While we're talking about Nichols Parkway…
A note for readers: This post focuses on a specific issue in Kansas City, MO. I’ll say, though, if you’re not in KC I imagine you can see how this can apply to a situation in your city as well.
There’s been a lot of talk lately in Kansas City about renaming JC Nichols Parkway and the Nichols Fountain. While the focus is on the legacy of JC Nichols and our historic racial divides, we seem to avoid the subject of the street itself and its design. This feels like a missed opportunity, given how a few tweaks could dramatically improve the physical connections in our city. I’d like to spend a little time in this space to highlight not just what is possible, but also the power of fairly small, incremental changes.
The context - the Parkway is in the middle next to Mill Creek Park
For the purposes of this piece, I’m going to lump together the four blocks of Nichols Parkway (soon to be changed back to Mill Creek Parkway), and the three blocks that continue south as Baltimore Avenue. If you’re traveling that stretch of roadway, you might not realize they are two different names, but indeed they are. Of course to the north it transitions to Broadway Boulevard, north of 43rd Street. Thank you, George Kessler for the confusion. Why it isn’t all just Broadway is beyond me, but that’s for discussions another day.
Mill Creek Parkway, existing
The street itself in this stretch is four lanes of traffic, plus parking or bus stops on both sides of the street. The diverse and constant activity in the area generally means the street parking is quite heavily used, though traffic volumes themselves are very low for a 4-lane street. Mill Creek Park on the east is a very active and beautiful space, with an exercise path running around the perimeter.
Here’s an approximate section of what the street is in this area:
A new 2-way cycle track on Gillham Plaza
It’s long been established that these types of four-lane configurations are some of our least-safe streets, and that they are frequently over-designed relative to the amount of traffic. Our metro area is littered with such streets that only serve to encourage reckless, speeding traffic.
So let’s imagine what we might do to change this circumstance, and also what can be done with some simple paint, some flex-posts, and some concrete parking stops. In fact, we don’t have to imagine too much, since this was just implemented on Gillham Plaza farther north and east in Midtown. Imagine a two-way bicycle path (in parlance, a cycle track or protected bike lane) on the west side of the street. Imagine converting the unnecessary four lanes and replacing them with two lanes plus a center turn-lane. Thus, a classic four to three road diet that’s proven to work in countless locations for better safety for all. Then imagine keeping the street parking since it is popular, necessary and protects people on foot and bicycle.
Connections to the Brush Creek Trail can then happen just west of Baltimore for the north side of the creek, and right at Baltimore for the south side of the creek.
New protected bike lane would connect to Brush Creek Trail very easily here
Ward Parkway east of Baltimore - the “street design fail” Hall of Fame nominee
Finally, while we’re at it, let’s go ahead and do something similar to the absurdly-wide, four-lane, one-way section of Ward Parkway between Baltimore and Brookside Boulevard. Here’s what that change looks like.
From this point we just claim the existing, and almost never-used, sidewalk on the west side of Brookside Boulevard as the “Trolley Trail,” and its signalized connection across 49th Street. This requires nothing more than a couple of signs.
Capture the sidewalk and crossing as part of the “trail” and it’s a connected system now
Altogether, these are two very simple, very inexpensive changes for seven blocks of north and south roadway and one block of east and west roadway. What does it do for us? All of a sudden, there’s now a low-stress bicycle connection from the doorstep of Westport to the Plaza, the Brush Creek Trail and the Trolley Track Trail. Whether for recreation, for necessity, for opportunity, or for simple human pleasure, one can safely and easily travel by bicycle to many points east, west, north and south. And this is your daily reminder: an awful lot of people ride by bicycle because it’s their only reliable way to get around town.
The Main-Brookside “connector”
I know this isn't top of mind for people right now, but at some point we have to get to work on fixing the physical divisions in our city. We talk a lot, rightfully so, about the racial divisions and our sordid history that closed the doors of opportunity to many. But many of those divisions manifested themselves into physical divides as well. Just look at the horribly over-designed Main-Brookside connector, which served to cut off the Plaza from its neighbors to the east, all in the name of making traffic flow easier from north to south.
If we want to heal the divides in our community, let’s work on actually healing the physical divides, too.
The good news is, some of these changes require rather tiny amounts of money. What they mostly require is an openness to change, to experimentation, and a setting aside of the notion that the purpose of our streets is solely to move speeding traffic at all hours of the day.
But wait, there’s more!
Former streetcar right-of-way, which still exists and is owned by KCATA
Note: people actually walk this already!
Of course, I can’t just leave people at the doorstep of Westport, and not actually get people safely in and out of Westport. Just on the north side of 43rd Street, sits the old streetcar right-of-way to Mill Street. Today it’s a sad remnant of a bridge that used to cross the intersection, and now is only a grassy berm. The KCATA still owns the right-of-way.
If our new protected bike lanes were simply connected by a short multi-use path (aka, a sidewalk) up the hill to Mill Street, we’d have a high-quality, very safe route into the heart of the entertainment area. Mill Street itself is a narrow, quirky and fairly charming little street. It’s very low traffic, and very low speed. It’s the kind of street that mixes bicycles, pedestrians and cars all very well. Sidebar: it’d be Kansas City’s best street if the west side of it matched the east side in terms of architectural quality and scale.
Mill Street - imagine how great this really could be, with similarly charming buildings on both sides
Is there even more? Can this be extended farther? In fact, yes, it can. But that’s the subject for another post, coming soon. I think people will be amazed what is possible (yes, that’s a tease).
Bonus!
OK, OK I can’t just leave it there. These are the wages of sin for a designer. No problem is every finished. In this case, there are two other small, but important bonuses to be had in this stretch of Mill Creek Parkway. Both of them involve right-turn slip lanes that only exist to move traffic at speed. At both 47th Street and Ward Parkway, little pedestrian orphans have been created by these slip lanes. Did I mention this is one of the busier parts of our city for pedestrians?
47th/ Mill Creek Parkway could have one of the best outdoor public plazas in the city. At the entry to THE Plaza
I’m not sure what to do with the new space, but at least pedestrians wouldn’t have to run the gauntlet to get across the street here anymore
Simply eliminating these two slip lanes allows for much shorter, safer protections for people walking AND some connected, interesting public space. Why not have the space at 47th Street turn into a beautiful extended plaza at the front of the businesses in this location? Imagine the Seville Light Fountain actually surrounded by people lingering, instead of in the middle of a forgotten traffic island?
We can often get trapped into thinking human progress can only happen in large, dramatic steps. We do have occasional moments in time where that needs to happen and does happen. But let’s not also forget that change – lasting change – is almost invariably a series of seemingly small steps. A simple gesture. An invitation. A personal connection. These are the kinds of things any of us can do, and many people do daily.
Our physical city needs lots of small, healing gestures too.
We can start today to make small, incremental changes to address these issues. They aren’t as headline-grabbing as renaming streets, but they can have immense power to positively impact the lives of real people, today, tomorrow and for decades to come.
Coming up next: how far can this idea be extended? You might be surprised.
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