BikeWalkKC has the details . . .

Rosedale Walking School Bus

Tonight the Kansas City, KS/Wyandotte County Board of Commissioners will vote on a Complete Streets resolution, so that someday soon these kids in Rosedale will sidewalks upon which to walk to school.

The Commission meeting is tonight at 7:00 p.m.  Rosedale Healthy Kids Initiative is organizing a show of force in the audience, and BikeWalkKC is leading a ride to KCK City Hall.  Get all the details here.

The Livable Streets resolution is a sort of capstone to several different polices and plans that are already moving the city forward towards becoming safer and easier to navigate by whatever mode of transportation people choose.

• Bike KC and Trails KC master plans.
• 2020 Platinum Level Bike Friendly Community.
• Walkability plan.
• Development code and parking regulation reform.
• Updated Major Street Plan based on Complete Streets concepts.
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
• Climate Protection Plan.
• City Sustainability Plan.
• FOCUS KC master plan.

Kansas City now joins Lee’s Summit as the second metro community with a Complete Streets policy, and becomes the eighth city in Missouri.  The resolution was introduced by 4th District At-Large Councilmember Beth Gottstein and co-sponsored by Cathy Jolly, Melba Curls, Jan Marcason, John Sharp, Sharon Sanders-Brooks, Cindy Circo, Terry Riley, and Mayor Funkhouser.

Read the full text of the Livable Streets resolution.

As I type this, crews are painting Armour Boulevard with KC proper’s first ever sharrows, shared lane markings that are increasing common in other cities to designate bike routes on streets that don’t have room for or aren’t busy enough to have full bike lanes.

The Armour sharrows are the first part of a bigger project to pilot test retrofitting bike routes on streets in the urban core. The Armour sharrows are between Broadway Boulevard and The Paseo. Benton Boulevard between Independence Avenue and Swope Parkway will be the next location for sharrows, likely after the first of the year.

This comes less than a month after North Kansas City became the first metro city to use sharrows on Swift Avenue leading to/from the new Heart of America Bridge bike/ped path.

KCBike.Info’s previous coverage:

• Bike routes coming to the central city on Armour and Benton Boulevards.
• North Kansas City installing metro’s first sharrows.

Click to zoom

Wednesday evening is your first chance to see the plan for adding bike lanes to Cleaver Boulevard just east of the Country Club Plaza – 4:30-6:30 pm at the Paseo High School cafeteria, 4747 Flora Ave, Kansas City, MO

A good show of public support is critical for ensuring that the Parks Department includes bike lanes in the final design of a much bigger project to revamp Cleaver Boulevard with a road diet, new sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, and bioretention of stormwater runoff. The initial project runs from Rockhill Road to The Paseo.

Get more details from Let’s Go KC.

Photos by Steve Rhoades.

Sharrows, or share lane markings, are a relatively new invention designed to signify a bike route on streets that don’t need or can’t fit full bike lanes.  NKC’s sharrows are on Swift Avenue, from the Heart of America Bridge bike/ped all the way to the city’s northern border with KCMO, Swift connects with a future BikeKC route on North Cherry Street.

The only caveat to this news is that Swift Ave is lined with head-in angle parking, so  cyclists need to be cautious for vehicles back out of parking spaces and into our path of travel.  Hopefully a successful implementation of sharrows will give NKC the confidence try converting Swift to back-in angle parking, which is much safer for bicyclists as well as motorists and pedestrians.

Lawrence Bike Rideability Map

If you’re heading out to Lawrence this weekend for Octoginta or roller races, the city has a new bike map (PDF) just for you. The Lawrence Bike Rideability Map (PDF) breaks down the city’s streets into three categories of good, OK, and bad.

Hat tip to Ride Lawrence.

Tonganoxie Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan (PDF).
Tonganoxie Mirror: Council to consider trails plan.

(Hat tip to Kansas Cyclist)

Livable Streets Lee’s Summit is a new city/community partnership working to make sure the rapid growth in this southeast suburb keeps the city livable for people by incorporating all roadway users into the growing transportation system

The group is already tackling a couple of very big initiatives – Complete Streets and the Bicycle Friendly Community designation.  Complete Streets is a public policy movement to make sure all new and rebuilt streets are inclusive of all users – motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, the disabled, children, elderly, etc.  Bicycle Friendly Community is the League of American Bicyclist’s program to recognize bike friendly cities.  Shawnee, KS is the first and only metro city to have a BFC designation so far.

Livable Streets Lee’s Summit has also begun some education and encouragement activities with their WIBIs – Walk In  Bike In events.  The next one is on June 31st when anyone arrives at Sheridan’s by bike or foot gets a discount.

Lee’s Summit is quickly emerging as a metro area leader in the livability movement.  The city already has a dense, mixed-use Downtown served by Amtrak and someday commuter rail.  Plus, Lee’s Summit’s extensive recreational trail systems serves as a great starting point for a more transportation-focused bikeway network.  If you live in or near the city, be sure to check out Livable Streets Lee’s Summit at www.livablestreetsls.com and on Facebook.