Missouri Bicycling, Walking, Running, and Trails News

Overland Park, KS, to implement traffic calming measures

Overland Park, KS, has been considering traffic calming measures to increase the bike/ped friendliness of the city. The city has decided to proceed with five pilot projects to assess the effectiveness traffic calming measures. A KCStar story has more details.

Many cities worldwide have used traffic calming to reduce the 85th percentile speed of motor traffic as low as 18 MPH (that means that 85% of drivers are going 18 MPH or slower). Traffic calming is based on the well-known and well-tested idea that drivers do not set their speed by consulting speed limit signs, but rather by observing the driving environment. Is the street wide or narrow? Straight or crooked? Smooth or bumpy? Residential or commercial?

Through careful design and implementation, traffic calming measures can be made to have little or no impact on emergency response times or bus access to neighorhoods. Well designed traffic calming measures increase traffic and pedestrian safety dramatically.

Modern traffic calming measures do not include the notorious "speed bump" of the type often seen in commercial parking lots. They do sometimes use something that is really quite different, and which might be described as a "speed hump"--for example, three inches of rise and fall over a 14-foot distance, designed for use in 25 MPH zones. Speed humps often get a lot of attention, but in fact, good traffic calming employs a variety of design ideas, all of which work together to change the driver's perception of the situation and encourage more careful driving.
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The Keep Kids Alive--Drive 25 campaign has been demonstrated to slow motor vehicle speeds in neighborhoods by 6 MPH--comparable to traffic calming improvements costing many times as much as the "Drive 25" yard signs.
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Coverage of 2003 Midwest Singletrack Advocacy Summit in Independence

The 2003 Midwest Singletrack Advocacy Summit, held at Landahl Park near Independence, was covered in this story from The Examiner. ""Mountain bikers, hikers, and land managers, everyone is welcome. We had over 200 people last year and we expect 400 to 500 this year," said Summit organizer Ken Miner.
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What do you think about downtown Olathe, KS?

Share your thoughts & opinions with the downtown planning team as they put together recommendations for the future of downtown Olathe, KS.

More Shops? Restaurants? Parks? Offices? Trails?

Visit our website with information about the downtown plan, and take the quick online survey before March 7.

If you have questions about the Envision Olathe Downtown plan, use the online feedback form on downtown website, or call the city's Development Services Department at 913-971-6250 and ask for Sara Copeland.

Here are a few bicycle-related ideas suggested by Olathe Cyclist Dale Crawford. Feel free to mention these when you write, call, email, or fill out your survey form:
a.) bicycle parking (racks and long term lockers) throughout downtown
b.) Wide lanes and bicycle lanes as appropriate on Northgate, Kansas Ave, Poplar St., Park St., Loula, St., Elm St.
c.) Rail & Trail on BNSF spur line from south side of downtown to Waterworks Park and Frisco Lakes.
d.) Curb flares at all intersections to narrow road width at crosswalks.
e.) Mid-block pedestrian crossing on Kansas.
f.) Automatic ped signal with time counter and audio signal on all signalized crossings.
g.) transit pull outs with shelters & bike lockers
h.) Street trees to shade sidewalks
i.) Pedestrian scale lighting
j.) Town square park at old courthouse block as social/cultural/economic hub of downtown
k.) Central community center downtown as catalyst for evening activities
l.) Extension of Mill Creek Trail to KS School for Deaf and Waterworks Park.
m.) Continuous sidewalks throughout downtown and surrounding neighborhoods
n.) Parking garages with retail or open space at street level, not surface parking lots
o.) No dedicated right-turn lanes with Downtown area (high pedestrian conflict).
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Kansas City Walkability Plan an issue in upcoming KC primary elections

At least one candidate for the Kansas City Council has made support for the city's recently proposed Walkability Plan part of his campaign agenda. According to the Kansas City Star, John Fairfield, running against Terry Ward in the district 2 primary, supports the Walkability Plan and urges Kansas City to pass it.
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KC-area cyclist will ride 10,000 miles this year

Today's Sun-News has a long and interesting story about cyclist Ed Chasteen, who is planning to ride 10,000 miles this year:
While wrestling in those days with suicidal thoughts, Chasteen said he found his son's old bicycle in the garage. At that point, he said he thought someone spoke: "The thought was so clear and insistent I thought it was audible - 'Get on that bike and ride!'"

Chasteen, then 45, had not been on a bicycle since the age of 12. But the words sounded like a command and Chasteen obeyed.

"I began to ride that bike to class and to church. Then came another audible thought: 'Ride your bicycle across America.' Three more years passed. Then I rode from Orlando to Seattle to L.A.," Chasteen said.

The 5,126-mile journey took 105 days, and he made it "alone and without money, asking for a sandwich, a drink of water, a bed for the night," Chasteen said.


