e-biking in Kansas City

Before the city created dedicated bike lanes on Gillham a few years ago, we had identified a nearby parallel route to avoid using Gillham: southbound on Charlotte Street and northbound on Holmes Road–two one-way streets with a gentler grade and little traffic just to the east of Gillham. Gillham was just too busy to recommend.

After the dedicated lanes went in, we took many rides using them and concluded that the choice to put both lanes on the east side of the street created danger at many intersections, and we chose not to recommend Gillham on the Hyde Parker and Swope Parker routes, but to stick with the side streets.

Recently the city has made changes to the Gillham lanes that increase safety. Are we now ready to use Gillham for these routes?

Bikes going the wrong way

Our initial test rides demonstrated this danger. Several times traffic from the side street failed to yield to (or even notice) us as we entered the intersection from the north. Worse still, cars would pull into the bike lanes and stop in order to get a better look at traffic from the car lanes.

The danger comes from the fact that westbound motorists on the side streets that arrive at the Gillham intersection don’t expect bicycles coming into the intersection on the right. They are looking across the street for southbound traffic to the right and to their immediate left for northbound traffic. A southbound bike on their immediate right is unexpected; they were viewed by motorists as going the wrong way. We had to slow to a near stop to avoid accidents.

Slip Lanes and Dedicated Right Turn Lanes

Cyclists will recognize these as banes to safety on the road. Dedicated turn lanes seem to give vehicles the license to proceed without regard for anything in their way and slip lanes allow them to do so at higher speed. To avoid this, many of these intersections are marked for the bike lane to jump to the left side of the turn lane, thus completely defeating the purpose of a protected lane. There are many of these car-friendly, bike-endangering features along Gillham.

City takes safety measures

Recently the city has modified the intersection at Linwood Boulevard. The slip lane onto north Gillham was a particular hazard to southbound cyclists. Cars using the lane have no reason to look right; they look left and if they see no traffic they can take the intersection at 20 mph–potentially right into a southbound cyclists. The city has closed this hazardous slip lane.

On the other side, the city has eliminated the dedicated right turn lane (the right turn arrow is still faintly visible on the pavement). The bike lanes are protected all the way to the intersection, and the awkward mixing of bikes and right-turning cars has been eliminated.

Cyclists (and motorists) approaching the intersection are alerted to the recent changes in the traffic pattern.