Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

Indian Mound residents, business owners and stakeholders had the opportunity to give input on anticipated traffic calming measures along St. John Avenue last week.

This second public forum was hosted by the Kansas City, Mo. Public Works Department to update the community on proposed changes to the bustling corridor based on a traffic study and input from the first forum.

Public Information Officer Maggie Green and Project Manager Mario Vasquez, both of Public Works, detailed the background of the project.

The project, funded by Fourth District PIAC funds, initially intended to implement traffic calming measures at five intersections along St. John.

“After discussion with the neighborhood, the scope of the project was expanded to include a mile-long project from Elmwood to Belmont,” Vasquez said.

The City hired HDR Engineering to evaluate things like traffic volume, speeding and safety. At the first public forum in December 2020, the preliminary findings were presented.

At last week’s virtual meeting, Christopher Kinzel of HDR outlined the recommendations and gathered feedback from the community before discussing next steps. Recommendations included bump-outs and planter boxes to narrow lanes to the standard 11 feet, restriping lanes and crosswalks, and installing additional signage.

“If we were going to do some of the specialized treatments at the intersections that had been discussed, like doing speed tables or speed humps, and some more higher cost treatments, we were only going to be able to focus on a few locations throughout the corridor,” Kinzel said.

“What we heard pretty loud and clear in that public meeting was to look for some lower cost treatments that can be spread throughout the corridor, fitting within this overall budget that the PIAC request represents and spread those traffic calming benefits throughout the corridor.”