Yesterday the KCMO City Council finally approved a complete overhaul of the city’s outdated planning/zoning/development regulations.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 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.

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.

Today’s KC Star features a “walking school bus” in Overland Park.  The idea is very simple – a group of parents and volunteers get together and escort kids to school.

The idea is part of the Safe Routes to School movement that encourages safe ways for kids to walk and bike school, something that has declined drastically over the years as new neighborhoods have been geared towards automobiles and kids are increasing driven to school by parents.

The Star features Pawnee Elementary in Overland Park, but school districts all over the metro area participate – KCMO, Park Hill, North Kansas City, KCK, Shawnee Mission, and many more.

• KC Star: More kids walk to and from school thanks to “walking school bus” program.
• KC Star video of walking school bus at Pawnee Elementary in Johnson County.
• KC Healthy Kids has info about regional Safe Routes to School programs, including how to get a walking school bus started at your child’s school.

On March 9th at 4:00 p.m. the city’s new Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee will hold its third meeting.   On the agenda this month are a presentation on the Bike Friendly Communities program, bike/ped counts, and discussion of the committee’s action plan for 2009-2010.  While no public testimony will be taken, the meeting is open to the public.  Location is the Garrison Community Center in the Columbus Park neighborhood, 1124 East 5th Street, Kansas City, MO.

On Tuesday, March 3rd the Missouri House Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on HB 642.  This bill would direct MoDOT to develop a policy for fairly accommodating all road users – bicyclists, pedestrians, transit users, the disabled, in addition to motorists.  HB 642 is a second attempt to pass a Complete Streets bill in Missouri.  Last year Complete Streets passed the House overwhelmingly, but was killed in the Senate after personal lobbying by MoDOT Director Pete Rahn.

Click here to send an email to the House Transportation Committee and tell them that you support HB 642.

Read the text of HB 642.

Learn more about Complete Streets.

Members of the House Transportation Committee.

Over the next few weeks the Kansas Department of Transportation is holding public meetings about the future of the transportation system on the Kansas side of the metro area.

Attending one of these meetings is a great way to let public officials and transportation planners know that citizens want more  choices for getting around – including public transit, bicycling, and walking.

Johnson County
Tuesday, February 24, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
MidAmerica Nazerene  University Bell Center
2030 East College Way
Olathe, KS 66062
JO Bus Route B

Wyandotte County
Tuesday, March 24, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
KCKS Community Colleges Conference Center
7250 State Avenue
Kansas City, KS 66112
Bus Route 101

More info, including meetings in outlying counties.

On Tuesday, February 17th several environmental groups from across Missouri will host the 2009 Conservation Lobby Day, and this year they are including transportation as a topic.  This is an excellent event for those of you who are interested in the environmental benefits of transit, bicycling, walking, passenger rail, etc. More information

And don’t forget Missouri Bicycle Federation’s 3rd Annual Bicycle Day at the Capitol on February 24th.  Bicyclists from all over Missouri will come to Jefferson City to talk to legislators about the recreational, health, transportation, and environmental benefits of bicycling. More information

I hope to see some of you in Jefferson City talking to our elected leaders about better policies to give Missourians real transportation choice!