May 27, 2025 • 30 mins
Transit Tangents explores Kansas City's public transportation system in a day-long adventure testing buses, bikes, and the streetcar across both Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. We discover a surprising transit network with remarkable architectural treasures and vibrant neighborhoods connected by a completely fare-free system.
• Kansas City operates the largest fare-free transit system in the United States, generating fair ridership but facing funding challenges
• Historic Union Station serves as a magnificent transit hub that narrowly escaped demolition in the city's past
• The Kansas City Streetcar shows consistently strong ridership even before its northern and southern extensions are completed
• MAX bus routes provide relatively reliable service at 20-minute frequencies, while other routes run much less frequently
• The city once had an extensive streetcar network until 1956, with the Country Club line now converted to a linear park
• Multiple areas along transit routes showcase impressive development, from the Spanish-inspired Plaza to the Brookside neighborhood
• Electric bikeshare provides a convenient alternative for short trips between transit routes
• Weather conditions dramatically impact the transit experience, particularly at bus stops with limited shelter
• Highway removal proposals for the North Loop present opportunities to reconnect downtown neighborhoods
• Transit infrastructure crosses state lines with KCATA serving both the Missouri and Kansas sides of the metropolitan area
If you like this episode, please make sure to like and subscribe. Support us on Patreon to catch episodes early and access additional content.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Doors are closing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Public transit.
That's my way to roll On themetro.
I'm taking control.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Bus stops, train tracks it's my daily grind.
Transit, it's the rhythm of mylife.
This week on Transit Tangentsis our last episode from our
spring trip to Kansas City.
Kansas City in a day using onlypublic transit, From the buses
to the street, car and even thebike share system.
We put Kansas City's publictransit to the test.
(00:31):
All of this and more coming upon Transit Tangents.
Alright, we are in downtownKansas City doing Kansas City in
a day using only public transit.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Which Kansas City Louis.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're in Kansas City, missouri, which, after last
night's happy hour, sounds likeit is the right Kansas City to
be in, but I don't know Kansasis great.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It is an amazing place to be.
All right, we're trying tostart drama.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I may be trying to start drama, but a lot of people
were not saying that last night, so we'll see.
We're going to go check it outlater.
We're about to hop on thestreetcar.
We're joined by a special guesttoday, Josh, who lives here in
Kansas City.
The streetcar is about to pullup right now, though, so we're
going to head over to UnionStation and we will catch
everybody there as you'rewatching.
(01:16):
If you're enjoying the video,please hit the like button and
consider leaving a comment.
You can also subscribe to seemore content like this from
other cities.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh beautiful.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, this is awesome .
As you can see, we are in thisbeautiful building.
Josh, tell us where we are.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So this is Union Station.
This is a 1914, I want to sayconstruction.
It was the replacement for theUnion Depot down in the West
Bottoms and came after a floodcame through.
So all the railroads cametogether and built this train
station and it was a majorpassenger rail and freight rail
hub for the entire country.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, and it's absolutely beautiful.
You walk in and it's just likeoh my God, like I wish we had
more of this still around.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It's depressing to think that we lost all of this.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, in some conversationslast night with folks, it sounds
like we almost lost this too ata certain point.
I mean there's some images andif you're watching we'll put it
up where.
I mean the building was in suchbad shape that I mean there
were pieces of the ceilingfalling in.
They actually had to installlike a dome for folks to be able
to walk through, to be able toboard trains, which is yeah, and
(02:23):
you would board outside of thisbuilding and not even wait in
here at some point.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It got so bad.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Compare this to Dallas' Union Station.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Or Austin's Amtrak Station.
Oh, Austin's Amtrak Station isbeautiful.
We have a little Amshack.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Don't make fun of our Amshack.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What's really exciting, and a big reason why
we're in Kansas City, is rightnow you all are working on your
streetcar extension.
On this Patreon membersupported trip to Kansas City,
we had a chance to actually meetwith the Kansas City streetcar
team to learn more about theplanning for the streetcar
extension and get a behind thescenes look at their maintenance
facility linked in thedescription.
While we were still with Josh,we wanted to ask him about some
of the history behind thestreetcars in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So Kansas City had an extensive electrified streetcar
network that was really builtout in the late or in the early
1900s as the city was sort ofbooming and growing.
And you know, they sort ofended service in 1956 I think
was the last year the countryClub line ran and there were a
(03:25):
number of challenges withstreetcar service.
And the streetcars in KansasCity were sort of privately
owned for a very long time andbuilt alongside sort of
speculative real estatedevelopment and they were, you
know, developers would buildthem and operate the streetcars
and so I think you had multiplecompeting you know operators for
some period of time and thenthey all consolidated and were
(03:47):
put under the Kansas City PublicService Company and so the heir
to that was the Kansas CityArea Transportation Authority.
