Kansas City Proceeding with the First of (Possibly) Many Road Diets

An article by Mike Hendricks reports the news of the impending road diet for Grand Boulevard as well as devoting ink to making the case for why a new lane configuration works for the street: "city planners say Grand has way more capacity than the amount of traffic it carries. Only where traffic turns to get on Interstate 70 does it bunch up."

Other streets in downtown Kansas City also boast excess capacity, prompting a city council committee to consider a resolution "ordering a citywide road-diet analysis…to see how many undivided four-lane streets could be converted to three lanes."

Hendricks also mentions the benefits of road diets to the city's targets for new bike lanes as well as the traffic calming effects of narrower streets. So far, reports Hendricks, opposition to road diet discussions has been scant, thus making Kansas City the envy of complete streets advocates everywhere.