Headlines

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

A new Bike Master Plan for the City of KCMO is on the way! It's an exciting new vision for connecting neighorhoods to jobs and services, with a big emphasis on high-qualilty protected bike lanes that make moving around KC safer and more comfortable for people of all ages and abilities.

Between now and early April the new plan will go through the City Hall legislative process. There will be several steps along the way where it will be important for city leaders to hear that the bike plan has strong support in the community.

Link: 

Support the new City of KCMO Bike Plan | BikeWalkKC

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

The Problem

Each year, more than 40,000 people — the population of a small city — are needlessly killed on American streets and thousands more are injured. We call this suffering traffic “accidents” — but, in reality, we have the power to prevent traffic collisions.

For too long, we’ve considered traffic deaths and severe injuries to be inevitable side effects of modern life. While often referred to as “accidents,” the reality is that we can prevent these tragedies by taking a proactive, preventative approach that prioritizes traffic safety as a public health issue.

The significant loss of life exacts a tragic toll, extending beyond personal loss to deep community impacts, including: personal economic costs and emotional trauma to those suffering; and significant taxpayer spending on emergency response and long-term healthcare costs. And because so many fear for their safety on our streets, there is no true freedom of mobility, and, as a result, we compromise our public health with increasing rates of sedentary diseases and higher carbon emissions.

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proved successful across Europe — and now it’s gaining momentum in major American cities.

Link: 

What is Vision Zero? A strategy to completely eliminate traffic deaths – Vision Zero Network

http://MoBikeFed.org/VisionZero

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

Gladstone, Mo. (March 4, 2019) – The Cities of Gladstone and Kansas City invite you to a ground breaking for the next phase of the Shoal Creek Trail. The ground breaking will be held at Happy Rock Park East, 7600 NE Antioch Rd., Gladstone, MO 64119, on Friday March 8th at 4:00 p.m. Guests are invited to join officials from the Cities of Gladstone and Kansas City to celebrate continued improvements to the Shoal Creek Trail and surrounding area.

This new section of the Shoal Creek Trail will expand the trails in Happy Rock Park and connect to North Brighton. This addition of 1.1 miles to this MetroGreen regional trail network connects will be constructed of concrete and can accommodate walkers, hikers and bi-cyclists. The project is funded with a federal grant that is matched by Capital Improvement Funds from the Cities of Gladstone and Kansas City.

The project is another cooperative project between the two cities which has utilized federal funds on other joint projects including previous phases of the trail to better connect our citizens. Once this new phase is complete, the Shoal Creek Trail will be nearly 3.3 miles from Barry Road to North Brighton and will improve multi-modal connection for neighborhoods in Gladstone and Kansas City to Happy Rock Park.

Link: 

Shoal Creek Trail Groundbreaking 4pm Friday, March 8th, 2019 | KCMO and Gladstone MO

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

Once intended to reduce crime, the traffic barricades that block hundreds of city streets may be having the opposite effect.

Using census and crime data coupled with sophisticated mapping programs, researchers at St. Louis University have found the barriers — including those pervasive concrete planters known as “Schoemehl pots” — are associated with, at worst, “elevated violent crime rates at the neighborhood level,” and, at best, not doing anything to make an area safer.

The findings, which appear to contradict years of thinking about local street closings, are part of a broader study being undertaken by Christopher Prener and Joel Jennings, both assistant professors of sociology at SLU, along with SLU graduates Taylor Harris Braswell, now a sociology doctoral student at Northeastern University, and Kyle Miller, who is working toward a master’s degree in urban planning at Harvard University. . . .

St. Louis’ often-interrupted street grid is the outgrowth of the 1970s-era “defensible space” strategy to address rising crime championed by Oscar Newman, a prominent urban planner who was a Washington University architecture professor in the mid-1960s, according to the paper. That idea stems from the notion that an area is safer when residents feel a sense of ownership and control, which Newman described as allowing neighbors to focus their attention on “removing criminal activity from their communities.”

St. Louis became the birthplace of such ideas, according to the paper.

Link: 

To make St. Louis safer, hundreds of streets were closed. What if that was a mistake? | Law and order | stltoday.com

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

Imagine what’s possible with a trail that connects the country. 

Imagine ... pedaling across the entire country on a safe, seamless and scenic pathway—or walking a local trail that connects along historic routes. That vision will become a reality thanks to the Great American Rail-Trail, a signature project of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) and the organization’s most ambitious TrailNation™ project yet.

The possibility of a coast-to-coast rail-trail has been known for decades as RTC tracked rail- trails being developed east to west along the same course charted by the railroad a century ago. RTC’s late co-founder David Burwell once hoped that “one day, you could go across this entire country … on flat, wide, off-road paths. I want rail-trails to be ‘America’s Main Street.’” Now, that dream—and the potential of the Great American Rail-Trail—is ready to be realized.

The route is more than 50 percent complete—the milestone RTC has long-identified as the threshold for committing to making this trail a reality. Separated from vehicle traffic, travelers will be able to truly enjoy, embrace and experience those amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties that make up the American landscape from Washington, D.C., to Washington State.

Link: 

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy envisions seamless coast-to-coast trail trail--the Great American Rail-Trail