Leawood going for Bike Friendly Community designation
4 Comments Published July 1st, 2009 in Advocacy, planning, suburbsThe suburb of Leawood, KS is looking to become more bike friendly and is planning to apply to the League of American Bicyclists for a Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) designation. Leawood’s goal is part of growing local movement. Lee’s Summit, MO is also working towards a BFC application. Shawnee, KS already has a Bronze BFC designation, and KCMO has the huge goal of achieving Platinum level by 2020.
4 Responses to “Leawood going for Bike Friendly Community designation”
- 1 Pingback on Jul 7th, 2009 at 11:30 am
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I live in Shawnee, and I suppose it is friendly to cyclists. There are some bicycle lanes, and trails. However, there does not seem to be any emphasis on bicycle parking. Shopping centers should be required to have bicycle racks. Prairie Village has at least one bicycle lane, and its main shopping center has a bicycle rack. I’m not sure if this is by city mandate or was the choice of Highwoods, who owned the center until recently. If Shawnee wanted to make its city more bicycle friendly, it would promote mixed use infill projects on its east side. The shopping center at the northeast corner of 75th and Quivira would be an excellent candidate, since it is already near high-density (by suburban standards) apartment housing.
I just started to get into bicycling for fitness a bit ago and as I have gotten into shape I find myself wanting to ride as a way of getting around. The costs of making a small community bicycle friendly seem so high though. I wonder if there are smaller steps that would work in my smaller town. They barely pave the roads straight here in Harrisonville so bike lanes and mixed use trails are a laughable concept.
Bike racks in commercial areas would be a great start though. Seems like a cheap way for the city to make thing accessible for those using their bikes to run errands.
Of course any good riding areas on the south part of the city is good for me even if I do have to drive my bike up to get started.
I think commercial centers would benefit from adding bicycle racks, but they will need some encouragement. The lack of legal bicycle parking is rather frustrating.