e-biking in Kansas City

The new protected bike lanes on Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard between Oak Street and Troost Avenue are now complete, giving cyclists a safe connection between the Trolley Track Trail to the south and the Gillham Road protected lanes to the north.

It’s a short but important link in the city’s bike-lane network.

Cleaver II Blvd. east of Troost has dedicated lanes, but they aren’t protected.

We’ve been able to use these lanes several times, and the beefy concrete divider gives cyclists good protection from the speeding and heavy traffic on Cleaver II. However the lanes are narrow, making it hard to pass slower cyclists.

Even so, our Brush Creek route will be modified to use these lanes from The Paseo to Oak, and then unprotected Cleaver II into the Plaza, rather than the old route that used the paths along Brush Creek. The new stretch shaves several minutes off a trip from the east-side to the Plaza, and avoids the worst stretch of the Brush Creek path underneath The Paseo where the concrete has heaved up and where high water often leaves dangerous slippery conditions.

Traffic congests west of Oak, and so traffic slows enough to make conditions much safer on unprotected Cleaver II despite the volume of cars.