KCRag Forum

Also, didn't part of the facade collapse a year ago or so? I think that created some additional unplanned work.

flyingember wrote:

wahoowa wrote:what the hell is going on at the boley building? they've been hacking away at it for what seems like 18 months

I would bet it's a combination that slower costs less, a crazy complex amount of work and a need to not interrupt daytime users

Slower costs less?

In most any circumstance, the exact opposite proves true.

loftguy wrote:

flyingember wrote:

wahoowa wrote:what the hell is going on at the boley building? they've been hacking away at it for what seems like 18 months

I would bet it's a combination that slower costs less, a crazy complex amount of work and a need to not interrupt daytime users

Slower costs less?

In most any circumstance, the exact opposite proves true.

Slower as in not a rush job. If they made a deal where their work is fit in the extra time around other jobs this could come with a discount and take a lot longer. Not saying that's the case but there's clearly reasons something like this could take so long.

If I'm reading the minutes right the NKC Burlington cycle track project engineering contract was approved yesterday.

This is the 10th Ave to 32nd Ave segment of the bike network and hopefully will help accelerate the KCMO connections to NKC.

I would call this the biggest deal bike lane in the city, over even Grand, because it will show people what can be done.

StrangerThings wrote:I’ve yet to see a single bike utilize the bike lanes downtown around the Power and Light area. I’ve seen more skateboard nerds than anything.

i've seen it used (properly) at least three times.

StrangerThings wrote:I’ve yet to see a single bike utilize the bike lanes downtown around the Power and Light area. I’ve seen more skateboard nerds than anything.

Probably because of a lack of bike infrastructure surrounding it.

The people who want to ride in a comfortable/safe environment are likely not biking along just one street, which is why we need to expand safe bike facilities to all roads so there are less barriers to bike ridership.

StrangerThings wrote:I’ve yet to see a single bike utilize the bike lanes downtown around the Power and Light area. I’ve seen more skateboard nerds than anything.

It doesn't help that Two Light and Traders construction blocks the lane. But I concur that the main issue is lack of infrastructure elsewhere connecting into downtown.

StrangerThings wrote:I’ve yet to see a single bike utilize the bike lanes downtown around the Power and Light area. I’ve seen more skateboard nerds than anything.

I did a few weeks ago.

Youse guys do realize how pathetic that is right? One bike every few weeks? The bike path should have been put down Walnut, but nobody agreed with me. I still see more cyclists down Walnut during lunch/rush hour (no official bike path) than any other part of downtown, despite new Grand bike path.

It's going to take time and more of the loop setup.

They should have put one of those bike counters on the grand bridge with electronic signage showing how many bikes have passed by.

StrangerThings wrote:I’ve yet to see a single bike utilize the bike lanes downtown around the Power and Light area. I’ve seen more skateboard nerds than anything.

If it's nice over Christmas, I'll be biking down there probably... but these recent comments seem to ignore the fact that we're heading into winter. Cold. It's like finishing your outdoor water park in October and wondering where all the guests are.

Plus, as mentioned, there is construction blocking the lanes at both the North and South perimeter of the PnL District- which is where StrangerThings said he never sees anyone. I see people in the Xroads pretty much everyday after work. There are definitely commuters who use it.

KCPD needs to start spending some time hanging out near 20th & Grand during the afternoon rush hour. There hasn't been a day yet that I haven't seen someone use the right-turn lane at 20th to jump ahead past everyone using Grand correctly, and earlier this week I saw two cars continue straight on through from that right-turn lane and simply drive in the bike lane. One turned off at 18th, the other continued all the way to somewhere between 17th & 16th before finally merging over.

https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#15.09/ ... 3/hot/ride
Strava Labs provides heat maps showing usage of roads by different modes. I do not know their methodology or how they construct the map, but as you can see- downtown's bike usage is primarily concentrated on Grand. I have to imagine this data is prior to the installation of the bike lanes and so would guess this only increases the use of grand as the major roadway for bicycles. You can see that the Holmes/Charolotte bike lanes get a lot of use as well. Another conclusion I could draw is that through streets (esp. bridges over the highways) are what get used alot-- which is obvious, people prefer to take direct routes. So, we may as well make them safer for all if we can.

