Learn about City Hall’s plans for bike lanes on The Paseo and support a high-quality design that provides maximum protection and comfort for people on bikes
The City of KCMO is planning to install bike lanes along The Paseo, potentially creating the region’s longest on-street bikeway and providing new mobility options to neighborhoods with high disparities in transportation access and health outcomes. Tonight is the first of several public meetings where you can learn more, provide your input, and support this important project.
Thursday, May 31 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. (TONIGHT)
Gregg/Klice Community Center, 1600 John Buck O’Neil Way
Tuesday, June 5 from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
The Robert J. Mohart Multipurpose FOCUS Center, 3200 Wayne Avenue
Thursday, June 21 from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
Center High School (Gym), 8715 Holmes Road
More Information
Here some of the specific things that BikeWalkKC would like to see incorporated into the design to ensure The Paseo bike lanes become a high-quality bikeway with the maximum possible safety and comfort.
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Err on the side of greater protection – this is an opportunity to bypass the interim design deployed on Grand Boulevard in Downtown, and get it right from the start.
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Create physical separation between bikes and cars – The KCMO Park Department is hesitant to use physical barriers like flex posts or other vertical elements to protect bikeways along Boulevards. Unlike the new bike lanes on Armour Boulevard, much of Paseo has relatively light usage of the on-street parking except on Sundays. As a result, on-street parking won’t provide much protection without some vertical separation.
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Use excess roadway capacity to build a high quality bike path – KCMO Parks is already planning to build a fully separated trail on the northern end of The Paseo, between Cliff Drive and Admiral Blvd. The Paseo bikeway project is an opportunity to continue this type of bike path south all the way to 18th St. at a much lower cost by re-allocating excess roadway space.
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Put the entire length of Paseo on a road diet – Like many of KCMO’s large streets, Paseo’s traffic is pretty low volume but high speed. Cutting down on the existing travel lanes would go a long way to taming the traffic and making it easier for pedestrians to cross.
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Prioritize the heavier construction first – For much of Paseo the bike lanes could be added the next time the street is resurfaced without significant extra cost. But for some sections — the bike path between Admiral and 18th, for example — may require some more substantial construction. Building that first would make use of the $700,000 in federal funding that is currently available for The Paseo.
Can’t attend the public meetings?
At this time the three scheduled public meetings are the only opportunities that City Hall has announced for the public to learn about and comment on the project. We anticipate they will eventually provide project information and input options on line, but we do not know when that may happen.
For more information please contact Joseph Blankenship in the City Planning Department, joseph.blankenship@kcmo.org.