The City’s Public Works Department just announced that on Saturday Wyandotte Street will become a two-way street between 6th and 12th.

Over the last few years the city has been gradually converting Downtown’s mess of one-way streets into two-way streets. One-way streets have been proven to be more hostile and dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists.  They encourage motorists to drive faster and raised stress levels of motorists trying to navigate complicated street grids.

Kansas City’s two-way conversion compliments the many other investments that have been made to make Downtown more inviting everyone, and safer for pedestrians in particular.

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Continue reading ‘Yet another one-way street is being eliminated Downtown’ »

Today brings great news from City Hall. The Public Works Department has decided to switch all traffic signals in the Downtown Loop to an automatic pedestrian phase.  This means no more pushing a button to get a walk signal. It will take about three weeks for all signals to be fixed.

Let’s Go KC and partner organizations like the Downtown Neighborhood Association have been working for the past few months to stop the recent proliferation of pedestrian push buttons in the Loop. We know that many citizens have complained about this, and Councilmembers like Russ Johnson, Jan Marcason, and Bill Skaggs have made public comments about it.

Most big cities give pedestrians an automatic walk signal in downtown areas as a small but significant way to make cities more inviting for foot traffic.  It’s a key part of making a city more livable through the design of the transportation system. Let’s Go KC will keeping lobbying City Hall to get this new policy extended to other pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods like Westport, the Country Club Plaza, Brookside, etc.

The City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is currently considering applications for the next round transportation funding from the economic stimulus program, which goes by the acronym TIGER.

While all projects sound very worthy, their combined $340 million price tag is more than the $300 million expected to be available for the entire state of Missouri. The city and possibly suburban neighbors will have to make some hard choices about which projects or combination of projects is submitted to the Feds.  The US Department of Transportation criteria for selection includes long0-term impact, sustainability, livability, economic competitiveness, and safety.

Downtown Streetcar – proposed by the KCATA. 2.5 mile loop between the River Market and Crown Center. The hope is that up to $100 million in construction costs could be paid for by the feds and the operating costs paid for by an assessment on property along the route. This 2.5 mile segment is deemed the most likely to succeed from the recent light rail study.  The tracks would be built to accommodate light rail vehicles in the future. Streetcar presentation (PowerPoint).

Regional Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) - Proposed by the Mid-America Regional Council.  MAX service on Main Street and Troost Avenue would be expanded to four more Smart Moves corridors in Kansas City and the suburbs – North Oak, 40 Hwy, State Avenue, and Metcalf Avenue/Shawnee-Mission Parkway in Johnson County. Cost is estimated at $50-100 million.  A lack of ongoing operating money is a big weakness, especially for the two Kansas routes. BRT presentation (PDF).

Bicycle/Pedestrian Network – Proposed by the city’s Public Works Department.  The proposal would speed the build out of both on-street bike routes and multi-use trails, sidewalk construction and repair, crosswalks, curb cuts, and many ADA accessibility improvements.  The $45 million plan would have a strong emphasis would be placed on creating transportation corridors for bicycle and pedestrian commuters. Transforming Transportation for a Livable Kansas City (PDF).

Urban Transportation Safety Program - Another Public Works proposal includes $20 million in sidewalk improvements as part of a $97 million package for street resurfacing, traffic signals, etc. It would cover the city’s East Side, between the Missouri River and 103 Street, east of The Paseo. Presentation (PDF).

The T&I Committee’s blog has more information on these and other proposed projects. For even more context, archived video of the July 16th and 23rd committee meetings is online.

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.

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

Kansas City is feeling the crunch of the national recession, and needs to cut at least $80 million from the upcoming 2009-2010 budget.  This makes it more important than usual to speak up for transportation choice.  Over the next six weeks there will be a public hearing in each of the six City Council districts.  This is your chance to ask your elected representatives to make sure that transportation choice remains viable in Kansas City.

Here some specific items that are either in danger of cuts and/or things that are competing for funds:

• Bus service – The City Manager is proposing a 15% cut from the KCATA budget, just as more people are using and relying on public transit.
• Crosswalks – Paint for crosswalks was cut from the 2008-2009 budget and should be restored to protect pedestrian safety.

Find your Council District.

Budget Hearings:

The City of Kansas City is considering funding for four priority trail and bicycle projects, and public input is needed to let the city know that these projects are worthy of being funded.

• Update the Bike KC master plan
• Connect the Trolley Track and Indian Creek Trails
• Extend the Riverfront Heritage Trail along the Missouri River levee
• Build a new Shoal Creek Trail between KCMO and Gladstone

If you are a resident of the City of Kansas City, MO then please take a couple of minutes to send a letter to your representatives.

Tomorrow the KCMO Planning and Zoning Committee will have a public a hearing on a new zoning law that includes requirements for bike parking for new buildings.  Some real estate developers are opposed to bike parking, so we need your support to show that the public wants this.

If you live or work in the KCMO please send a quick letter online.

No matter where you live or work, come to City Hall to attend and/or testify at the hearing – Wednesday 1:30pm to 3:30pm on the 26th Floor, 12th and Oak. Help us pack the room and show how much support there is.

Great bike-friendly cities like Portland, Chicago, and Denver all started with bike parking as one of their first steps, and with your support so can Kansas City.

Let’s Go KC, the Missouri Bicycle Federation, and the City of Kansas City, MO are partnering for a much-needed project to conduct a traffic count of bicycle and pedestrian traffic at key locations throughout the city.  We need volunteers for two hours shifts to help with a count.  This has never been done before in Kansas  City, so getting an official count of bike/ped traffic is crucial for making the case for the city to spend money on bike lanes, trails, sidewalks, etc.

Volunteering will entail attending a one hour orientation session and spending two hours at an intersection with another volunteer.  We will supply instructions, forms, directions, etc. Counting will take place on Oct. 14 and 21, with orientations the evening before each count.

Sign up now to volunteer

Walk Score is a great web site that lets you calculate just how walkable your address is.  That is, how many services like groceries and barbers are within walking distance. Now they have calculated city-wide ratings for the top 40 US cities.  It’s no surprise that car-dependent Kansas City ranks a lowly number 34 with a walk score is only 44 out of 100.

However, there are several individual neighborhoods with really high walk scores.  They are mostly concentrated in the central corridor between Downtown and Brush Creek. Westport and the Plaza rank at the very top, with scores similar to Lincoln Park in Chicago or Manhattan in New York City. They key is that the Plaza/Westport area is the only place wtih high concentrations jobs, residences, and retail in close proximity. A few more neighborhoods in Brookside, Waldo, parts of the Northland also rank fairly high.

Over all, 38% of Kansas Citians live in neighborhoods considered “somewhat walkable” and just 14% live in “very walkable” locations.  Conversely, that means 62% of us are almost completely car dependent.

• National Rankings
• Kansas City neighborhood rankings
• City-wide map