The lack of connected side streets in southern Johnson County means that the busy 119th Street is the only alternative – either riding on street with traffic or on a very narrow sidewalk. Warren’s post includes a map of the detour.

This section of the Indian Creek Trail is scheduled to reopen in March of 2012.

More info here.

Get the details on OP Mass Facebook page.

The entire length of Lee’s Summit Road from 40 Highway to Colbern Road is being widened over the next several years, and most of it will have on-street bike lanes thanks to the City of KCMO.  Since the City of Lee’s Summit has a de facto policy against using bike lanes, their small segment at the southern end of the road was slated to have shoulders and sidepath trail.

Now the city has removed shoulders from the plan and replaced them a four-lane arterial road.  If you live, work, or ride in the City of Lee’s Summit, please stop by this important public meeting tonight:

Meeting details (Tues, March 29th, Lee’s Summit City):
City of Lee’s Summit, public meeting on Lee’s Summit Road
4-6 p.m., March 29, 2011
Oakwood Baptist Church, 7600 Lee’s Summit Road, Kansas City, Mo

If you can’t attend in person, please email smfrost@transystems.com with a message similar to this:

I strongly support on-street accommodations for bicycling on Lee’s Summit Road.  A road that has only a multi-use path is not a Complete Street and does not meet the needs of bicyclists.  It makes no sense to build Lee’s Summit’s portion of the road as a four lane road when Kansas City’s section will be a two lane road. It makes no sense to omit on-street bicycle accommodations from Lee’s Summit section of the road, when Kansas City is including them on its section.

Click for PDF

Blue Springs Parks and Recreation Director Roscoe Righter has a special in the The Examiner talking about the increasing popularity of bicycling, both nationally and in Blue Springs.  He also promises plans for expanding the city’s bike route network in 2011.

Blue Springs is a bit of the unsung hero of the local bike scene. It was one of the first metro cities to develop bike plans for both transportation and recreation, and one of the first with bike lanes. Blue Springs has been quietly expanding their trails and bike lanes over the years, and adding new facilities like bike lockers at transit park-and-ride lots. We can’t wait to see what they have in store for 2011!

Examiner: Is riding a bicycle becoming fashionable again?

Blue Springs bike map and plan (PDF).

Photo by Kansas Cyclist

Kansas Cyclist reports on brand new bike lanes on 127th Street in Olathe, and the promise of more to come.  It’s a great addition to Olathe’s large and growing network of bike lanes and trails.

Ed Kraemer, Livable Streets Lee’s Summit Chair, and Michael Park, City Traffic Engineer, made a great presentation of the plan and did a great job answering some very tough questions from City Councilmembers. The only dissenting vote was that of Councilman Bob Johnson, a real estate developer who repeatedly raised the red herring of being forced to build “expensive” bike lanes on small residential streets. Most Councilmembers were supportive and recognized the importance of a more bike/ped-friendly city for quality of life, sustainability, and economic competitiveness.

Kudos to Lee’s Summit for having the vision and courage to make a bold public statement about a better future for their community.  Who will follow Lee’s Summit’s lead? KCMO and Leawood are currently considering Complete Streets policies, and you can ask your own city to do the same. The Mid-America Regional Council has been feeling some pressure to adopt a regional policy, and the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation will be introducing a state-wide version when the General Assembly convenes in January.

If you are Lee’s Summit resident, please ask your mayor and city council to vote for Livable Streets on Thursday, and then come to the meeting at 6:15 p.m. to show your support.

Learn more about the Livable Streets policy at www.livablestreetsls.com or on Facebook.

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.