Letter sent to the KCStar in response to and editorial cartoon about BikeKC:
Lee Judge's editorial cartoon (8/17) pointed out that now that Kansas City is fixing roads for bikes (Council approves addition of bike lanes to KC streets, 8/16), we should start thinking about fixing them for cars, too.
One of the little-known facts about BikeKC is that it includes the potential to create smoother, better roads for automobiles as well as bicycles.
To the motorist, BikeKC's plans for new roadways look an awful lot like good wide roads with paved shoulders (what you or I would call a "shoulder" is labeled as a "bike lane").
Bicycles are more sensitive than autos to rough roads, potholes, eroded street cuts, depressed manhole covers, deteriorating curbs and pans, and so on. Allowing that bicycles might occasionally ride anywhere on the road--for instance, when making a left turn into or out of a mid-block driveway--the Transportation Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) provides up to 90% federal funding for hazard elimination over the *entire* roadway, not just near the edge.
Such funding can be sought for any of our pre-existing streets that have been designated as BikeKC bike routes.
KC Public Works has received some federal grants for this purpose and, now that BikeKC has passed, should vigorously pursue more.
The only shame is that we cannot make *all* Kansas City roads signed bicycle routes and eliminate hazards from them all.
If bicyclists are the excuse we need to finally start building and maintaining good roads in Kansas City, then so be it.
posted by Brent Hugh at
Sunday, August 25, 2002 |
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