Bicyclist killed crossing Paseo Bridge near downtown Kansas City

A bicyclist was killed while apparently trying to cross the I-35 Paseo Bridge over the Missouri River near downtown Kansas City, Missouri, early this morning.

The man was apparently struck by a semi-truck while bicycling on one of the approaches to the bridge.

This man--so far un-named--joins recent fatalities of bicyclists and pedestrians on and near the Heart of America Bridge and the Broadway Bridge near downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

None of these bridges have the type of good, safe, bicycle and pedestrian facilities that are now commonplace on bridges in metropolitan areas across America.

Working on safe bicycle/pedestrian river crossings for over a decade
MoBikeFed has been working in cooperation with a large group of local bicycle, pedestrian, and community groups in the Kansas City area to create safe bicycle and pedestrian river crossings in this area where none currently exist.

Most recently, the opportunity was to create a new, safe river crossing with the new Paseo Bridge, currently under construction.

Under pressure of some dozens of groups and organizations, including the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council, the Mid-America Regional Council, and thousands of citizens, MoDOT has agreed to do work on one or possibly two nearby bridges, including the Heart of America Bridge and possibly the Chouteau Bridge.

New Paseo Bridge to be built without bicycle/pedestrian access
However an opportunity has been lost in not including a good, safe, bicycle/pedestrian crossing as part of the initial construction of the Paseo Bridge.

This is doubly a shame because there will be plenty of deck space on the new bridge itself for a barrier-separated bicycle/pedestrian path--the bridge is being built to accommodate two extra motor vehicle lanes and a bicycle/pedestrian path in the future. For now, all that extra space will just being striped off as extra-wide shoulders and medians.

MoDOT pledged to design and build the Paseo Bridge so that a bike/ped path can, theoretically, be added in the future. However they chose not to do the design work needed to actually add the bicycle/pedestrian path during initial construction--or even make it so the bicycle/pedestrian path could be added easily within a year or two.

The result is that adding the bike/ped path will cost some millions more in the future than it would have if built in right from the start. Adding the bicycle path will be difficult and disruptive because it will require slight adjustments to every lane and barrier all across the bridge.

And--as this tragic death shows--people need to cross the river on foot and on bicycle right now, not in some misty, long distant future.

Why would anyone bicycle or walk across the Paseo Bridge now?
When MoBikeFed was part of the river crossing task force convened to study the options for creating safe bicycle & pedestrian river crossings in the area, we analyzed the current need and the barriers to safe bicycling and walking in the area, which is one of the most densely populated in Missouri.

Here are some of the results:

The area immediately around the Paseo Bridge consists of a large number of disconnected "travelsheds". In the graphic below, these travelsheds are shown as areas of different color. Each different color is isolated from the others by some man-made or natural barrier--river, highway, railroad tracks, etc. You can get from one travelshed to another with a car, but in many cases not (safely) on bicycle or on foot:


The highest concentration of households without a car ("zero-car households") in the Kansas City area is along I-35 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 along I-35.

Because of all the interstate freeways, other state and federal highways, railroad tracks, and rivers, the area near downtown Kansas City is very difficult for bicycling and walking, with many small, disconnected areas.

The bicyclist killed today was most likely traveling from the yellow area, just south of the Missouri River on I-35/US-71 to the red area just north of the river.

This maps shows connections between these various travelsheds made best (or only) via the Paseo Bridge:


More information and photos about bicycle and pedestrian access in this area here.

Creating better, safer access across major barriers like rivers is one of the most important steps in creating a more complete bicycle/pedestrian transportation system in Missouri, and one of the goals in MoBikeFed's Vision of Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.