Kansas City, Missouri — Kansas City, Missouri recently made traffic adjustments to Truman Road.
This is part of the preferred protected bike lane project Follow Truman Road from Oak Street to Van Brunt Road.
Shop owners along the Truman route said it hurt their business and caused confusion for drivers.
Shawn Arcidino is the owner of The Atomic Collision store on Truman Road.
As he talked about the grinder and other auto work he did at the shop, he heard more honking from confused drivers.
“We knew we had a problem at hand,” Arcardino said.
He said the street had just been redone.
The City of KCMO added a bike lane at the cost of eliminating a drive lane.
Arcadino decided to tell the city how he felt by posting signs, digging the city and saying traffic changes were destroying Truman Road.
“The logo actually does some good things,” he said. “No warning, no education. I’m actually letting people know that’s where they want us to park now, and everyone has the same reaction.”
A KCMO spokesman said Arcadino parked where he was supposed to park – in the right lane next to the bike lane.
if
“Every day I release something new,” he said, “it hurts my business, it hurts traffic and the safety of my customers.”
On Monday, KSHB 41 saw drivers lashing out at breaks and having to circle each other in a new traffic pattern.
Bailey Waters of KCMO’s Department of Public Works said the work was not yet complete.
According to Waters, the city will add parking rule signage and barriers along bike lanes. She said it will be done in about three months.
“People will be able to park on buffered bike lanes,” Waters said.
Waters explained why the city decided to make the change.
“The main reason we’re removing lanes on Truman Road is because it’s a dangerous street,” Waters said. “There’s extra space on the road. How many lanes there used to be and how much traffic was on the road. So what do we do with the extra space? We’ve seen time and time again that if you remove the lanes from the road without congestion, the road It will be safer.”
Waters said the city is not issuing tickets or mandating parking at this time.
But in the future, parking guidelines will remain the same despite the removal of one lane.
People can only park in the correct lane during off-peak hours, Waters said.
This means people cannot park between 7am and 9am in the eastbound direction and between 4pm and 6pm in the westbound direction
Arcadino said he’s disappointed the city hasn’t heard from business owners.
“It’s not good for business,” he said. “We didn’t ask for it, we didn’t vote for it — every business is like me. I’m just being blunt.”
Waters said parking rules could change again.
“We’re analyzing traffic flow right now to see if we can make it a permanent lane,” Waters said.
—