KCRag Forum

If so I will literally cry. I love that area and THOUGHT the people were progressive enough to adapt to this.

Send an email in support to the NKC mayor and city council in support. Not every complaint about projects is legitimate but there's a couple spots that are huge pain points because of it. They shouldn't tear it out but i needs improving

That photo is looking westbound from Iron. I turn left here SB to WB in the morning and cross next intersection in view south to north in the afternoon. That path is very much on purpose.

You can see the signal head has space for left turn arrows and has a protected left (WB to SB). The other direction (EB to NB) doesn't have a protected left cycle.

So when you've heading EB into town as a resident it's very hard to turn left to go north. There's similar issues turning left into businesses between Burlington and Linn. Dropping lanes has meant it's much harder for traffic to clear the block before the light cycle restarts, the Howell to Iron block EB in the evening is especially bad.

The city did a major road diet in terms of the lanes but the signals weren't changed to support the changes. They simply didn't finish the project yet.

I recommended implementing four way blinking reds as a test to discourage Armour being used as a through street. A lot of drivers take it to Burlington to avoid I-35 into downtown. They already have a truck route marked on Linn and 16th that could take a lot of NKC traffic.

NKC City Council is having special public meeting on Armour tomorrow evening (October 15) at 6 pm. I'd encourage anyone in the region who supports bike infra to attend, and reach out to BikeWalkKC who is doing some organizing for it.

bspecht wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:10 am NKC City Council is having special public meeting on Armour tomorrow evening (October 15) at 6 pm. I'd encourage anyone in the region who supports bike infra to attend, and reach out to BikeWalkKC who is doing some organizing for it.

NKC council votes to keep the Armour Road changes in place for six months and review the data (!) after that.

What kind of data did they say they plan to look at?

I assume it's largely safety and traffic data. Although, I imagine there will be businesses that also offer anecdotal/partial data regarding business/revenue being positively/negatively effected by the changes.

Pablo Sanders Jr passed today. A huge bike advocate and heavily involved with Critical Mass in KC. The outpouring of support and just general love for the guy has been huge, I was told he was a real free spirit and great guy. I believe he was hit while crossing Valentine at SW Trafficway. I do know that light is super short but I would love to see a bunch of changes on SW Trafficway. We need to get people to slow down on that road, make the entire 3rd lane a bike lane or something, the road is basically a highway and its really just a cut through for people living in Kansas and PV/Ward Parkway area, it serves no purpose to the neighborhood at all since you can't even turn left or right in some spots.

Horrible news.

Can't turn left on 90% of it, don't want to slow down any cars you know!

...... the driver should go to jail!

I don't think the driver is at fault. They just went thru the intersection while it was green. I think Pablo was slow getting thru the intersection. I can barely make that light in my car and I'm the first one to go

Yeah if anybody should go to jail it's public works who created this dangerous situation

Three things should happen right away:

1) Pass the fucking bike plan.
2) Revive the Midtown Complete Streets plan (and pass it).
3) Fund a plan to make SW Trafficway safer (and slower).

DaveKCMO wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 8:28 pm Three things should happen right away:

1) Pass the fucking bike plan.
2) Revive the Midtown Complete Streets plan (and pass it).
3) Fund a plan to make SW Trafficway safer (and slower).

Well said. Beyond the tragedy of the last week, we should all be outraged that the city spent two years of staff and the public's time developing a comprehensive plan that is now just sitting on a desk because the Mayor isn't leading on the issue.

Way worse than not leading, he used the issue as a wedge.

Every time I am driving and there is a biker minding their own business I will follow them if I can and leave a good car plus space between us. I will follow at 5 mph if needed. I hope this doesn't scare anyone. I'm just trying to protect them from the crazy drivers. I would much rather they hit me then the biker. If needed I would swerve in front of a car to save a biker. As a fellow biker I I have never had anyone do this for me. Is this okay?

