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[COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR] RESOLUTION NO. 230618

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Sponsor(s):  Councilmember Eric Bunch, and Mayor Quinton Lucas

RESOLUTION - Directing the City Manager to conduct a citywide road diet analysis and produce preliminary design implementing safety improvements of each existing undivided street with four or more lanes to determine the suitability of converting one or more of these streets into three-reduced lane streets via a restriping and/or resurfacing program.

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WHEREAS, Resolution No. 110069 expressed the Council’s support for the concept of “Livable Streets” as a means to promote great neighborhoods, healthy and active people, and a thriving community; and

WHEREAS, Ordinance No. 170949 codified a Complete Streets policy that requires streets to be improved for all users during all phases of street maintenance, improvement, and construction; and

WHEREAS, Resolution No. 200019 directed the City Manager to draft a Vision Zero action plan and established Council’s goal to eliminate traffic fatalities through a systems change approach; and

WHEREAS, Resolution No. 220660 approved the City’s Vision Zero Action plan which renewed Council’s goal to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2030 and made recommendations for Road Diet criteria, citywide; and

WHEREAS, the City has updated its Major Street Plan with a citywide traffic model which can be used to determine the feasibility of road diets; and

WHEREAS, a road diet is a vehicle lane reduction that often involves adding a facility for other modes, including but not limited to, transit only lanes, bike lanes, multi-modal lanes and that can lead to improved roadway safety with no or minimal impacts to automobile operations; and

WHEREAS, streets with four or more lanes in Kansas City have a disproportionate share of fatal and serious injury crashes; and

WHEREAS, the City has prioritized critical safety improvements on streets identified within the High Injury Network; and

WHEREAS, the USDOT has made Vision Zero, Safe Systems, and Road Diets central to their urban transportation policy and requires these approaches for many funding opportunities; and

WHEREAS, the Federal Highway Administration has found that road diets and roadway reconfigurations lead to a 19-47% reduction in all crashes and appeared to have minimal effects on vehicle capacity because left-turning vehicles were moved into a common two-way left-turn lane, and, for road diets with annual average daily traffic under 20,000 vehicles, traffic congestion will not increase to the point of diverting traffic to alternative routes; and

WHEREAS, the City continues to resurface street mileage at an historic pace and leaving in place current lane configurations and roadway designs which are shown, by City conducted safety studies, to be dangerous; and

WHEREAS, the Council desires a plan of action to convert, where appropriate, streets with four or more lanes to improve safety and to not miss opportunities to improve safety for all users; and

WHEREAS, the Council desires a record of the streets to undergo road diets so that future street resurfacing efforts result in more "Livable Streets;" NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:

Section 1. That the City Manager is hereby directed to provide a high-level road diet analysis of each existing undivided street with four or more lanes within the City to determine the suitability of reducing the number of lanes via a restriping and/or resurfacing program and to report the findings, including an explanation of interdepartmental and public participation and any additional costs, to the Council within 30 days.

Section 2. That the City Manager is directed to produce preliminary design for road diets on any streets suitable for road diets and planned for the next year’s street resurfacing program within 90 days.

Section 3. That the City Manager is directed to produce, on an annual basis, preliminary design for road diets on any streets suitable for road diets to align with each year’s street resurfacing program.

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