That was created in the late60s, early 70s, through a
bi-state compact.
But yeah, streetcars have a longhistory here.
We had several, several routes.
All of them converged downtownin just a really messy grid, and
(04:08):
part of their downfall too was,you know, automobiles becoming
more and more popular anddowntown getting crowded and
congested.
They all ran in mixed.
Traffic Wasn't a problem in1905, but it became a big
problem in 1930, 40, and 50.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
While Chris eats his popcorn.
From here we're gonna head overto the World War I Memorial,
which is kind of right acrossthe street here, and then
eventually we're gonna hop onthe bus, because the streetcar
doesn't extend there, and head alittle bit further south into
Kansas City, if you're in KansasCity, you may notice this
really tall obelisk-likestructure.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
This is the National World War I Museum, originally
opened in 1926 as the LibertyMemorial or Liberty Museum, and
then in 2004, it was designatedby the US Congress as the
nation's World War I Museum andMemorial.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So we just wrapped up here at Union Station and the
World War I Memorial.
We're getting ready to hop onone of the MAX buses here, the
M-MAX, and it's going to take usheaded south.
It runs kind of alongside wherethe streetcar will extend
eventually not right on it, verylikely due to construction and
(05:16):
whatnot happening.
I would imagine that this routeis probably going to be
reconfigured once the streetcarextension is opened.
But we're going to be takingthis down to the plaza area.
And an interesting thing is agroup called Urban Labs that
we're also speaking to on thistrip and there'll be an episode
about actually made a proposalto pedestrianize this area.
It has not been pedestrianizedyet, but we'll be sure to talk
(05:38):
about that when we speak withUrban Labs.
So right now the bus says it'llbe here in about five or six
more minutes.
This bus runs every 20 minutes.
I believe it's more frequentduring rush hour, but right now
it's about 10 45 in the morning.
So 20 minute frequencies iswhat we've got.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Thank you Sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
The Cheesecake Factory is right on the Max line
, so I think city nerd wouldlikely approve of the location
very transit oriented cheesecakefactory, similar to in houston.
We had a transit orientedcheesecake factory in houston
too.
All right, so we made it to theplaza area.
Uh, again, we heard a lot aboutthis last night and, uh, one of
the interesting things thatthey had mentioned was the
person who designed this hadbeen on a trip to Spain and took
(06:47):
the inspiration from that trip,and it is very apparent here,
as you're walking around, we'renot getting very Midwest-y vibes
, we're getting very Europeanvibes.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
No, this person went to Spain and said, oh, I really
miss that really walkable citythat I was in.
You know what.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
We should recreate it and add a shit ton of parking
yes, so this, this was created,opened in 1923 and it's
considered to be the first orone of the first kind of
suburban shopping centers in theunited states.
Um, yeah, a lot of the parkingis kind of hidden around.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's a really beautiful area and our kansas
city is known for, I think, alot of its architecture, a lot
of Art Deco and this isdefinitely not Art Deco, very
Spanish, but it's really prettyand it may not fit in with the
rest of the city, but the streetgrid is pretty well integrated
with the surroundingneighborhoods, yeah, and there's
a lot of development aroundthis.
Yes, so, even though it may bea little bit of a mismatch, it
(07:40):
feels really comfortable justwalking around it.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, and I mean to be clear.
It's basically it is a mall.
It'd be nicer to have some morelocal shops here.
I'm sure there are some mixedin, but it's just like funny.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
You have like the nicest looking cheesecake
factory anywhere with this likeornate fountain and lots of
other shops you'd see in a mall,but there's a ton of parking.
It's now mostly hidden.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, either above or below ground, ground but, yeah,
interested to see the future ofthis, though, and if Urban Labs
and the City of Kansas City areable to pedestrianize at least
a portion of this, I thinkthat'd be a huge win.
You may have noticed when wewere getting on and off the bus
and streetcar, and you willnotice throughout the day, that
(08:18):
we haven't been tapping ourphones or using an app or
anything like that, and that'sbecause Kansas City's transit is
actually fare free, yep.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It is the largest US city with a free transit system.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, and that is great in a lot of ways and also
presents some challenges.
Later in the day we'll kind oftalk about some of the budget
issues happening in Kansas Cityat the moment as far as their
transit goes.
But when you're having budgetissues at the same time as not
collecting fares, it's a trickything and there's a lot of
arguments for and against this.
(08:51):
One of the arguments forcontinuing to keep it fare-free
is that the cost of implementinga fare system actually eats
away at some of it, although,while I do think there is a cost
associated there having somerevenue to play with, there
might be higher upfront cost toset it up initially.
Again, yeah, but that's goingto go down over time.
You'll mostly pay off that costover time.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
What was also really nice to see on the bus that we
took from Union Station to theplaza is that the bus was pretty
full, right, a lot of ridersand I guess the best way to say
this a diverse ridership.
