A major Midtown Kansas City street is getting a makeover, and you can vote on it

Broadway Boulevard is getting a redesign, and the city wants to hear from residents about which options they prefer.

Alongside pavement resurfacing, Kansas City is planning to give Broadway a “road diet” from 31st Street to 43rd Street, through Midtown, to improve safety along the corridor.

That could include reducing lanes, placing a left turn lane down the center, adding bike lanes and adjusting parking direction.

The changes would bolster work that has already been completed on Broadway to improve safety, including new concrete islands for pedestrian crossings. Construction could begin in the fall.

City planning documents call for making the Broadway corridor safer for pedestrians and cyclists while slowing down cars and improving traffic safety.

In the past ten years, there have been five fatal crashes, 33 crashes with serious injuries and 415 crashes with minor injuries in the area. Nearly 40% of fatal or serious crashes involved a pedestrian, according to city data. The fatal crash average has increased since 2019, while traffic overall has declined in the past decade.

The city has three proposed concepts for consideration and is asking the public to offer feedback on which options they prefer with a survey on the city website.

Many changes would be done with pavement markings in the short-term, with more solid curb extensions and landscaped areas to come as funding allows in the years to come, according to information presented at a public presentation in July.

The concepts are early designs and final decisions are yet to be determined.

Meandering road

The “meandering road” concept would swap out parallel parking for angled parking on one side of the road, pushing the center line toward the other side, and causing traffic flow to curve and slow down throughout the corridor.

Spanish rambla

The “Spanish rambla” concept, inspired by Barcelona, would add large, wide medians in the middle of the road. Drivers would have space to make U-turns around as needed to reduce the number of left turn conflicts. The medians could be turned into landscaped areas in the future that would serve as green space.

The medians could also come with bike lanes or angled parking.

Mobility lanes

The mobility lane, or bike lane, concept would add bike lanes down the sides of the street. They could be placed next to the drive lanes, with parking by the curb, or have that flipped — with the mobility lanes next to the curb and parking next to the drive lane, to better buffer cyclists and others from moving cars.