I followed a lady down Oak this morning all the way from Children's Mercy to Truman. I hope she knows I was trying to protect her and not creepy crawling behind her to scare her.

nickyrosstheboss wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:42 am Every time I am driving and there is a biker minding their own business I will follow them if I can and leave a good car plus space between us. I will follow at 5 mph if needed. I hope this doesn't scare anyone. I'm just trying to protect them from the crazy drivers. I would much rather they hit me then the biker. If needed I would swerve in front of a car to save a biker. As a fellow biker I I have never had anyone do this for me. Is this okay?

I followed a lady down Oak this morning all the way from Children's Mercy to Truman. I hope she knows I was trying to protect her and not creepy crawling behind her to scare her.

I deeply appreciate the sentiment, but it might be less-stressful to the cyclist if you passed them giving them a nice wide berth. But that's only my personal opinion.

nickyrosstheboss wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:42 am I will follow them if I can and leave a good car plus space between us. I will follow at 5 mph if needed.

At your described car+ space you *can't* drive more than 5mph without being dangerous.

You're the crazy driver when you do this.

The state drivers standard is you're supposed to leave 3 seconds of space between you and another vehicle.
https://dor.mo.gov/forms/Driver%20Guide.pdf#page=57

At 25mph in a Toyota Camry (16 feet) you're supposed to leave 7 car lengths between you and the bike.

5280 feet * 25 = 132k feet per hour
=2200 feet per minute
= 36 feet per second
*3 = 110 feet in three seconds
110/16 = 6.8

Just pass them with half a lane width gap (4 feet minimum required) and get past them.

smh wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:50 am

nickyrosstheboss wrote: ↑Tue Dec 31, 2019 10:42 am Every time I am driving and there is a biker minding their own business I will follow them if I can and leave a good car plus space between us. I will follow at 5 mph if needed. I hope this doesn't scare anyone. I'm just trying to protect them from the crazy drivers. I would much rather they hit me then the biker. If needed I would swerve in front of a car to save a biker. As a fellow biker I I have never had anyone do this for me. Is this okay?

I followed a lady down Oak this morning all the way from Children's Mercy to Truman. I hope she knows I was trying to protect her and not creepy crawling behind her to scare her.

I deeply appreciate the sentiment, but it might be less-stressful to the cyclist if you passed them giving them a nice wide berth. But that's only my personal opinion.

+1, this behavior from drivers scares the shit out of me. Makes me worried they are purposely going to do something to me OR that some upset driver behind them will try to pass them and, without looking, hit me when when trying to get in front of them.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I will never do this again!
This is the last thing I want the bikers to feel. Glad I had someone and somewhere to ask about this. I hardly drive as it is, but thought if I was driving a death machine the least i could do is try and protect people.

https://www.kcur.org/post/kansas-city-c ... h#stream/0

A well-known bicyclist around town was hit and killed by a car over the holidays. After a renewed call for the city to increase safety measures for bicyclists on city streets CM Loar (Lucas's appointed Transportation Chair) was asked what the city was going to do about it and said,

"...unfortunately people die in this city every day and we just have to make sure that we’re keeping everything in perspective."

Incredible.

Another amazing quote from Loar concerning the bike plan is the following,

Loar said she is willing to consider a plan to improve safety on city streets, but that the plan presented in April came at a cost of over $400 million, which she called “prohibitively expensive.”

“Every issue that affects the people in Kansas City … whether it’s a minority or not, deserves attention and usually we can work out some aspects to make things work,” Loar told KCUR. “However, to present us with a plan for $450 million dollars — and we haven’t heard from them since — that’s all we have to go on.”

Her complete lack of understanding for how plans work (ie. it doesn't actually need a budget commitment of $450 million) on top of the fact that she uses the excuse that "we haven't heard from them since" as a reason there hasn't been any more discussion on the bike plan is utterly stupefying. How she is in charge of any committee, let alone this committee is beyond me. If you have ever watched her committee, unpreparedness and misunderstanding are its hallmarks. We need leaders. She is not one.

Lucas apparently has nothing to say about his Transportation Chair's comments on how certain types of preventable deaths are not a priority to the city and instead gave some BS PR response.

At least CM Bunch says he plans to bring the proposed/dormant Master Bike Plan back before the council.