e-biking in Kansas City

These days, the Country Club Plaza needs all the traffic it can get. More storefronts—nearly 33%— are vacant than were during the Great Depression. The sidewalks are empty. So maybe it’s time to encourage even cyclists to ride there?

There are zero bike racks in its 15 square blocks. There isn’t a single foot of bike route there—not even a street with some sharrows.

Of the six major traffic routes (Southwest Trafficway, Broadway, Cleaver II, Brookside Boulevard, MLK, Ward Parkway and Main) into the district, all are terrible cycling streets. Only two have bike lanes but not near the Plaza. Cleaver II Boulevard’s protected lanes end at Oak Street, well east of the Plaza, and the new Broadway bike lanes end at Westport Road, many blocks north of the Plaza.

Seems like it’s intentional, doesn’t it?

Not only does all of this inhibit cyclists trying to reach the district, it makes the design of north-south bike routes through the city difficult. It’s a mile-wide by mile-long hole in the very center of the city where cycling remains dangerous.

e-bikekc.com, among its many core biking routes, identified only one, The Midtowner, that touches the Plaza. There are broad statements of intent by the city and the new owners about making the Plaza more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, but nothing specific.