Road widening to include bicycle facilities on Hwy 45 near Parkville

According to the KCStar:

Jennifer Benefield, a MoDOT spokesperson, said the department did take community input seriously. She said that MoDOT added a special-use lane for cyclists to its planning after hearing a number of concerns about a bike from the community.

Noel Challis, senior park planner for the Platte County Parks and Recreation Department, attended the meeting. Challis said the bicycle trail was part of an important regional connection for cyclists in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The county has already built the Southern Platte Pass bicycle trail east of Highway 45 to Chatham Avenue.

“We’re glad to see that it’s included in their initial design,” she said.

The route is included in the design, but funding has yet to be identified, Benefield said. She said the path would be included in the final project in some form, possibly with bike lanes on the shoulder or sidewalk. She said the bike path may eventually be included with help from the city or county.

Parkville resident Greg Cummins said he sometimes commutes to his job at the North Kansas City Hospital by bicycle. He came to the meeting to make sure some accommodation was made for bicyclists.

Cummins said he was pleased with what he saw, and said he was glad to see the road project was moving forward.

Apparently the decision about on-road lanes vs a "trail" or sidepath has not been determined. MoBikeFed supports on-road accommodations for bicyclists together with adequate accommodation for pedestrians via sidewalks, paths or whatever is appropriate in a given situation. A "sidepath" designated for bicycle use has serious safety issues and is strongly deprecated in AASHTO and KCAPWA design guidelines [PDF file] for that reason.