Cyclist voting inside the Westport-Roanoke Community Center in Midtown.

Yesterday’s election was a good one for cycling. For the first time the bicycle and pedestrian community became organized and asserted itself as an important constituency. Six of twelve incoming City Council members were endorsed by the KC Coalition for Walking and Bicycling. With the addition of Mark Funkhouser as Mayor we will have a majority on the council!

Only two of our endorsed candidates lost, both to opponents who also turned in good answers to our questionnaires. So in total we have at least 9 of 13 council members who are supportive of bike/ped issues.

Going forward we just have to hold these folks to their words and keep up the pressure on City Hall to improve policies and infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. Many of the candidates had some good ideas, so it will be very interesting to see what happens over the next year or so.