KCStar on recommendation for 2 bike/ped crossings in Kansas City

Paseo Bridge at night, photo by pbinder, http://www.flickr.com/photos/pbinder/8603608/

The Mid-America Regional Council on Tuesday called on the Missouri highway department to include a bike and pedestrian lane in the design for an upgraded Paseo Bridge.

The regional planning agency’s board of directors voted unanimously to ask for a bike lane from Front Street on the south side of the Missouri River to 16th Avenue in North Kansas City.

The organization wants the lane included in the design criteria to force the architects to find a workable bicycle crossing at the Paseo.

MARC’s endorsement runs counter to engineers at the Missouri Department of Transportation, who say a Paseo bike line would be unsafe and connect the downtown riverfront to an industrial area crowded with big trucks.

Instead, the department is committed to building a segregated bike/pedestrian lane next to Missouri 9 on the Heart of America Bridge, which connects to a shopping and restaurant area in North Kansas City.

Highway department officials on Tuesday still weren’t committing to anything. “We’ll strongly look at their recommendation,” said Beth Wright, district engineer for MoDOT’s Kansas City office.

MoDOT has been willing to informally discuss the possibility of designing a bike lane on the Paseo Bridge, which will be rehabbed or replaced when Interstate 29/35 is widened from the Northland to the downtown freeway loop.

But some Kansas City leaders said that wasn’t going far enough. They want to make sure the bike lane is seriously considered. . . .

Brent Hugh, executive director for the Missouri Bicycle Federation, said that under director Pete Rahn’s leadership, MoDOT has shown throughout the process that it has been willing to listen to the community.

“The old MoDOT was the one that everyone was suspicious of and (felt) they weren’t listening,” Hugh said. “I think this is the start of a new day at MoDOT."