Last night I stopped by the public meeting regarding proposed safety improvements along Wornall Road. The City is considering reconfiguring the lanes along Wornall Road from 63rd St to Gregory.

The “road diet” would shrink the lanes along this stretch of Wornall from four lanes to three–one lane going north, another south, and a center lane for turning. I believe bike lanes would be included. The graphics were not very specific in my opinion! The meeting room was packed with people, and the main speaker, Uday Manpalli of the KCMO Engineering Division, was not speaking with a microphone so it was difficult to hear the presentation and questions. However, I did get the impression many people were opposed to the road diet, saying it would reroute traffic to the residential streets, especially Brookside Road, and create delays when vehicles were following buses. The goal is to reduce vehicle crashes and improve traffic and pedestrian safety.

Mr Manpalli explained there are three options to consider:

*keep this stretch of Wornall Road as is.

*reduce the lanes as proposed.

*do either of those options AND improve pedestrian safety by installing more pedestrian crosswalks with flashing lights along the route.

You can find out more about the road diet proposal and give your feedback, it is a very short survey, at this link. Whatever is decided, this project is years away from completion!