Council will study bike use in city

One Independence City Council member’s stepbrother recently moved to Independence from Boston – and he came without a vehicle.

Instead, District 1 Council Member Marcie Gragg said, her relative brought his bicycle, his main form of transportation. He is used to riding his bicycle everywhere, including to work.

It’s a growing attitude across the country, and Independence is looking to better accommodate its public roadways for those who rely on their bicycles.

As part of the city’s recently adopted complete streets policy, staff members are looking to improve bicycle transportation along 21 miles of six Independence streets, including Sterling Avenue, 35th Street and Lee’s Summit, Winner, Westport and Bundschu roads. Upcoming capital improvement projects are planned along 35th Street and Bundschu Road.

Eventually, the city will adopt a bicycle transportation master plan that would coordinate with the Independence trails plan, which is now in a draft phase. Then, a possible study of other street locations may take place to improve bicycle riding.

Council members in early June adopted a resolution that established a complete streets policy for Independence, following other Kansas City area municipalities like Lee’s Summit.

“Complete streets” is the idea that all roadway planning, design, construction and maintenance should include the consideration of the needs of those who ride their bicycle, walk and use transit. The concept also considers the physical capabilities and ages of all residents.

At City Manager Robert Heacock’s recommendation Monday night, an ad-hoc council-led committee – similar to the Transit Committee created this summer – will form to research the bicycle transportation needs throughout Independence. During his first meeting as a City Council member, newly sworn-in District 2 representative James Engelman was named to that committee, as well as Gragg and At-Large Council Member Jim Schultz.

“This is not a simple process …” Heacock said. “We really want to make sure that if we’re talking about impacting the neighborhood or certain routes that people tend to use more than others for biking that we get that input at that time when we’re talking about that particular area of roadway.”

Mayor Don Reimal expressed concern about bicyclists not always using the separated, shared-use path along Jackson Drive. Reimal asked John Powell, director of public works, how the city could get riders to better use that separate path.

“The experienced riders would much rather ride on the road. The less experienced, the younger ones typically would prefer to be on a separated path,” Powell said. “I could see where there would be some who would want to use the road.”

“The problem I have is that somebody is going to get hurt,” Reimal replied. “I don’t know what the solution is, but I know what the problem is. … There’s enough traffic that somebody’s going to get hurt.”

The ad-hoc committee would allow for better communication among the city’s bicycle-riding groups, as well as less-experienced residents who just want to ride their bikes for exercise, Heacock said. Schultz also reiterated that the type of bicyclists who ride the shared-use path are a different crowd than those who bike for dozens of miles at one time on the roads.

“That’s where, I think, you’re going to find out if we’ve got the right roads and if people are going to use them,” Schultz said of the ad-hoc committee meetings. “It doesn’t do us any good to mark bike lanes on a road if they are using an entirely different road.”