Subject: BikeKC Pitch Weekly Letter
BikeKC is a proposal to create a network of on-street bike lanes and routes and reserve a little more right-of-way in future developments for pedestrian and biking facilities. Details about the plan can be found at www.bikekc.org.
Bicycle riders, groups, clubs, and shops around the area strongly support BikeKC and have worked hard to get it passed. BikeKC has been tabled since November, but in the next week or two it will again come for consideration before the City Council.
If you would like to see KC become a more bikeable city, now is the time to let your City Council member know about your feelings.
Why should Kansas Citians support BikeKC?
* The availability of transportation alternatives will make Kansas City a more thriving, modern, liveable city.
* New developments will be planned from the beginning to allow for bicycle and pedestrian access. This sort of planning costs a little in the short run but makes development more attractive and ultimately, more valuable to those who live there. People like to live where they can bike and walk.
* Studies show that on-street bike paths and routes such as those proposed in BikeKC increase bicycle safety, reduce friction between bicycles and autos, and are effective in increasing bicycle use.
* Bicycling, even just a few miles a week to work, school, the store or the park, is a healthy and eco-friendly alternative. Example: People who switched from auto to bicycle commuting lowered their overall mortality rate by 40% (that's a lot!). BikeKC will make utility bicycling, like commuting, more practical for more people.
* Millions of federal dollars are available to smooth streets, replace grates, and repair curbs and gutters on bike routes. Let's get BikeKC in place use our fair share of those dollars before they're gone.
I urge Kansas City road users to let the Kansas City Council members know that you support BikeKC. Grass-roots effort has been important in getting BikeKC as far as it has, and more is needed to push it over the top.
Please be polite and persuasive when you write the City Council, 24th Floor, 414 E. 12th St., KCMO 64106, call (816) 513-1625, or email (find email addresses at www.kcmo.org).
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Dr. Brent Hugh, pianist and professor of music at Missouri Western State College, has bicycled about 2000 miles on Kansas City-area roads in the past year. He can be reached at bhugh@mwsc.edu.
posted by Brent Hugh at
Sunday, August 25, 2002 |
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