Missouri Bicycling, Walking, Running, and Trails News

Riding from Liberty to Excelsior Springs

An hour and forty-five minutes on this late November morning it took me to pedal here to Excelsior Springs from my home in Liberty - up gentle, block-long Natchez Street hill from my house to Southview Drive, turn left past the old Petty farm, now deserted and for sale, the used car lot and the Lutheran Church to the Thomas's house . . .

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this story by Ed Chasteen in the Gladstone Sun News.
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River Des Peres bikeway planning meeting Thursday

According to Bob Foster of the St. Louis Bike Fed:

There will be an open house Thursday, December 5th, 2002, from 5-9 p.m. for a River Des Peres bikeway project at the Buder Library, 4401 Hampton, St. Louis, MO 63109. Phone: (314) 352-2900. According to the library, it is hosted by Parsons, a design firm. The goal is a route from Forest Park to the Mississippi River, following the River Des Peres.

(Visit this page for info about an existing trail on the River Des Peres, part of a web site about St. Louis Bike Trails.)
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Senator Kit Bond to tour Missouri discussing transportation issues

Missouri's Senator Kit Bond will become chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Nuclear Safety when congress re-convenes. He will be in a key position to influence the funding priorities for transportation bills coming down the line, including the TEA-3 re-authorization slated for next year.

Bond's press release says:

Senator Kit Bond will begin the reauthorization of the federal highway bill with a series of meetings around Missouri towards the end of this week. The meetings will provide Bond the opportunity to hear directly from state and local leaders. And they will allow state and local leaders and Bond to begin working closely together on a unified strategy to improve Missouri's transportation infrastructure.
. . .
Bond will meet with state and local leaders in St. Joseph this Thursday and St. Louis and Cape Girardeau this Friday. Additional meetings will be held next week in Joplin, Springfield and Kansas City. Bond will be accompanied by representatives from the Missouri Department of Transportation. While Bond's goal is to increase Missouri's share of federal transportation funds, it is the state's jobs to identify and budget for specific projects.

Note: Here are the specific meeting times, as far as we know. Meeting should be open to the public, although you might call ahead to find out details.
  • Thursday, December 5, 11:30 am, St. Joseph City Council Office 1100
    Frederick
  • Friday, December 6, 12 noon, St. Louis, Comfort Inn Hotel, Page and 270
  • Friday, December 6, Cape Girardeau, evening, details to be announced
  • Kansas City, Springfield and mid-MO to be announced
Along with Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, chairman of the full Environment and Public Works Committee, Bond will help write the law that, in large part, governs how and where tens of billions of federal dollars are spent to improve the nation's highways. The rewriting of this bill occurs only once every six years.

The new law builds upon previous reauthorizations, including the 1992 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and the 1998 Transportation Equity Act, which expires September 30, 2003.


Visit Senator Bond's website for his complete statement.

The News Tribune's report on Bond's meeting in St. Louis.

The KC Star covered Bond's new committee assignment. The good news for Missouri highways, according to the Star, is that Bond has a knack for increasing Missouri's share of funding, for whatever projects he has worked on in the past . . .


If you support funding of cycling and pedestrian accomodations in the new law, it will be well worth your time to write, call, or email Senator Bond periodically over the next several months to let him know of your support.
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13 landowners along the Katy Trail awarded $410,000

The U.S. government must pay $410,000 to 13 landowners whose property was used to build a 225-mile hiking and biking trail in Missouri, a federal court has ruled.

Total awards could reach $10 million by the time the court determines compensation for 285 more landowners with property along the Katy Trail who have claims pending, said Gary Heldt, a spokesman for the landowners.

The state operates and maintains the Katy Trail, which was developed along the abandoned Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad corridor. The federal government is responsible for paying the awards because the trail was built under guidelines of the national Rails to Trails Act, Heldt said. The act allows abandoned railroad property to be turned over to state or local government for use as trails.

An earlier Court of Claims ruling found that landowners were entitled to compensation, because under Missouri law, abandoned railroad easements revert to landowners.

Read the Washington Post for the rest of the story.
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Bicycle activism in N. Carolina--it doesn't get more grassroots than this!

In 1980, Jethro Mann started the Bicycle Lending Library as a way to make sure that every child who wanted one, had a bike to ride.

In Belmont, he's simply known, as "The Bicycle Man."

"I don't know how much I've spent, but I've given away probably $2 million," Mann said.

Do you like this idea? Have any other ideas for getting people out there on two wheels? Leave a comment (click link below) . . .
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Current Earth Riders Trails Association projects

Earth Riders is currently working on a several bike trail projects in the KC area. These include trails near Lake of the Ozarks, Smithville Lake, downtown Independence, Banner Park in Lee's Summit, and Kill Creek Park in Johnson County, KS.

