Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Open Letter to the City of Lenexa


In this article, Mike Hendricks apparently quotes you saying that it is unwise to bicycle on Santa Fe Trail Drive.

I live in the apartment complex behind City Hall, and work on the southern reaches of town along Renner south of College Blvd. I'd be interested to know what route you would propose for getting to and from work. 87th St Pkwy and Renner are both high-speed thoroughfares without wide outer lanes or any other amenities that would make me feel safe using them during rush hour.

I might add that I got this job two years ago, and have found nearly all of the motorists to be courteous along this route. I also encounter many other cyclists on that stretch of road. Truck and bus drivers often log thousands of miles per week, and I have found that they are among the most experienced, careful and attentive users of the road because driving is their livelihood. I see little reason to be afraid of bicycling through the more industrial parts of town.

This was emailed to Lenexa Mayor, Mike Boehm. If I get any response, I'll share it.  Mostly, I was taken by surprise at the mayor's comment about Santa Fe Trail Drive. Certainly, he doesn't intend for cyclists to use the city's high-speed, densely used miniature highways during rush hour.

4 comments:

Apertome said...

Well said, and I'm glad you are attempting to engage in some dialog about this issue.

Sairen said...

Agreed, and I'm also glad you're following up on that. I've ridden Santa Fe Trail Drive a number of times and my biggest health and safety concern is the jarring in my elbows going over the tracks! What little traffic there is is more than courteous.

Mike Hendricks said...

Agree with Sairen about the tracks. Lost my blinking tail light somewhere along them this a.m. Apparently bounced off when I wasn't paying attention.

Noah said...

It's kind of funny that I had never lost anything going over those tracks until the KC Star Photographer visited me. On the very first northbound crossing, my speedometer popped out of its handlebar bracket. I heard it, and turned around to find it, but I'd bet Keith was wondering what took me so long to catch up with him, as he'd parked alongside the road ahead of me for some of the photos he took for this article.

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