Yeah, it's the only people fromall different places in KC were
really riding this bus to getacross town, so it's good to see
that.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Totally, and I think whether you are fare-free or not
, especially if you put insubsidies for folks who need the
help, I don't know that it'sgoing to affect ridership
necessarily.
I personally am of the mindsetthat I would rather see more
service at a cost, and mereceiving good service for that
(09:53):
cost, than having it be free andkind of constantly under
potential threat.
Right now, as the system hereis, of having service be reduced
and it's it's hard because youcan't necessarily like, oh,
you're reducing service, butlike what do you expect it's
free can be an easy mentality tofall into here.
So when filming this in earlyMarch, kc ATA was under threat
(10:14):
of needing to cut service due tobudget constraints.
Unfortunately, it seems as ifthose cuts are underway.
We may get into this further ina future episode, but for now
we have linked more informationin the description of this video
.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's a really beautiful area.
I think what would make this areally cool neighborhood would
be if the second floors or eventhird floors of these buildings
were Residences a little morelively yeah you've never seen a
photo to child that looks likethat.
Wild we just walked around theplaza area very nice.
Wild, we just walked around theplaza area very nice.
(10:48):
We're going to hop over to theNelson Atkins Museum of Art,
which is a famous art museumhere in Kansas City.
We're going to get there byjumping on the bikes and then
heading over toward theuniversity.
If you're in KC and you want touse the bike, there is an app
called Ride KC Bike.
You download this.
It will tell you where the bikestations are and how many bikes
are there.
The really cool thing about theKC Bike you download this.
It will tell you where the bikestations are and how many bikes
are there.
The really cool thing about theKC bikes is that these are all
(11:09):
electric.
So I have found one.
I am going to hit scan.
Scan it there Gives me the tripoptions.
It allows me to unlock for $1and then 25 cents per minute.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Interesting system where, instead of having a dock,
these locks are mechanical andwhen you unlock it it just
unlocks this back wheel.
Here it's like a round kind ofclip that goes in and locks it
and then you'll just lock itagain to one of these stations
again in the future.
Yes, no bike lane right here,which is unfortunate, but it
(11:45):
looks like there's a nice trailoff to our left here that it's
probably like kind of thedestination of this.
We talked to some folks or Italked to some folks yesterday
at the bar who said that thecity is improving some of their
bike infrastructure.
There are a couple of niceroutes but still plenty of work
to do.
(12:11):
Pleasant surprise here, alwaysnice when you accidentally bump
into some nice bikeinfrastructure.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We're getting off of it right away, though I am
really impressed with sort ofthe build out of Kansas City.
I mean, the apartment buildingswe rode by are almost like
Chicago.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Even some new development along the bus that
we were taking is hard to showbecause the bus was really
crowded so I wasn't able topoint out the window.
But yeah, I think.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I've been sleeping on Kansas City.
It's a Kansas City.
This is probably colder thanour scooter ride in Salt Lake
City.
Yes, yes it is.
We're on the bikes from the artmuseum it's a very chilly ride
over to the University ofMissouri, Kansas City.
This is a research universitythat was founded in 1933 and
(13:00):
currently has a studentpopulation of about 15,300.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And what's really nice is the current streetcar
extension is going to end righthere.
Yeah, pretty far south and likethis isn't the best view over
this building by the field house, but like there's a lot of
development off campus that'skind of in the direction of the
plaza area we were at earlier.
I mean, this is this is a densepart of town and it shows in
(13:25):
the ridership of the bus that wewere on.
It absolutely does, yeah, andit also really bodes well for
the streetcar.
Yep, I think it'll be a prettywell used line.
Yes, so this is the Southernterminus of the streetcar
extension.
They have been testingstreetcars on this even while
we've been here.
Basically, it looks ready toroll and will be opening later
(13:46):
this year, which is reallyexciting.
Obviously, we've talked aboutthe university being right here.
There's also definitely somenew development that's happened,
very likely spurred from this.
You've got a grocery store withapartments and whatnot.
On top of it there's also aparking garage and some open
space that I'm sure is beingheld right now and could very
easily be redeveloped in thefuture, with the streetcar
(14:09):
coming right to potential frontdoors of folks here.
So exciting to see it.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
So we walked from the southern terminus of the new
extension of the streetcar downa trail that is actually a
historic streetcar line.
It's really cool.
It's like a linear park andtrail system that continues on
into South Kansas City.
We stopped here at the CountryClub station.
It's a historic station spot.
I thought there was like alittle gazebo.
(14:36):
There's just a placard, butit's so cool to see where the,
the old stop, used to be.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Right now we're waiting to get back on the main
Max bus.
We're going to head southtowards the Brookside
neighborhood.
We were coming down here and Iwas like we need to hurry up and
cross the street.
