Missouri Bicycling, Walking, Running, and Trails News

HB 293, the "Fair Fare Passenger Safety Act" sponsored by Rep. Galen Higdon (R-Buchanan/Platte Counties) recently passed the House by a vote of 103-46.

HB 293 has made no progress in the Senate this year, so with less than 5 hours left in the 2017 legislative session, the bill is certain to stop there, without being passed by the Senate or signed into law by Governor Greitens.

Still, this is the most progress a texting while driving bill has made in the Missouri General Assembly since the prohibition on texting while driving for drivers under 21 years of age was passed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2009. So we should take a moment to celebrate this small victory--and start planning for future years.

If you would like to help, a short note of thanks to Rep. Higdon for sponsoring HB 293 would help a lot.  Contact information is on Rep. Higdon's web page.

With just one week left in Missouri's 2017 legislative session, we have had some really important bills moving--some very good and some very bad. Where are they now?

It looks the effort to stop Missouri State Parks from accepting the Rock Island Trail corridor has been turn aside, several bad bills that could effect bicycling and walking have been stopped or never introduced (always the best outcome), and the General Assembly could take one small step towards address state transportation funding.

Details follow . . . 

HB 698: Stopping acquisition of new State Parks lands - and stopping the state from accepting Rock Island Trail - is amended to allow the Rock Island Trail to move forward

Two pieces of good news on HB 698, which posed a very severe threat to the Rock Island Trail early in session:

Supporters of bicycling, walking, and trails in Missouri visited Missouri's Capitol Monday for the 14th annual Bicycle & Pedestrian Day at the Capitol.

We held our annual legislators ride and rally and visited the office of every Missouri state elected official with an information packet about our legislative priorities for 2017.

News media from around the state covered Monday's event. The Jefferson City News-Tribune wrote:

The advocacy efforts of the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation's Capitol Day on Monday centered around four issues — the foremost was support for an anticipated expansion of the Rock Island Trail, likely threatened by a bill to limit acquisition of land for state parks.

"It's an amazing investment in rural communities we don't want to miss," the federation's Executive Director Brent Hugh said of the trail's expansion.

In recent years, voters across the nation have proven they are willing to approve major infrastructure initiatives if they include public transportation, bicycling, walking, and trails. 

Tuesday we saw that the trend holds true in Missouri as well: Kansas City voters passed a $600 million "Complete Streets" bonding package by an overwhelming marging, and St. Louis voters approved a half-cent sales tax for MetroLink expansion and other infrastructure improvements.

Kansas City's new infrastructure proposal gives emphasis to Complete Streets, sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, and accessibility

The Kansas City Star summarized the Kansas City bond issues that passed Tuesday:

For years, Kansas City residents have pleaded for better roads, bridges, sidewalks and flood control. On Tuesday, voters put those community priorities ahead of individual pocketbook concerns and approved a massive, $800 million infrastructure package and the property tax increases to help pay for it.

Cities across Missouri have started to make a practice of including important walking, bicycling, and trails projects and maintenance in their regular capital funding and bonding proposals. But--until now--Kansas City, Missouri, never has.

After many months of work by citizens, community leaders, city staff, and elected officials, Kansas City has a very important capital improvement bonding proposal on Tuesday's municipal elections ballot.

And thanks to the work of BikeWalkKC advocates, working together with supportive citizens, staff, and elected officials, the proposal takes a step that Kansas City has never taken before: It gives very strong support to the city's long-neglected sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, and other basic infrastructure used by people who walk, bicycle, and use transit.