Sherae Honeycutt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Original Post

If you travel down Meyer Boulevard, you may see some changes in the future.

Meyer Boulevard is one of the busiest corridors in Kansas City running from Ward Parkway to Troost. Now, the city is working on a plan to put in bike lanes, and they expect the changes to make the city safer.

“We’ll have it broken up into different phases, and that’s what we’ll ask the public: which phase they want to do first. But we’ll probably concentrate on making that Trolley Track Trail right at Brookside Plaza a lot safer,” KCMO’s innovation engineer, Wes Minder said.

The plan is to start with the Brookside Plaza intersection and then work outward from there.

The city says the cross streets are complicated, and it will take around $300,000 in public improvement funding.

“Somebody who’s trying to navigate the trolley track trail from the south to get to Brookside has to navigate a bunch of turns and whatnot, so we’re proposing to put in a median there and make it one lane east way, and allow people to have some safe refuge and shorten that crossing,” Minder said.

BikeWalkKC said the change is part of an overall citywide plan that could save nearly 80 lives over the next few years.

“Those are the kinds of things if we stop and think about taking a few extra seconds driving down the road in exchange for things like human life, economic benefits for the community, it makes things really worth it,” Eric Vaughan with BikeWalkKC said.

Dan Cain is planning to open a new location of his electric bike rental business, Pedego, in Brookside.

Cain said he’s all for making street more accessible and safer. He’s also lived in the neighborhood for 30 years and wants to make sure everyone’s voice is heard.

“It’s all about integrating everything together to make it work together,” Cain said. “The streets are just one part of that. I’m excited to know that they’re looking at doing the initiative. I want to hear more.”

On Thursday the city held a community meeting to hear from everyone in the area. They want to make sure they know of any concerns and feedback before moving forward with the project.