Kansas City Bike Share launches largest civic crowdfunding campaign ever

BikeWalkKC, the umbrella organization running the Kansas City B Cycle system, has launched the biggest civic crowdfunding campaign ever, designed to expand the system.  Last week Crowdfunding researcher Rodrigo Davies wrote: 

Kansas City B Cycle launched an ambitious crowdfunding campaign last week

Today the Kansas City-based non-profit BikeWalkKC launched the biggest civic crowdfunding campaign ever, to extend the bikeshare scheme the group partially crowdfunded in 2012.

They're running ten $100,000 campaigns for the next 46 days on on Neighbor.ly (also based in KC), one for each of the ten zones of the city in which they're planning to build new stations. The total ask of $1M is, as far as I'm aware, the largest civic project on a crowdfunding platform to date. . . .

The organization has been advocating for a more walkable city since 2011 and in 2012, after finalizing the plans for the bikeshare scheme were announced and securing the first round of funding secured, the group won a proclamation from the city council to provide bike lanes for the first time and to support the fledgling bikeshare infrastructure. Without BikeWalkKC's campaign -- and especially the installation of the bikeshare scheme -- it seems unlikely these biking improvements would have gained sufficient political traction.

With the second round of the campaign aiming even higher - for the magic million figure - it's a major test case for whether civic crowdfunding can scale.

NextCity also covered the Kansas City B Cycle crowdfunding announcement:

One surprise in the first two years of operation, Shipley says, is that the system has been used less for commuting than the group expected, and more by tourists and "empty nesters." According to the data, there were 100,000 trips taken in 2012 and 2013 combined. According to a customer survey, 51 percent of all trips were to a restaurant or bar.

Shipley claims success in nudging Kansas City toward becoming a bikeable city. Last January, she points out, the city council adopted a resolution that both celebrated how B-Cycle can be funded "through a private-public partnership with little or no cost to the City" and pledged that "the City is committed to increasing the number of bicycle lanes along the BikeShareKC route to encourage usage and promote a safe and accessible alternative form of transportation." . . .

The strategy here is to give bike sharing a chance in Kansas City by providing the critical mass these programs demand to succeed. "There are a lot of naysayers," Shipley admits. Building the system out at pace, she says, is the foundation needed before it can begin to demonstrate the benefits of Kansas City as a bikeable place. "This is so not about the bike," she says. "This is building a healthy, thriving, active community. When I get these stations down, the city will make its bike lanes. And the density and intensity of active transportation is what you need to get things going."

Find out more about the campaign or make a donation to help expand Bike Share KC here.

Building a statewide movement around bicycling and walking is one of the primary objectives of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri--which is why we like to help to spread the word about exciting developments across Missouri and support the work of organizations like BikeWalkKC and Bike Share KC. 

Encouraging programs like bike share helps reach two more of our Vision's primary objectives: To encourage more bicycling and walking in Missouri and create a world-class bicycle and pedestrian transportation system in Missouri.  Your membership and generous financial support help make our vision a reality across the state!