The Kansas City Star has also covered Chasteen's quest to ride 10,000 in a year. The Star points out that Chasteen has had multiple sclerosis since 1981, and started riding as a way to combat the effects of the disease. "The more I ride, the better my health becomes," Chasteen says. "Bike riding is the only medicine I take for my MS."

Chasteen is organizing a century ride on May 31st to help him towards his goal of raising $100,000 towards MS this year.
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Safe Routes to School Workshop in KC, 25 April 2003

In 1971, 80% of seven- and eight-year-old children went to school on their own, by 1990 only 9% were making the journey unaccompanied, with more than four times as many seven- to 11-year-olds being driven in 1990 compared with 20 years earlier . . .

Children's lives have been evolving in a way that mirrors the characteristics of the lives of criminals in prison. They, too, have a roof over their heads, regular meals and entertainment provided for them, but they are not free to go out. . .

Does any of this bother you? If it does, here is your chance to do something about it:

Safe Routes to School Workshop
Friday, April 25
Doubletree Hotel
Kansas City, Missouri

Read more here. Register online here. Register online with an agency purchase order here. Or contact Beverly Werden, 816/474-4240 ext. 234, fax 816/421-7758, e-mail gti @ marc.org.
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Illinois needs support to overturn Boub decision

The following alert came from Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists (ed@bikelib.org):
ACTION ALERT - please take a few minutes to help bicycling!

Attention all cyclists (please forward this to other cyclists, too), Your help is needed now to pass a bill that affects bicycling conditions throughout the state. You may know of CBF and LIB's "Boub legislation" from past newsletters, etc. We have new bills this year, and the House bill is scheduled for committee this Thursday the 20th! House Bill 1248 and Senate Bill 275 would correct the negative impacts of the 1998 Illinois Supreme Court Boub vs. Wayne decision, which has been a disaster for on-road cycling in the state. Until the bill gets passed:

· Towns that want to improve on-road bike safety through signage or bike lanes are penalized with liability, whereas towns that do nothing get
immunity;
· Bicyclists are discriminated against by not having the on-road liability protection that motorcyclists and motorists have;
· Long-distance bikeways like the Grand Illinois Trail and Mississippi River Trail, and MANY other local plans, are being stalled;
· We're the only state with this bizarre and powerful disincentive for improving on-road bike safety.

PLEASE CALL YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS BY TUESDAY THE 18TH OF FEBRUARY 2003!

If you live in Illinois, you can find your legislator's name and phone number at www.biketraffic.org/boub_search.html.

You can look up Illinois legislators by name or district on the Illinois State Board of Elections web site.

We *especially* need calls to the committee members: HOUSE - Fritchey-11, Bailey-6, Berrios-39, Brosnahan-36, Cultra-105, Froehlich-56, Hamos-18 (bill sponsor), Hoffman-112, Hultgren-95, Lang-16, Mathias-53, May-58, Nekritz-57 (bill sponsor), Osmond-61, Rose-110, Sacia-89, Scully-80, Wait-69.

SENATE - Cullerton-6 (sponsor), Clayborne-57, Dillard-24, Haine-56, Harmon-39, Obama-13, Petka-42, Roskam-48, Silverstein-8, Winkel-52

Identify yourself as a bicyclist in the district and ask for support of HB1248 and SB275. Use the points above if you wish. You may leave a message during non-business hours, if necessary.

Please make this very short call and forward this to your biking friends. The voices of individual bicyclists are VERY important in passing the bill, just as this bill is critical to improving bicycling in the state.

Thank you!


If you live in Illinois or cycle there regularly, your input is especially important. But remember that a national and even international outcry was in large part responsible for the defeat of a recently proposed law prejudicial to bicyclists in North Dakota.
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Bike/Ped issues discussed at meeting about Olathe freeway interchange

Olathe City held a meeting Thursday to discuss a planned freeway interchange at Lone Elm and 159th Street (see MoBikeFed's previous announcement of this meeting, with Dale Crawford's discussion of the bike/ped issues).

The KCStar reports that at the meeting, which was attended by about 10 people, bike/ped issues were one of the main points of discussion:
Bob Arnett of Lenexa said he and his wife often ride their bikes to Cedar Lake, and on the way pass through the future interchange area. Bike lanes, wider outside car lanes and trails all would help make the area more friendly to bicyclists and walkers, Arnett said.

"I just want to make certain that it still becomes a place that we can ride safely and enjoy the area out there, both as cyclists and as pedestrians, so the traffic flow doesn't become so heavy that it's another place where we're forced out of," he said.
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Human-powered bus

A human-powered bus has been spotted on the streets of Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The bus holds 32 pedallers, the driver, and a guide. It weighs 2500 kg (about 5500 lbs), and goes about about 12 MPH.
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Join MoBikeFed's Advocacy Network

MoBikeFed is a statewide group of people like you, working together for better bicycling, walking, and trails in Missouri. When you join our advocacy network you receive occasional important advocacy alerts and bicycle, pedestrian, and trails news from around Missouri.

Working together we make a real difference! Join our advocacy network: