shows us that we still have a lot of room to improve our existing transportation system and its scattered facilities. Right now we have a bus hub is at 10th & Main, but Amtrak is a mile south at Union Station and Greyhound is a mile east at 11th and Troost.  To make matters even worse, there is no single bus route that connects all three, not even the flagship MAX..  Someone needing to transfer between Amtrak and Greyhound would need to take two different buses to get there.

As our three Missouri counties move forward with the Smart Moves regional transit plan, we need to be considering ways to connect all of our transit systems and provide seemless transfer between each one.

Flickr photo by Scutter.

Yesterday the city did something virtually unheard of here, it took public space from the automobile and reallocated it to people.  The Parks & Rec Board approved a plan to close Cliff Drive on weekends and create a car-free recreation and fitness opportunity for pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders, rollersbladers, dogwalkers, etc. The closure will be in effect Friday afternoons through Monday mornings starting May 16 and running through the end of October.  If all goes well, it could lead to car-free days in other parks and maybe even a boulevard or two in the future.

Car-free days are becoming commonplace in parks and boulevard all over the world.  Just a few examples include Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, Central Park in New York City, and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. In the South American city of Bogota, Columbia, most of the city’s main streets become car-free on Sundays.

Cliff Drive is an oasis of nature in the middle of Missouri’s largest city. It is one of the original parts of the city’s famed boulevard system, as well as Missouri’s only urban scenic byway. It’s a four mile long road along the limestone bluffs high above the Missouri River. It is a centerpiece of Old Northeast Kansas City, the historic neighborhoods east of Downtown and north of Independence Avenue.

In New York City, senior citizens make up a disproportionate share of pedestrian injuries and fatalities.  In response, the city’s Department of Transportation has started a Safe Routes for Seniors program.  They have analyzed crash data to identify the most dangerous streets and intersections.  Two dozen neighborhoods will be targeted for improvements like longer crossing lights, re-striped crosswalks, and pedestrian refuge islands in the middle of intersections.

New York Daily News: Safer walks plotted for seniors

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