Bike Plan faces vocal opposition at City Hall and fails to move forward. We need your help to show City Council that Kansas Citians want safer places to bike.
Thursday morning, BikeWalkKC and a number of our advocates and partners went to a City Council hearing to testify in support of the new KCMO Bicycle Master Plan. With the voices of our partners, along with letters of support and more than 400 petition signatures from the public, we were able to make a strong case for the adoption of the plan.
Unfortunately, several people spoke out against the bike plan and against investing in safer streets for people who bike. The committee did not take a vote on the plan, and so it is stuck at City Hall without moving forward.
Obviously, this is not the outcome we were expecting, but the key takeaway at this moment is that there is still time to make your voice heard. Your voice is critical to showing the City Council that there is more support than opposition to the Bike Plan and investing in safe places to bike.
We expect the plan will go back to City Council in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we need you to take three important actions:
- Speak Up – KCMO residents, please contact your Councilmember ASAP. If you can’t come to the meeting, we need you to reach out to your councilmembers and the mayor to tell them that you support the bike plan and you want them to do the same. You can use this link to send them an email or tweet, but that doesn’t need to be the end of it. Call them, request a meeting if you’d like. However you reach out, be respectful but firm in your bid for bikes (If you don’t live in KCMO, please sign the petition here).
- Spread the Word – This plan cannot pass with the support of one email, one tweet, one phone call, or even one meeting. It takes multiple people sharing their messages of why a more bikeable Kansas City is important to them. Ask your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers to join in as well. We need you and all of them to make your voices heard on this important issue.
- Show Up – We need people to show up to the rescheduled joint committee meeting to speak in favor of the plan. When we find out the date and time for the new meeting, we will share it with all of you. We need people to come to City Hall on that day to share their support for the bike plan.
The bike plan is so close to being adopted, and that’s why it matters now more than ever to make sure that the mayor and your councilmembers know that they must vote in support of it. BikeWalkKC will continue to push for the plan’s adoption, but we need your help to get it over the finish line.