BLOG

The Johnson County Gateway Study Team met with representatives from the Johnson County Bicylce Club, Bike America and KanBikeWalk group last night to discuss the proposed improvements. The issue isn’t making the interstates safe for bicyclists, since the bicyclists aren’t allowed to ride on the interstates (nor would they want to). But highways create barriers for cyclists and there has to be a safe way for them to get across the highways.
The bike community provided suggestions for the study team to consider when designing interchanges and emphasized how important striping a bike lane is for safety.
Not all bicyclists feel safe riding on the roads, and that is why many communities have bike paths and trails, but for those cyclists who commute to work or who are road bikers, it is important to them to have that adequate accomodation on the road.
The Gateway study team appreciated hearing their concerns and will consider the appropriate bicycle accomodations where feasible and economical.

The Kansas City Business Journal printed an article last week about the Johnson County Gateway Interchange Study. Click on the link to read the article.

The third Advisory Group meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 28. The study team will be presenting information on the concept alternatives reviewed, the preferred improvement concept, and discussing the phasing plan, or how the improvements can be divided into smaller, more manageable projects.

Two video simulations have been developed to show how the improvement concept alternative will function. The first simulation shows how the collector distributor roads act to separate traffic and reduce weaving. The second video shows a portion of the improvement concept from the drivers perspective.
The improvement concept shown in the video increases spacing where drivers enter and exit the highway and creates separation by using collector and distributor lanes to move those traveling all the way through the area to one set of lanes while those who will be moving from, say, I-435 to I-35 to another lane or lanes. This type of separation will reduce the weaving drivers will need to do.

In early February, focus groups were conducted with randomly selected residents who use or have used the I-435/I-35/K-10 interchange area. The summary report documents their thoughts and perceptions on how the interchange currently works and their opinions on the proposed improvement concepts. Seventy-one people participated in the focus groups. Generally all the participants supported the improvement concept presented.

The study team has developed two concepts alternatives that improve safety and reduce congestion. Each concept creates more separation for drivers traveling through the interchange area and those who want to exit. The concepts use collector distributor roads to help create a separation and eliminate much of the weaving for those traveling through the area and those going from one major highway to another. Decision points for exits are placed well ahead of their current location, but with appropriate signage it should be easy to navigate. At least that was the reaction from the recent focus groups who viewed the concepts.
In the next couple of weeks we will have a video simulation posted to show how the concepts function.