For details, see Dan Kliman's note on MoBikeFed-Chat.
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Mountain biking advocacy, meetings, workshops, rides in Kansas City Dec. 5-8, 2002

Dear Mountain Biker,

This is your reminder that the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew is coming to your area Dec. 5-8. Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner will be in Kansas City. Here are all the details so you can attend these exciting events.

----
Kansas City

Meanwhile in Kansas City, Crew members Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner are planning a good 'ole time with the Earth Riders Trails Association (ERTA). The weekend kicks off with a series of meetings on Thursday and Friday with area land managers. An exciting goal of these meetings is to get more Kansas City parks open to mountain biking. ERTA is offering time and labor to build and maintain singletrack biking and hiking trails.

Meetings? Bore, yawn! The weekend is about more than just meetings. We also have a great line-up of public events.

Friday, Dec. 6, 5:00-8:00pm: IMBA slideshow at Bike Source at 119th & Quivera in Overland Park, KA (http://bikesourceonline.com/site/map.cfm?ID=6). Come enjoy this dynamic and exciting presentation about IMBA with photos from around the world. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

Saturday, Dec. 7, 8:00am-4:30pm: IMBA hosts a Trailbuilding School. This in-depth session features a morning classroom presentation and an afternoon of trailwork. Due to an overwhelming response for this event, we cannot accept any more people. We'll let you know the next time IMBA gives a Trailbuilding School in your area.

Saturday night, 9:00-??: We unwind with a little pub crawling fun. Bring your beater bike for a beer-drinking tour around town. The action will start at Bobby Baker's Lounge at 7418 Wornall Road in Kansas City.

Sunday, Dec. 8, 10:30am: We crawl out of bed for a not-too-early ride at Blue River Parkway (http://home.earthlink.net/~brptrailwatchers/). Meet at the trailhead at 118th & Lydia. For directions, go to http://www.earthriders.org/, click on Trails, then Missouri Trails, then Blue River Parkway.

For more information, contact Ken Miner at kminer@minertech.com.
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Winter cycling . . .

Winter is upon us . . . but that's no reason to stop bicycling! The Bikewinter Project, from Chicago, has a lot of helpful winter riding tips and inspirational stories.

The site has a nice profile of Missouri's own Dan Kliman.

Dan also recommends the IceBike web site.
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Article

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Sprawling suburbs considered harmful . . .

The Kansas City Star had an excellent article today on the relationship between urban design and obesity. Researchers find that residents of sprawling suburbs walk and bike less, and weigh significantly more, than do residents living in compact mixed developments who can walk and bike to the store, library, school, and work.

A few interesting excerpts:

"I used to live in an urban area in Independence, and I walked all the time, and I didn't have this extra 10 pounds," Atkins said. "My son, after we moved [to the suburbs], he put on 50 pounds." . . .

"I'm 99 percent sure there's a relationship between how communities are designed and people's weight," said Georgia Tech professor Lawrence Frank . . . "People who live in lower-density, suburban environments, all else being equal, have a tendency to be slightly heavier." . . .

Several studies have concluded that suburbanites do not walk or bike as much as residents of more traditional neighborhoods. . . .

Because our metropolitan area can grow in all directions, it is consistently ranked as one of the nation's most sprawling regions. And our region consistently ranks as one of the nation's flabbiest in nonscientific analyses. . . .

Studies in San Francisco, Seattle and Austin, Texas, in the 1990s showed that residents who lived close to stores and other conveniences walked and biked more than suburbanites whose neighborhoods contained only homes. . . .

"We always used to go to the grocery store walking. We always walked to school," said Shadrach Smith . . . . "Now we just don't see people doing that." . . .

Read the rest of the story on the KCStar website.
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Kansas City--progress & promise for cycling

Paul Mohr, who was Kansas City, Missouri's Bike/Ped coordinator until he resigned in September 2002, wrote an excellent letter summarizing the progress and promise of cycling in Kansas City.

He very rightly points out that the "achievements of the last several years easily eclipse everything in the century that preceded it".

Among KCMO's recent accomplishments--which Paul and other members of the Street and Sidewalk Task Force played a crucial part in bringing about--are adoption of bike routes in the Major Street Plan, crystallizing of public support for bicycling, addition of bike carriers to all city buses by the end of 2003, great improvement in the bicycle-ability of two crucial Missouri River bridges, and a variety of other initiatives, trails, plans, and positive policy changes.

Area cyclists applaud Paul and the other Public Works employees who have played such an important role in these positive changes (and especially note that many of them have happened under the direction of Larry Frevert, Deputy Director of KCMO Public Works, who isn't even a cyclist himself!). Paul leaves some big shoes to be filled . . .

Read Paul Mohr's complete letter on PedNet.
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