The City of KCMO is updating the 2001 Bike KC master plan. Your input is needed to help the City decide which of the planned bike routes are best served by bike lanes, trails, sharrows, signed bike routes, or perhaps even innovative new facilities like cycle tracks or buffered bike lanes.
The original plan identified more than 600 miles of bike routes across the city, but it lacked some important engineering details to specify exactly what types of facilities should go on specific streets. This slowed the implementation of the plan, and led to many missed opportunities. An updated plan with full engineering details will be a big boost the pace of bike facility progress in KCMO.
Public Meetings
June 18th – Northland, Mid-Continent Public Library North Oak Branch
June 20th – Southland, Brush Creek Community Center
Drop in anytime between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Presentations will occur at 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
If you want to see the City pick up the pace of building bike lanes, trails, and other new facilities, then please plan to stop by one of these public meetings. A strong show of public support is critical!
Cycletracks, buffered bike lanes, and bike boxes are some of the innovative new designs that could be incorporated into the KCMO bike plan if there is strong public support from people like you!
More information
The City's Public Works Department has been seeking funding for several years to update the bike plan. BikeWalkKC strongly supports this request and worked hard to educate the City Council about the need. This the year the Council finally allocated $80,000, from the general budget and the 4th District capital improvements fund. This is actually a very small amount for a plan of this scope – St. Louis' new bike master plan had a $280,000 project.
The KC plan will be lean and mean! The small budget means that the update is limited to the routes on the existing plan. This update won't be able to consider adding new routes to the bike network or making significant changes to the current routes. However, it will attempt to incorporate some of the bike route changes included in recent updates to several neighborhood Area Plans. This makes it even more important for citizens to speak up and participate in the process to ensure the updated plan is as great as possible.
BikeWalkKC is working to be your voice in the bike plan process. Executive Director Eric Rogers chairs the City's Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Communications Director Sarah Shipley is also serving on a special community stakeholders committee overseeing the update.