Let’s Go KC

Just everyone else who has chosen to depend on automotive transportation, school districts are facing the problem of how to deal with rising fuel costs.  For the first time ever, the Blue Springs School District expects to spend more on fuel for schools buses than it spends on the actual buses. It is a problem that is sure to hit all school districts in the metro soon, and then hit taxpayers when the schools ask for more operating money.

One solution is to get kids out of the buses and onto their own two feet. It used to be that most kids walked or biked to school, and buses were used only for kids living in the country. Now only 16% of American kids walk or bike school, and schools maintain giant fleets of buses to transport kids short distances. Even worse, many suburbs have chosen to make it difficult and dangerous for kids to walk or bike to school.  Many neighborhoods lake sidewalks and many schools are located on busy roads.

There is a national movement called Safe Routes to School that seeks to reverse this situation. The Federal government even provides grants for cities and schools to implement educational problems and build sidewalks. For information getting money for your community, check out the Mid-America Regional Council.

Instead of spending our tax money putting fuel into dinosaur school buses, lets spend some of it on building sidewalks, crosswalks, bike racks, etc.

Photo by Chuong Doan

Today city officials and Northeast neighborhood leaders conducted a ceremonial closing of Cliff Drive.  As part of a new Car-Free Cliff Drive program, the historic road will be closed to automobile traffic and become the exclusive domain of pedestrians and bicyclists every weekend until October. Cliff Drive is also undergoing a big renovation to enhance its charms even more in the future.

With this historic move, Kansas City joins the ranks of other world cities that are closing streets to promote healthy, family-friendly activities in the public space. If this test proves successful and popular, the city could expand it to include car-free days in other areas.  Just imagine how pleasant the Country Club Plaza could be without the steady stream of cars and SUVs…

It all started in Bogota, Columbia where every Sunday over 60 miles of city streets are closed and become open air festival of walking, jogging, bicycling, music, families, etc. It’s called Ciclovia, and it has spread all over the world.

Car-Free Cliff Drive will start on Fridays at 2:00 p.m. and continue until 8:00 a.m. on Monday.  If Friday or Monday is a holiday, then the closure starts on Thursday or lasts until Tuesday. To really get enjoy car-free, think about getting there on foot or by bicycle.  If it’s too far away, take the bus.  The Metro #30 Northeast route is your best bet.  Take it to Lexington and Brooklyn and walk two blocks to the entrance near the old reservoir, or go to St. John and Elmwood walk four blocks north the drive’s eastern entrance.

For more information:

• More photos of the ceremony
• Cliff Drive information
• About Ciclovia
• StreetFilms video of Ciclovia in Bogota

Prairie Village, KS is planning for improving and enhancing 75th Street. One of the things that residents are asking for is a better environment for pedestrians, including slowing traffic and adding space the between sidewalks and the street.

• KC Star: Prairie Village listens to ideas for 75th Street.
• Village Vision 75 planning project.

Continue reading ‘Prairie Village to enhance 75th Street’ »

We need your support for a safe bike/pedestrian crossing on the Paseo Bridge by having your presence at the ground breaking Friday, April 18 at 2 pm. Ride your bike, walk, run or take transit to the ceremony. MoDOT and Senator Kit Bond will be there.

Paseo Bridge Ground-Breaking Ceremony
Friday, April 18, 2:00 p.m.
Isle of Capri Casino parking lot
1870 East Front Street, Kansas City, MO 64120 (map/directions)

• Bike there: A group of cyclists will ride 1.5 miles from the KCATA park-and-ride lot at 3rd and Grand, leaving promptly at 1:40 p.m.
• Bus there: The Isle of Capri is served by Metro bus #173 - Casino Cruiser. It leaves the 10th & Main Transit Center at 1:41 p.m. and arrives at the casino at 1:50 p.m. The return bus leaves at 3:08 p.m.  Route map and schedule (PDF).
• Walk there: The Isle of Capri is walkable from Berkley Riverfront Park, via the Riverfront Heritage Trail.

Can’t attend the ceremony? You can still make your voice heard by participating in a letter writing campaign. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes.

Background:
Work is being done to design and get funding for the Paseo bridge bike/ped ramps that MODOT said has to happen to get them to complete the bike/ped lane on the bridge. There are 2 separate KCMO council resolutions asking for it and a regional River Crossing Policy that recommends it. KCMO is committed to it and MODOT needs to see that they must stand behind their agreement to finish the bike/ped lane on the bridge deck if other agencies can get the connecting ramps there.

More Paseo Bridge information at KCBike.Info

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.

Prevention Magazine recently published a ranking of America’s best walking cities.  Kansas City ranks #71 nationally, and #1 in Missouri. These kinds of rankings are highly suggestive, so take it with a grain of salt.

The magazine’s web site is really difficult to navigate, so here are some highlights…

From some of the explanations it sounds like the ranking methodology includes transit usage, people who walk to work, people who walk for exercise, business within walking distance, amount of parkland, and automobile ownership rates. For example, Columbia has the state’s highest rate of walking to work, yet a smaller park system seems to rank below suburban sprawl cities like St. Peters.

KMBC-TV 9 reports that a pedestrian was seriously injured after being hit be an 18-wheeler on Front Street, under the Paseo Bridge (I-35/29). The report says that the pedestrian was walking in the street, which is should not be surprising since this location has no sidewalks.

After four months, the Jackson County Prosecutor has finally filed charges in the November hit-and-run killing of a woman in a Midtown crosswalk. 21 year-old Jordan Fugate was driving drunk on a revoked license which she killed  64-year-old Frances Liebisch . The charge is involuntary manslaughter.  No hearings are scheduled at this time, but you can follow developments on Missouri Case Net by searching for case number 0816-CR00994.

Charges in pedestrian death
Kansas City Star, March 2nd, 2008

A 21-year-old Northland woman has been charged with driving drunk and killing a pedestrian in midtown last November.

Prosecutors allege that Jordan Fugate was driving with a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit when her car struck 64-year-old Frances E. Liebisch as she walked across Broadway at Knickerbocker Place on Nov. 6. Fugate was charged with involuntary manslaughter and driving with a revoked license.

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

Continue reading ‘New York starts “Safe Routes for Seniors”’ »