Missouri Bicycle News Article

Public meeting with the Missouri Transportation Alliance about the future of MoDOT funding and policy--will it include bicycling & walking?

Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 5:30pm CDT
Board room, Mid-America Regional Council
600 Broadway, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64105
Please let me know if you plan to attend - director@mobikefed.org or 816-695-6736

Will future MoDOT funding include accommodation for bicycling? For walking? For transit? For anything but new roads and highways for automobiles?

That is the question YOU can help answer by attending this 60-90 minute meeting.

The meeting will include short presentations by MoTA and the Missouri Bicycle Federation, as well as time for you to respond and to ask questions.

MoDOT funding will decrease by about 60% starting in 2010. Everyone around the state knows that MoDOT needs a large new funding source just to stay in business.

The Missouri Transportation Alliance (MoTA) is the only group so far that has stepped forward to tackle the problem. This is the same coalition of groups that passed Amendment 3 in 2005--the last time MoDOT got new funding.

For about the past year, MoTA has been traveling the state, meeting and talking with people in small towns and rural areas.

But guess what--they haven't had public meetings in the large cities and they haven't talked to any groups of bicyclists, pedestrians, transit users--until now.

So the Missouri Bicycle Federation invited a representative from MoTA to come to talk with YOU.

We want MoTA to take a broad look at Missouri Transportation--not just automobiles but walking, bicycling, transit, rail, and all other transportation options that can improve our quality of life while getting the most bang for our tax dollar.

Please come out and join us. Please let me know if you plan to attend (director@mobikefed.org or 816-695-6736).

• If you can't attend the meeting, a quick email to MoTA always helps.
• A group of interested organizations is working to set up a similar meeting in St. Louis--we'll publish details as soon as we know them.
  
• If you would like help to organize a similar meeting in your part of the state, please contact me (director [at] mobikefed.org). In particular it would be nice to have more feedback from larger cities like St. Joseph, Springfield, Columbia or Jefferson City. MoTA has made a real effort to hear from rural and small-town Missouri, but less so to hear from the half of the state the lives in medium to large metro areas.

Related:

News: MoBikeFed hosts meeting about effort to "Fix MoDOT"

News: Riverside Trail opens in KC Metro area; KCMO trails plan urged

News: Help with bicycle & pedestrian counts across Missouri in mid-September 2008

News: Bicycling, walking, and no-car households in rural Missouri

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