KCRag Forum

Physically protected bike lanes would help but is still baffling to me that Grand was chosen for main bike path when it is also a major bus route. I use Walnut instead and have noticed others do too.

earthling wrote:Physically protected bike lanes would help but is still baffling to me that Grand was chosen for main bike path when it is also a major bus route. I use Walnut instead and have noticed others do too.

The car I saw was on the new Armour Blvd. lanes, but it is a problem on Grand as well.

I think that having bike lanes in a bus route is fine, as long as the bus stops float, like the proposed stops near 12th Street. As it is, I'm still a lot more worried about the cars than the busses on Grand.

earthling wrote:Physically protected bike lanes would help but is still baffling to me that Grand was chosen for main bike path when it is also a major bus route. I use Walnut instead and have noticed others do too.

It will be less major without Main MAX, unless Independence MAX goes there (which *might* be in service by the time Main MAX goes away).

tower wrote:I already saw a car in the bike lane yesterday- they were loading something up in their car. The parking spaces aren't fully painted though- maybe with the buffer, cars will do a better job of respecting the bike lanes.

I saw a truck parked in the bike lane on Grand with its hazards on last night around 7:30pm, and a parking control officer was in the process of writing it a ticket. I was impressed to see them actually working after 6pm, and I hope that's going to be a trend as part of their stepped-up enforcement because there is a lot more really terrible parking taking place in the evenings lately.

scooterj wrote:

tower wrote:I already saw a car in the bike lane yesterday- they were loading something up in their car. The parking spaces aren't fully painted though- maybe with the buffer, cars will do a better job of respecting the bike lanes.

I saw a truck parked in the bike lane on Grand with its hazards on last night around 7:30pm, and a parking control officer was in the process of writing it a ticket. I was impressed to see them actually working after 6pm, and I hope that's going to be a trend as part of their stepped-up enforcement because there is a lot more really terrible parking taking place in the evenings lately.

At least the driver admitted their truck was a hazard to bikes.

Drove paseo this week and imagined how cool a bike track would be ...be like a bike superhighway to anywhere I would ever want to go on a bike.

chaglang wrote:Armour bike lanes are being installed starting today.

If you haven't been on this stretch lately, the lane striping appears to be finished - parking 'bubbles' have been striped and bike lanes on each lane better parking and curbs. Between this and the work MAC did on the apartments, these few blocks look amazing.

kcjak wrote:

chaglang wrote:Armour bike lanes are being installed starting today.

If you haven't been on this stretch lately, the lane striping appears to be finished - parking 'bubbles' have been striped and bike lanes on each lane better parking and curbs. Between this and the work MAC did on the apartments, these few blocks look amazing.

I think there is still quite a bit of striping to do on those sections. Green paint, buffer stripes, intersections, etc. But, yeah, they already look great.

So is this the final product?

When I drove by yesterday there was only the outline of the parking spots. They still need to add a door buffer on the curbside. As it is now, cars park all the way to the lines closest to the curbs and this makes it narrow for bikes. The buffers should help prevent that. Also, green paint and intersection treatments still need to be added according to the plan.

I read somewhere that the striping will be completed in a couple weeks.

Having no buffer is a bigger problem than I anticipated, but at least no one is parking in the actual bike lane.

Not having the buffer currently sucks, it's very tight because a lot of cars are parking on or over the line. Traffic has realllly slowed down though which is awesome!

DaveKCMO wrote:

earthling wrote:Physically protected bike lanes would help but is still baffling to me that Grand was chosen for main bike path when it is also a major bus route. I use Walnut instead and have noticed others do too.

It will be less major without Main MAX, unless Independence MAX goes there (which *might* be in service by the time Main MAX goes away).

There are about a dozen other bus lines that pass Grand through Xroads.

mykn wrote:Not having the buffer currently sucks, it's very tight because a lot of cars are parking on or over the line. Traffic has realllly slowed down though which is awesome!

It has become a much more pleasant road!

KCPowercat wrote:Drove paseo this week and imagined how cool a bike track would be ...be like a bike superhighway to anywhere I would ever want to go on a bike.

Agreed. the paseo would be a really nice ride, and as a bonus, it has the most gradual slope of any of the north/south streets between downtown and midtown: http://en-us.topographic-map.com/places ... ity-19133/

It also has a lot of excess capacity, with no Max line.

Yeah I looked up the grade when I got home and was impressed...even I could ride that on a heavy bcycle

Is armour traffic like 24x7 backed up now?

KCPowercat wrote:Is armour traffic like 24x7 backed up now?

I can hear the honking 2 blocks away.


No, nothing has changed with traffic, I go by armour multiple times a day.

Drove paseo this week and imagined how cool a bike track would be ...be like a bike superhighway to anywhere I would ever want to go on a bike.

This is actually an awesome idea. At least, the kind of thinking that I'd like to see applied to the east side.

Paseo is beautiful, wide enough that you could place a spacious paved path right down the center median, has the aforementioned gradual slope, and with the right infrastructure (lighting, hub facilities) could be a destination cycling/walking corridor. It connects with the Brush Creek paved path, Swope Park via Meyer and runs close to Rockhurst and Plaza. Could rename MLK Cultural Trail and connect with civil rights history in some way.

Thinking the Indy Cultural Trail as an example, but median running rather than then street.

As a bonus, perhaps sadly, it would probably be significantly easier to make some dramatic changes to the character of the boulevard because it IS Paseo, and not Ward Parkway or similar.