The streetcar doors will slide open to the Kansas City public in just one week on May 6 after months of public outreach by the Streetcar Authority to get drivers in line with (or inside the white lines of) parking along the route.
Downtown parking enforcement numbers provided by the city show that, for the most part, violations are happening away from the streetcar lines. Out of 6,142 tickets written in the first three months of 2016, only 27 were because of the streetcar, according to the city.
Out of 160 vehicles towed during that timeframe, five were streetcar tows.
Problems persist
T-minus eight days until launch and just hours before City Council hitched a ride, 41 Action News was there as yet another car was towed for parking on the white line along the route. The driver was having lunch at a nearby restaurant.
.@kcpolice out on @kcstreetcar route enforcing today - city council set to ride at 1:30. About a week until launch pic.twitter.com/TIQnlqEhrg
— Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) April 28, 2016
The driver says he didn’t know that you could get towed for not being completely inside the line.
“I was not aware, and if you look down the line here, you look down the line, there are plenty of people with tires on the line or a little bit over and they’re still, they’re not towed, so I don’t know what I did wrong,” said the driver of the Range Rover, who requested to not be identified.
He says the city should be lenient as the streetcar becomes operational.
“I don’t blame the streetcar for the parking, I think the streetcar is great, I think it’s going to be great for downtown Kansas City, but just, leeway on the parking, please, for at least six months. Just give people some leeway. If they’re on the line, just give them a little leeway. Put a notice on there, tell them what’s going on and then after those six months, then you can start enforcing it a lot more.”
Council members weigh in
Some City Council members, including Jolie Justus, Quinton Lucas, Scott Taylor and Jermaine Reed, got a preview of the route Thursday.
Lucas says the streetcar will still be a work in progress for both the public and the city.
"I think it’s going to be a long-term process, and if we want to be a city that embraces public transit, then this is going to be kind of one step along the way,” said Lucas. “Mean, I think there are things we have to work out to make sure we’re not slowing down traffic. Make sure we’re not blocking an intersection. There’s lots of work that we have left to do too, and I think the city is going to continue to do that. You know we’re responsive to what the public is saying in connection to the streetcar, and not just today, but for years to come. This is something that we’re going to have to work together on.”
Justus also acknowledged the growing pains on her second streetcar ride.
“Any time you implement a new form of transportation, there’s obviously a lot of things that have to be worked out and so we’ll be doing that as a community,” said Justus, who confesses she is excited about the May 6 launch. “I cant wait. A lot of kids are going to love this but I think more than anything a lot of adults are going to feel like kids again.”
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
