Road Diets like this one in NYC shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians, reduce all crashes, and can make space for bike lanes.
This morning the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the KCMO City Council heard a presentation from the department of public works on a recently completed road diet analysis. The analysis was prompted by a council resolution adopted in December that called for an analysis of all of the city’s undivided streets with four or more lanes for potential lane reductions.
Check out this page for more info about why road diets are a great thing.
A summary of the analysis
Of the city’s 630 four plus lane streets, the analysis identified 130 streets that met the high-level criteria for road diet potential (fewer than 20,000 cars per day and under 1,000 cars per hour at peak). Of these 46 were good candidates for immediate restriping but only one, Leeds Trafficway, is slated for resurfacing this year (the most cost-effective way to conduct restriping). No funding has been identified to accelerate the restriping of the other 45 streets. However, the analysis should make it easier for citizen advocates and neighborhood groups to secure PIAC funding for road diets. Additionally, public works staff underscored the need to accelerate these street overhauls and provided a quick cost estimate of $10,000 per block to simply restripe a safer street cross section.
The official list has not yet been made public. There will be a link to view it here once it is available.
Thanks to the city
A big nod goes to the city for leading this effort. This marks a huge transition in the public works culture toward calmer, safer, and more livable streets. All of the credit goes to the city for what will be the first step in transforming our communities into walkable places.
So please, take a few moments to use social media, email, or formal letter to thank City Council, the director of Public Works, and the City Manager for taking this very important step toward a more walkable and bikeable KC.
Also, stay tuned for further analysis on the matter and BikeWalkKC’s suggested next steps on the road diet resolution.