Letter to the editor: When the shutdown is over, keep taking it easy on KC streets

Into the future

With warmer weather in the Kansas City area and stay-at-home ordinances in place through mid-May, people are desperately looking to spend time outdoors, at a safe distance. However, our city’s parks are so packed that it can be a challenge to practice social distancing by keeping the recommended 6 feet from others.

The average sidewalk width is about 4 feet, making it impossible for two people to practice social distancing safely without going into roads or lawns. Since there has been a drastic reduction in automobile traffic, we should prioritize pedestrians so area residents can safely enjoy outdoor recreation.

Kansas City took the initiative and adopted its Open Streets KC plan, with guidelines for people to exercise outside safely during the stay-at-home order. However, our metropolitan area should be doing more to protect the people who live here.

Although we are experiencing a time to focus on human health and safety, we could use these policies as a blueprint to move our area closer to meeting the standards of the Paris climate accords. We could change our cities’ dependence on car-centric transportation.

After we have curbed the spread of COVID-19, all area municipalities could take the reins in enacting Kansas City’s Complete Streets Ordinance, bike plan and Vision Zero traffic management plan in order to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and create a healthy future for the Kansas City area.

- Bridget Sanderson, Climate Action KC, Kansas City