KC Light Rail

From TIME magazine. Enjoy your holiday locally!

The local bike activists at kcbike.info are encouraging you to take one week out of your car-centric life and see how liberating it can be. It's Bike Week 2008 next week, so sign up if you want to give $3.60/gallon gas prices a break. The weather looks promising. What have you got to lose? You don't even have to bike, just give up your car and carpool, walk, or use transit (or any combination that works for you). Did we mention a one-way trip on the bus is still only $1.25? Biking and walking are, of course, free. Need help? Leave a comment and we'll do our best to point you in the right direction, or check their handy route map.

Local:
Ford: KCMO needs a "Plan B" (Kansas City Star)
Bus tax in light rail's shadow (Kansas City Star)
April 8 ballot information (City of Kansas City)
New EPA ozone standard will challenge KC metro (Business Journal)

National:
Tampa gets regional with transit (Tampa Bay Online)
Cincinnati authorizes streetcar study (Business Courier)
Parking gets tight at Denver park-and-rides (Aurora Sentinel)
Light rail "best bet" for getting to Charlotte's ACC tourney (WCNC)
Plans for new light-rail link in Pittsburgh revived (Philly.com)
Ford considers building "Transit Connect" taxi (Reuters)

The "We'll pick you up!" people just launched their WeCar car sharing service at nine locations in downtown St. Louis. It's a nice public-private partnership that serves transit users well. You can even get a Prius. Once these services start spreading further, private car ownership will seem even more silly and wasteful. Light rail isn't even a prerequisite, as Albuquerque, Columbus, Gainesville, and Milwaukee have proven (check this nationwide list). National car-sharing competitors FlexCar and ZipCar merged last year.

Take heed, Downtown Council! Maybe WeCar parent Enterprise Rent-A-Car will forgive us for tarring and feathering them during the downtown arena vote — which boosted rental car taxes — and consider KC for it's next WeCar location.

Kansas City International Airport will have a new terminal in 20 years and there isn't much you can do about it.

Okay, ready to move on? Good, because the new terminal design shown to locals at an open house on Thursday has a light rail station. While some may say "Duh!", it's a far cry from earlier comments from the Aviation Department, who basically intimated the existing revenue stream (parking) that keeps KCI self-funded would be at risk if we were offered an alternative way to get there. At least now we've moved beyond denial and have accepted the reality that the shoddy local bus (#129x) option isn't cutting it for just about everyone.

All that said, if you live downtown or don't mind transferring and happen to be departing and arriving between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday only from Terminal C, then this 45-minute bus ride is for you. $1.25 each way beats even one day of bargain parking.

No big news on KC light rail planning, but here are some other recent transit-related tidbits:

• KCATA has updated their trip planner: it's now MacOS friendly. Think you can't take the bus to work? Better check again!
• Last night, KCPT and By The People held a follow-up to the Oct. 20 transit forum. This event was not televised, but this time we were chosen to participate. We'll post the final report here once we receive it. The original forum will be re-broadcast on Jan. 4.
• MARC is also hosting a follow-up to their SmartMoves workshops that were held in various parts of the metro throughout the fall. This time there are only two sessions — Dec. 10 and 12 — and they're both accessible via public transit. RSVPs are recommended.
• Mayor Funkhouser will be on KCUR's Up To Date Wednesday and light rail will be a topic. Air time is 11:00 a.m. CDT and the call-in number is 816-235-2888. Also available as a live stream and podcast.
• MoDOT announced the winning design/build team for the new Paseo Bridge — soon to be "a landmark cable-stay Missouri River bridge expandable to eight lanes and capable of accommodating a future bicycle/pedestrian facility once connectivity is established" — on Nov. 14. While it won't accommodate light rail and will open by 2011, be on the lookout for a new river crossing upstream that will be part of the revised light rail plan from KCATA and HNTB. The Heart of America and ASB bridges are out of the picture. We're guessing that will make Grand Avenue the south shore landing point and Swift Avenue in North Kansas City the north shore landing point.
• Bike racks have been installed along 12th Street as part of the downtown streetscape improvements in that corridor. If you've got more than a few blocks to walk to the bus stop near your home, remember that every city bus has a fold-down bike rack on the front. Instructions and pics are here. Word has it that bike racks are also coming soon to the Power & Light District as a last-minute addition. City bike parking rules are here.
• Charlotte's new light rail line is attracting solid numbers now that fares are being collected. The next light rail newbie, Phoenix, has started testing their new line — which is on-time and on-budget; it's due to open in December 2008. New Haven is seriously talking streetcars, and there is chatter that Savannah will be launching a streetcar circulator next year. In the bad news column, St. Louis Metro lost its lawsuit against the contractors who built the "Cross County" light rail extension to Clayton.
• Expanding Amtrak service to Oklahoma is the topic this Saturday as the Northern Flyer Alliance holds a public meeting at Union Station to build grassroots support for plugging a big hole in Amtrak's national network. Only 200 rail miles separates Newton, Kansas, from Oklahoma City, and Wichita (the largest city in Kansas) is not currently served.