KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Some people who live on Armour Boulevard say the parked cars along the new bike lanes are creating dangerous blind spots for traffic.
"But now that the bike lanes have come out, it's narrowed how much time you have to see," Rae Petersen, a resident said.
Petersen told 41 Action News she has seen a number of near-misses at the corner of Armour Boulevard and Wyandotte Street.
"You still have to pull out quite a ways in order to see in either direction to make a turn," Petersen said.
"Well it's pretty dicey," Marin Hoskins said. "I like the idea of the cars kind of blocking the bike lane so they're protected and everything but you just can't really see anybody coming."
41 Action News discovered several 311 complaints where people say the new parking spaces and bike lanes along Armour Blvd cause an obstruction.
People are afraid someone will get hurt. One person even suggested that mirrors be installed at some of the intersections to help drivers.
Eric Bunch, policy director at BikeWalkKC and who lives in the area said this isn't a new problem.
"Don't blame the bike lane for this because the bike lane doesn't create a visual distraction or visual obstruction—it's the parked cars," Bunch said.
The city's public works department said in a statement:
"The Armour Boulevard bike lanes bring a new multimodal configuration to this roadway. These are the city’s first parking-protected bike facilities, just completed in late July.
There will be a time of adjustment and we continue to monitor intersections. Illegal parking in the hashed out areas marked with “No Parking” signs can cause blind spots at intersections. In conjunction with this project, the city modified city code to make illegal parking along this type of roadway configuration enforceable by KCPD parking control."
--Beth Breitenstein
KCMO Public Works Spokesperson
While reporting this story Wednesday 41 Action News did not see people breaking the law.
But there are some other practical solutions.
"The city could explore on some of these busier ones they could use a four-way stop. We would be open to that and BikeWalkKC advocating for that," Bunch said.
KCPD said Wednesday they have not seen an uptick in crashes along Armour Boulevard where the bikes lanes were installed.
