Group rides banned from Leawood trails

According to a KCStar article:

The Leawood City Council has decided city trails are not to be used for organized events.

The city has received several requests this year from organizations that want to hold events on the city’s trail system. Because of safety concerns, the city has denied those requests.

“We just want to make sure we’re providing the safest atmosphere,” said Chris Claxton, director of parks and recreation.

Council members agreed and expressed concern about collisions between regular trail users and large groups of runners, cyclists and even walkers.

The council asked the city staff and park board to draft a list of activities that could be permitted or forbidden on the trails.

Interestingly, on the recent City to City ride, some riders used the trail in Leawood, which was near the planned on-street route, and these riders reported close to zero other traffic on the trail.

Driver who hit pedestrian charged with vehicular assault

According to KMBC news:

In May, a driver crossed two lanes of traffic at 54th Street and Troost Avenue, jumped a curb and then hit Ruth Austin, who was walking on a sidewalk.

Prosecutors charged Ricky M. Taylor, 49, with vehicular assault. According to court records, Taylor admitted to smoking marijuana before the crash.

"He creamed me, then went through some bushes, through the fence and hit a parked car. The first thing I remember is being lifted onto a gurney and being rolled into the hospital," Austin said.

Incidentally, the "vehicular assault" charge is purely because Taylor was stoned.

A sober driver who drove the same way with the same result would have been charged with improper lane usage [ 1 2 3 4 ] or some other similar minor offense and fined at most a few hundred dollars.

This is one of the issues MoBikeFed would like to address through new legislation.

MoBikeFed's Fall Membership Drive is going on now--and your support is very much needed to make initiatives like this move forward.