Kansas City Bicycle Log

Posts, email, and ideas related to bicycling and bicycle advocacy.



I post these mostly for my own convenience in being able to keep them archived and searchable, but if you get some use of them, more power to you!

Among other interesting items here is a fairly complete record of my involvement with the grassroots effort in support of the BikeKC initiative in the Summer of 2002.

You can find everything from press releases to letters to the city council to exhortations to other bicyclists to write letters to the editor. See what worked well and what caused us problems in the effort to pass BikeKC.

From my point of view, this was almost a picture-perfect grass-roots movement. The result was that BikeKC was passed on August 15th, 2002.

Now we have to work to make sure the plan becomes reality!

Most of that is in the 8/25/2002-8/31/2002 archive.

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Sunday, August 25, 2002
 
Subject: UMKC University News article

BikeKC is a proposal to create a network of on-street bike lanes and routes around the Kansas City area. 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 will come to a vote before the Kansas City Council in the next week or two.

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 UMKC students support BikeKC?

* University communities like UMKC are an ideal setting for bicycle use. You need an easy and inexpensive way to get around, and biking can be part of the answer. The very first bicycle lanes and routes to be put in place cover the area around UMKC, the Plaza, and downtown. Imagine being able to easily and safely bike from your apartment to school, to work, to the grocery store. Think of the money you would save! That is the idea behind BikeKC.

* 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. You will be able to bicycle farther and feel safer while you're riding.

* Bicycling, even just a few miles a week to work, school, the store or the park, is a healthy and eco-friendly alternative. Bicycles don't pollute and they don't kill innocent bystanders like cars do (30,000 deaths/year from automobile pollution in the U.S. alone).

I urge UMKC students and staff to let the Kansas City Council members know that you support BikeKC. Some key City Council members oppose the plan. Grass-roots effort has been important in overcoming this opposition to BikeKC, 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).

--Dr. Brent Hugh
UMKC Alumnus (MM 1995, DMA 2000)
posted by Brent Hugh at Sunday, August 25, 2002 | permanently archived here

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