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

KCStar:

Circle the correct answer: The new Paseo Bridge WILL/WILL NOT have a bicycle and walking lane when the $245 million Missouri River crossing opens in 2011.

The answer — WILL NOT — is a shocker to many, particularly in this era of “green solutions,” “transit options” and “urban trail construction.”

Some bicycle enthusiasts are so distraught they’ve created a homemade pledge drive. The money might be a drop in the bucket, but they figure any effort is better than inaction in the face of what they consider backward urban planning.
Reading this article--and particularly the quotes from MoDOT officials--made me so mad I just went and personally pledged another $500 $1000 to the Put People on Paseo campaign.

Read on for the reason . . .

Bicyclists and pedestrians make the case; MoDOT stonewalls
MoBikeFed has been involved in this issue for about the past four years. The Paseo Bridge project is a quarter billion dollar project, one of only three major projects in the state cleared for the new "design-build" process.

Bicyclists and pedestrians have attended every public meeting from the time the project was publicly announced, and carefully and clearly detailed the important bicycle and pedestrian connections the Paseo Bridge would create--connections which would not and could not be created by adding a bicycle/pedestrian path to any other nearby bridge.

Frankly, in each and every case talking to MoDOT has been like talking to a mud wall.

They don't want to hear it, they don't want to acknowledge it.

So they simply don't.

The Paseo Bridge is at the heart of a major urban area
The Paseo Bridge is precisely in the heart of the Kansas City metro area, in the most densely populated portion of the urban core.

On any given day, over 150,000 people are living or working within the 7.5 square mile area immediately surrounding the bridge.

The way MoDOT talks about the bridge, you'd think it's way out in farm country with the cows and chickens--rather than within spittin' distance of the highest concentration of households without a car ("zero-car households") in the Kansas City area, which is just to the south of the bridge.

To make it worse, the north side of the bridge isn't filled by miles of empty cornfields as MoDOT seems to think--but is instead an industrial area with one of highest concentrations of jobs and industry in the region. The Paseo Industrial District is completely cut off from nearby low-income neighborhoods by the freeway and railroad yard on one side and the river on the other.

Throw in another major industrial area just to the south of the bridge (the East Bottoms), the Isle of Capri Casino adjacent bridge on the south side, and the Port Authority's planned mixed-use urban village just to the southwest of the bridge, and you're looking at thousands of jobs and residences within easy walking distance of each end of the bridge.

For MoDOT, major urban area = "Nowhere to go"
I have personally given MoDOT staff, including Kidwell and Benefield quoted in this article, detailed presentations showing exactly where, how, and why people would use the Paseo bike/ped path to access jobs on the north side of the river and why no other bridge can possibly replace the connections that the Paseo Bridge makes.

So, frankly, to have MoDOT's Jennifer Benefield say, repeatedly, to the press, "There would be nowhere to go once you got off the bridge" is nothing short of infuriating.

I have personally shown Benefield where bicyclists and pedestrians would go, once off the bridge.

And I would be more than happy to show her again.

In fact, I've got a tandem with an empty back seat and I'll make the offer right now: I would be more than happy to take Benefield and Kidwell on a ride and show them exactly how people can--and do--access jobs, work, and housing easily and safely from either end of the Paseo Bridge on foot and on bicycle.

What they can't do now is cross the river safely.

In MoDOT-land, people can't walk or bicycle on public roads
The problem is that MoDOT is some sort of a state of denial, where they cannot comprehend that people can walk along roads that don't have officially designated sidewalks and can bicycle on roads that are not officially designated bicycle routes.

In fact, people do walk and bicycle extensively in the neighborhoods and industrial areas in either side of the bridge.

And they depend on walking, bicycling, and transit to reach jobs, shopping, and other necessities.
But--they can't walk or bicycle across water.

Below are some of the diagrams and aerial photos we have prepared for MoDOT, and shown to Benefield and Kidwell, that show the barriers to walking and bicycling in this area and how the Paseo bike/ped path would make connections that cannot be made any other way.

Even a small donation to the
Put People on Paseo campaign can help bring MoDOT back to reality.


Potential Paseo Connections


169 is the Broadway Bridge; 9 is the Heart of America (HOA) Bridge; I-29 is the Paseo Bridge.
These are parts of the central area of the Kansas City metro area that are potentially very well connected via a bicycle/pedestrian path on the Paseo Bridge.

Although the bike/ped connection would serve the entire metropolitan area, which currently has no good, safe way to cross the Missouri River on bicycle or on foot, even just the immediate connection completely justifies the project: On the north side of the river is the Paseo Industrial District, which employs thousands of workers, and the immediate south side is the Isle of Capri Casino, the Port Authority's planned multi-use development that will house thousands of people, and the Columbus Park neighborhood, which already houses thousands of people.

The highest concentration of households without a car ("zero-car households") in the Kansas City area is just to the south of the Missouri river. Among the highest concentrations of jobs and industry are downtown and just to the north of the river.


Re-Connecting Dis-Connected Islands



Note the number of rooftops just to either side of the river in this aerial photo.
Now contrast this with the statement by MoDOT's Jennifer Benefield, "There would be nowhere to go once you got off the bridge."
This map shows the potential bicycle/pedestrian connections that can be made if a bicycle/pedestrian connection is provided along the Paseo corridor over the Missouri River ONLY (ie, not over the railroad yard that separates the Paseo Industrial District from the rest of North Kansas City).

The black lines are schematic, not actual paths. They show which of the different colored "islands" would be connected by the proposed links.

With no links at all along the Paseo corridor t he "islands" all remain completely disconnected for bicyclists & pedestrians.

That is why it is important for bicycle/pedestrian access to be considered in all transportation projects, even freeway projects. Bicyclists and pedestrians need access to the same destinations motorists reach via the freeway, and for the same reasons.

In the case of the Paseo corridor, there are certain areas, notably the Paseo Industrial District, that motor vehicles access almost exclusively via the freeway.


Say Moo . . .


This is what MoDOT imagines the area around the Paseo Bridge looks like--nothing but cow fields in every direction.

Compare the amount of rooftops visible in this aerial photo (from a location in rural Missouri) with the actual Paseo Bridge location above.

That's the difference between "Nowhere to go" and "Thousands of places to go."

Then help bring MoDOT back to reality--go make a donation, even just a small one, to the
Put People On Paseo campaign.

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