Missouri Bicycle News Article

The campaign to Put People on Paseo by including a separated bicycle/pedestrian path on the new interstate freeway bridge near downtown Kansas City Missouri--creating the first good, safe bicycle/pedestrian crossing of the Missouri River in the Kansas City area--has generated some questions.

Here are some answers:

Q: Doesn't it cost too much? $4 million is a lot of money!

In fact, the opportunity with the Paseo Bridge Bicycle/Pedestrian Path is to save a lot of money.

This project saves money in two ways:

• Thanks to advocacy by thousands of KC area citizens, MoDOT has agreed to provide 10 feet of deck space on the bridge for the bike/ped path. That is the most expensive part of any bridge crossing. If we do not come up with the additional $4 million to connect the bike/ped system to the bridge deck, that 10 feet of space will simply go to waste.
  


• If we make the connection to the bridge deck now, MoDOT will re-configure the lanes on the entire bridge to accommodate the path during initial construction. This involves shifting over every lane and shoulder a little bit.
  
  If this is not done now, then shifting all those lanes and barriers over later will be very expensive and it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to get necessary approvals.

In short, the opportunity is to build the bicycle/pedestrian crossing now and save a lot of money.

How much?

Omaha recently built a bicycle/pedestrian river bridge at a cost of $22 million.

We can complete this bike/ped crossing for only $4 million more. That gives an idea of how much the bridge deck space is worth.

And how much we'll be throwing away if we don't complete the bike/ped crossing now.

Q: Wouldn't $4 million be better spent building many miles of trails across the entire metro area?

The Kansas City metro area already has many miles of trails.

But you notice the area still doesn't have anything like a trail system. Instead, it's a mile here and two miles there, a trail here and a bike lane over there.

In short, Kansas City has no network.

The reason is because Kansas City never tackles the hard parts--the barriers.

The bigger the barrier, more expensive it is to bridge it. And the Missouri River is the biggest barrier of all, to bicycle and pedestrian travel in the Kansas City area.

Cities that have successfully built trails system, and that have successfully increased the number of bicycling and walking trips, have made the most progress by tackling those biggest, most expensive barriers first.

And precisely because it bridges the biggest barrier, a river bridge gets much higher usage than a similar length of trail.

It costs far more, but it is also used far more.

Q: Aren't bicyclists and pedestrians prohibited on interstate freeways?

A: The proposal is to create a bicycle/pedestrian path on the bridge, separated from the interstate freeway by a concrete barrier and fence.

This is not only legal and allowed, it is very commonly done on interstate freeway bridges in urban areas. Because it is barrier separated, the bike/ped path is not considered part of the freeway itself.

MoBikeFed has compiled a very long list of interstate freeway bridges that include bicycle/pedestrian paths. It is very commonly done--almost universal for river bridges within metro areas these days, unless another existing bridge already provides identical bicycle/pedestrian access.

Q: Isn't a bicycle/pedestrian path on the interstate freeway bridge dangerous?

A: It's not like we are asking people to run around in the middle of freeway traffic. This is a separated bicycle/pedestrian path, with a concrete barrier and fence between the path and the rest of the bridge.

This concrete barriers are designed to keep even errant semi-trucks from crossing them. They are the same type of concrete barriers currently lining the Paseo Bridge, which keep traffic from dropping off into the river below.

Have you heard of any cars driving through those barriers and falling into the river?

The statistics bear this out. John Thomas of Alta Planning+Design, who has studied this issue, writes, "While bike/ped injuries happen, they certainly aren't happening on the bridges of limited access highways."

Q: Wouldn't it be better to have a bike/ped path on the nearby Heart of America bridge? We don't need both, do we?

The Heart of America Bridge isn't so near--about a mile away, and that detour adds two miles to the typical journey.

That's a long ways to walk.

What's more important, though, is that each bridge serves separate and distinct areas. In particular, the Paseo Bike/Ped Path will serve the Paseo Industrial District--with its thousand of jobs. That area is difficult/dangerous for bicyclists & pedestrians to access from the Heart of America bridge because it is cut off by the freeway itself as well as the railroad yard.

You can see this issue clearly explained and illustrated here.

Because of these issues, cities that are really bicycle/pedestrian friendly very often have multiple bicycle/pedestrian accessible bridges within a short distance. For example, Portland, OR, has 4 bicycle/pedestrian accessible bridges within about 1.5 miles. Most of the 10 Mississippi River bridges within a 3.5 mile distance in Minneapolis are bicycle/pedestrian accessible.

Q: But Heart of America is still the better location, isn't it?

A: MoDOT has agreed to create a separated bicycle/pedestrian lane on the Heart of America Bridge as soon as the Paseo construction is finished, by 2012.

And yes, Heart of America is a very good location. It serves hundreds or thousands of locations that Paseo doesn't.

And Paseo serves hundreds or thousands that Heart of America doesn't.

Indications from other cities with bridges similarly located, are that each bridge will be used thousands of times per day by pedestrians and bicyclists. In Portland, 16,711 daily bicycle trips are made over four bridges in a 1.5 mile area. Trips are fairly evenly distributed over all four bridges. Other cities with similar bridges have, similarly, thousands of bicycle/pedestrian trips over each bridge.

Q: I ride my bicycle everywhere in the Kansas City area, and I just don't need to go where the Paseo Bridge would take me.

A: Since you can't cross the Missouri River at that point on foot or bicycle, you probably haven't even given any thought to the destinations you would reach if you could go there.

Among the north side destinations that are potentially reachable via Paseo, that are impossible or much more difficult via Heart of America are:

* Paseo Industrial District (thousands of jobs)
* North Kansas City Hospital
* Cerner Campus
* Harrah's Casino

And even if you, personally, will never cross at Paseo, the connection between the low-income neighborhoods just to the south of Paseo (Columbus Park and Helm Park neighborhoods--with the highest percentage of zero-car households in the KC metro area) and the thousands of jobs in the Paseo Industrial District, just north of the river, is impossible to ignore.

And that is a connection that can't be made by a bike/ped path on the Heart of America Bridge.

Q: Isn't it dumb to dump bicyclists and pedestrians right at the downtown freeway loop?

The Paseo Bicycle/Pedestrian Path will not follow the freeway corridor.

It will simply use the freeway bridge to cross from the north bank to the south bank of the Missouri River.

Bicyclists and pedestrians will approach these points using the extensive existing local street and trail system.

Q: There would be nowhere to go once you got off the bridge.

A: MoDOT staffers have repeatedly made this statement to media representatives.

Please look at the map below and see if you can find any destinations that could be reached within easy walking distance of each end of the Paseo Bridge.

Note that each rooftop represents a destination. The colored areas represent areas that are easily reached from either end of the bridge, on foot or by bicycle, using only the existing road and trail connections.

Note that the light green section represents an area that can only be reached via the Paseo Bridge. The railroad yards, clearly visible in the photos, prevent easy/safe/reliable bicycle/pedestrian access from the Heart of America bridge (Burlington St) to this light green area.

Related:

News: First safe bike/ped crossing(s!) of the Missouri River in Kansas City move forward

News: Missouri is Bicycle Friendly, says MoDOT

News: Bicyclists attend Paseo Bridge groundbreaking

News: Bicycling on interstate freeway bridges--yup, it does work

News: Put People on Paseo Campaign in Kansas City Star; Boneheaded MoDOT comments drive me to pledge another $1000