Progress to date

In November I contacted City Council. I explained that I believed the speed limit on Boundary to be too fast given the number of cyclists & runners who use that street. They referred me to the Airport and Transportation Commission. At the same time I contacted MoDOT. It took me a few days to work my way around to the person I needed to talk to. MoDOT isn't transparent about who is responsible for what, hiding behind things like "Region 5". Eventually I spoke to someone who said he'd do a traffic study. Then the Airport & Transportation Commission correspondent returned my call. He also talked to MoDOT and assured me they'd do a traffic study. At this point I was actually optimistic. Everyone, even the MoDOT engineer, sounded so kind and encouraging. I was concerned that the "traffic study" counted only motor vehicles, not cyclists or pedestrians. But, I thought, we could do our own bike/ped count later. I'll delve into the details of the traffic study in the next post, and the flaws of the MoDOT conclusions from that data. MoDOT decided not to reduce the speed limit. The Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation recommends a three-legged approach when dealing with MoDOT: Citizen support, local politicians, and then MoDOT traffic engineers. So our next step is to seek citizen support. When we can show citizen support, we can seek the support of City Council and the County Commissioner. With citizen support and local politicians, then we go back to the traffic engineer. How do you show citizen support? With a petition.