Tomorrow KCMO City Manager, Troy Schulte, will introduce to city council a proposal to put an $800 million general obligation bond on the ballot. We have known the general theme of the bond for a while but the council hearing should bring to light some more details. Mr. Schulte’s presentation will include a list of general recommendations for spending categories as well as a few specific high priority projects. This will also be the point at which city staff will officially hand off the G.O. Bond to council to begin crafting the actual ballot language.
This is a very important issue for supporters of active transportation—a proposal to spend $800 million on infrastructure projects is an opportunity to dedicate much needed funding to sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails.
Here’s how we think the G.O. Bond can make the city more accessible, healthy, and equitable:
- Expand and implement BikeKC – the long underfunded bicycle plan
- Allocate funding to a sidewalk program that doesn’t pin the cost on homeowners and also addresses dangerous and inaccessible intersections
- Expand and implement the Road Diet plan to quickly and inexpensively make streets safer
- Dedicate funding to hasten TrailsKC buildout we’ve seen progress but it’s been slow
- No new roads – the focus of all transportation related spending ought to be on making our existing streets safer
Over the next week we will provide more detail to each of these recommendations and give you some guidance on how you can get involved. So stay tuned!
For now, check out successes from other cities:
Infrastructure Bonds:
- Austin, TX Mobility Bond (Approved by voters on 11/8/16) – $720m bond total with $137m going to active transportation
- Oakland, CA Measure KK (Approved by voters on 11/8/16) – $600m bond total with $350m to bikes, sidewalks, traffic calming, and street resurfacing
- Atlanta Infrastructure Bond (Approved by voters 3/17/15) – $250m bond total with $33m going to complete streets and $12.5m to sidewalks
Other Ballot Measures:
- Los Angeles Measure M (Approved by voters on 11/8/16) – New transit sales tax will raise $860m annually for bike/ped in LA County
- Sound Transit ST3 (Seattle, approved by voters on 11/8/16) – New property tax will raise $54b for regional rail and will fund new bike and pedestrian improvements serving transit stations