UPDATE: City Council approved the Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan on Aug. 25, 2022!
The new KCMO Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan (CPRP) will guide City Hall’s efforts to combat climate change. BikeWalkKC served on the steering committee to ensure transportation and mobility were fundamental parts of the plan, and we are now asking you to help us ensure the City Council adopts the plan.
Click here to support the CPRP!
City staff, the Climate Protection Steering Committee, sustainability experts, and the public have been working to shape the CPRP over the last several months. They have worked to develop and strengthen broad themes around the city’s sustainability efforts as well as identifying short-, medium-, and long-term strategies on a number of fronts, including transportation.
The CPRP correctly identifies transportation as the city’s leading source of greenhouse gas emissions and notes that the “fastest way to reduce our transportation-related emissions is to drive less by choosing to walk, bike, or ride transit instead,” in addition to electric vehicles.
The plan further outlines several important strategies for the city to take to better support multimodal transportation, including:
- Shifting trips to biking and walking by building more accessible routes,
- Shifting trips to transit through a more reliable system and developing mobility hubs, and
- Reducing vehicle miles traveled through dense development.
The plan isn’t perfect, but it goes a long way towards setting a strong foundation for KCMO to build upon as it works to lower emissions and improve resiliency. There is also a built-in component for evaluation of how strategies are implemented and an opportunity to update and strengthen the document as needed down the line.
BikeWalkKC dedicated months of time and energy to represent people who walk, bike, and roll on the steering committee. We support this plan and will work to help implement the transportation-related goals as well as work with our partners in the climate movement to hold City Hall accountable. But before any of that can happen, we need your help to get it over the finish line.
Here are three simple actions you can take today:
- Send a message to the mayor and your councilmembers asking them to vote for the plan,
- Share this with your friends and neighbors who walk, roll, bike, and use transit, and
- Join us at City Hall on Wednesday, August 24th at 9am to speak in favor of Resolution #220596!
The Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan gives us a key opportunity to not only prioritize active transportation in Kansas City, but also to take real steps to avert the worst effects of climate change today and tomorrow.