RESOLUTION NO. 230625
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Sponsor(s): Councilmember Eric Bunch and Mayor Quinton Lucas
RESOLUTION - Directing the City Manager to coordinate with the Kansas City Area Transit Authority and the Kansas City Streetcar Authority to produce design alternatives for transit exclusive lanes to be considered for incorporation in the streetcar extension from Pershing Road to 51st Street and requiring a report back to City Council within 90 days; and expressing Council’s support for a vehicular design speed no greater than 30 miles per hour along the expanded Streetcar route.
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WHEREAS, the City partnered with the Kansas City Area Transit Authority and the Kansas City Streetcar Authority to expand streetcar service from Union Station to UMKC; and
WHEREAS, Ordinance No. 170949 codified a Complete Streets policy that requires streets to be improved for all users during all phases of street maintenance, improvement, and construction; and
WHEREAS, Resolution No. 190951 directed the City Manager to improve public transit efficiency by implementing operational and design best practices including transit exclusive lanes; and
WHEREAS, Resolution No. 220660 approved the City’s Vision Zero Action plan which renewed Council’s goal to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2030 and made recommendations for Road Diet criteria, citywide; and
WHEREAS, a road diet is a vehicle lane reduction that improves roadway safety and improves access to local businesses with no or minimal detriment to traffic operations; and
WHEREAS, streets with four or more lanes in Kansas City have a disproportionate share of serious injuries and fatalities; and
WHEREAS, the Federal Highway Administration has found that road diets appeared to have minimal effects on vehicle capacity because left-turning vehicles were moved into a common two-way left-turn lane, and, for road diets with annual average daily traffic under 20,000 vehicles, traffic congestion will not increase to the point of diverting traffic to alternative routes; and
WHEREAS, the Council desires a record of the streets to undergo road diets so that future street resurfacing efforts result in more "Livable Streets;" NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:
Section 1. That the City Manager is hereby directed to coordinate with the Kansas City Area Transit Authority and the Kansas City Streetcar Authority to produce design alternatives for transit exclusive lanes to be considered for incorporation in the streetcar extension from Pershing Road to 51st Street and requiring a report back to City Council within 90 days
Section 2. That the City Council expresses its support for a vehicular design speed no greater than 30 miles per hour along the expanded Streetcar route.
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