On that note, the council passed a pretty strong Complete Streets Ordinance yesterday. It sets out some pretty stringent and clear requirements for including pedestrian and bicycle access to our roadways. Combined with an (pending) updated bike plan and the GO bonds, there seems to be some real progress in this area.

kboish wrote: On that note, the council passed a pretty strong Complete Streets Ordinance yesterday. It sets out some pretty stringent and clear requirements for including pedestrian and bicycle access to our roadways. Combined with an (pending) updated bike plan and the GO bonds, there seems to be some real progress in this area.

it's worth nothing that this is an ordinance, not a resolution. the municipal code (our laws) will be updated to reflect a complete streets approach.

kboish wrote:I do not know their methodology or how they construct the map, but as you can see- downtown's bike usage is primarily concentrated on Grand.

Was talking to a 22yo cyclist/promoter at a Hyde Park dinner last night; has volunteered at 816 Collective, worked a couple bike shops and also once did a gig with the downtown bike waiter thing. A friend of his died cycling down (I think he said) Truman, hit by car. He was talking about the dangers of Grand, primarily the buses and tends to use Walnut (as do I). Grand does have the direct path to riverfront and may get those large group rides on weekends (skewing data) but otherwise is not exactly the best path to promote with all that bus traffic and likely to be the future path for more car traffic from Gilham/Main as midtown population increases.

Granted some cyclists tend to be more risk averse than others (I don't bike Main or Bway through Midtown either) but using Grand is clearly a risky path to promote through downtown with all of those buses. Fortunately it's just painted lines and can be moved at some point, hopefully we don't wait for serious injuries/deaths to make it happen.

Sometimes it's better to make decisions by talking to heaviest users than relying only on data. I often think bus system decisions are often made by people who don't ride the bus too.

I've ridden on Grand once since the bike lanes were painted and probably will not do that again. One plan for Grand had a two way cycletrack on one side of the road, protected by trees and a curb. That would be great if they got that done one day, although the city will probably just call Grand good enough and leave it alone.

What I would really like to see is for the city to put a protected cycletrack or bike lanes down Oak/Gillham, and connect that to the HOA bridge and the cycletrack NKC is building on Burlington. One of the reasons I dislike the idea of Grand is because it doesn't connect to midtown except via main, and rails and bikes don't always mix well. Most of the time bikes would only cross the tracks at a right angle, so it would probably be fine, but still.

Gilham would be a great place to connect downtown and midtown. Grand connects to Gilham via 27th and McGee trafficway. That is probably the best way to go because of the grade on those roadways. The Galleria developer is installing bike lanes on McGee trafficway out of their own pocket.

kboish wrote:Gilham would be a great place to connect downtown and midtown. Grand connects to Gilham via 27th and McGee trafficway. That is probably the best way to go because of the grade on those roadways. The Galleria developer is installing bike lanes on McGee trafficway out of their own pocket.

Speaking of... https://twitter.com/MARCKCMetro/status/ ... 2358255619

I had to drive across Oak, McGee, Grand, Walnut this week (WB) and Grand is the easiest to cross in the crossroads by far. All the parking almost to the corner creates horrible blind spots and that bike lane on Grand pushes the moving cars out just enough to see them further.

So despite not being protected, it helps with driver safety.

It also shows how a corner bumpout that reduces ped distances (see link below) and force people to park further back from the corner is of value to drivers too. It's not just good for bikes and pedestrians.

We need to sell this change as an "all of the above" safety approach. Can still do a wide turn radius in that image because a semi can turn right by swinging into the space in front of the left turn lane and straighten out from there. It just slows cars down because the turn is closer to a 90 degree instead of a 45

https://assets.wired.com/photos/w_1200/ ... ection.jpg