We'll record talking about thelittle station from over here,
because there was a bus in whatis now probably five minutes and
then the next one's not forlike almost half an hour and
(15:03):
it's too cold to sit around andwait for half an hour.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So it's a little chilly.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So fingers crossed that we'llget a bus here.
In a couple of minutes We'll bedown in the Brookside
neighborhood.
We might pop in somewhere andget a little coffee and we will
update you from there.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Hello Woo.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Hello.
She's on schedule.
She's on schedule.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
We just left out.
That was a very I'm glad wecaught the bus because we would
have been sitting there for atleast 20 minutes waiting for the
next one.
But super fast to get here.
Yeah, it does speed things upwhen no one has to sit there and
tap and fiddle with to get here.
Yeah, it does speed things upwhen no one has to like sit
there and tap and fiddle withmoney.
I will say it does.
That is the perk of the no-faresystem.
It's no-fare All right.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
There's no reason to go to Europe.
You can just go to Kansas Cityand experience Seville, spain or
Tudor England.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yes, you love to see a place have their own little
branded bike racks.
This is like a little minineighborhood, like downtown
center in a neighborhood, like aneighborhood center, town
center kind of thing.
Yes, and it's like what islacking in so many like areas
(16:24):
outside of downtowns in the US,everywhere, like we have all
these sprawling suburbs withnothing that looks like this.
We have instead giant walmartswith super huge parking lots
that then lead to more giant bigbox stores, and here's a
neighborhood with wide sidewalks, and I mean street parking,
sure, but wide sidewalks andsome sidewalk cafe spaces, right
?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
um, it's really nice, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Uh, from here we're gonna kind of walking to the
east right now down 63rd street.
Um, we're gonna catch a busback north, uh, towards kansas
city.
Um, there is a bus that runseast west on the 63rd street.
That is kind of just across-town route.
It is only hourly, though wemissed the hourly one by a few
(17:09):
minutes.
We're not going to stand herewaiting for an hour, so instead
we're going to walk a mile andwe're hopefully going to then
catch the 25 bus, which is anevery half an hour route.
If Chris and I walk fast, whichwe're known to walk fast we'll
be able to catch it.
So this would be our first bus.
That is not one of the maxroutes.
(17:30):
The max routes generally run alittle bit more frequently, so
we're going to walk a little bitquick here and hopefully catch
this bus on time.
We're not running for busestoday.
They wanted to make us run.
We were like nah, the bus ispulling up right now, while we
(17:50):
have a second here Very nice busstop.
One of the other Max busesstops here, but this will be our
first non-Max bus experience.
We're getting on the 25.
Which is right there.
Sorry, how are you?
(18:25):
We're currently in the 18th andVine neighborhood.
One thing I want to point aboutthe 25 bus, before we talk
about where we are, is the busstopped at time points quite a
few times along the line becausewe were getting ahead of
schedule.
There's not much traffic thatwe've encountered here in
general, and we did stop at alot of those time points and
wait for a few minutes, and Ithink that's really important
when you have a bus network likehere in Kansas City, that isn't
(18:49):
as frequent as you would likeit to be, because if someone is
looking at their phone to seethe schedule and then they're
like, okay, I need to be thereat this time, it's not like the
bus was early and just blew byand now they're stuck waiting
there for another half an hour.
So we saw a few people showingup right on time and catching it
because of uh that, uh littlegap in the time uh, being left
(19:09):
there.
The 18th and vine neighborhoodis a great spot to go to learn
more about kansas city's history, in particular, when it comes
to jazz, baseball and blackculture, all in one neighborhood
.
It's home to the negro leaguesbaseball museum, the jazz museum
and the legacy of legends likesatchel page and charlie parker.
Our, our timing luck has finallyrun out a little bit yeah this
is not too bad, but, uh, we'vebeen kind of killing time
(19:31):
already here.
We still have probably anotherseven or eight minutes, but
about a 15 minute ish.
Wait, uh, for the 18 bus whichwe are going to pop on to get to
back in downtown kansas city,missouri, and we're going to
transfer on to either the 101 or106 to then go the rest of the
way over to Kansas City, kansas.
Yeah yeah, we'll see you inKansas, though You're not in
(19:54):
Kansas anymore, toto.
I'm not in Kansas yet, toto,right.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
I guess on the way back.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I should have said that back.
I should have said that we madeit downtown and got off our bus
to transfer onto the 101, whichwould take us into Kansas City,
kansas.
Despite the wait earlier forthe 25, the 101 was only a
three-minute wait before we wereon our way to Kansas City,
(20:21):
kansas.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
So we couldn't come to the area without with only
seeing one KC.
So now we are at KCK, yes,which is Kansas City, kansas.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Not as much going on A little quieter.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
It's also very cold and raining and yeah yeah, we're
not going to spend a whole lotof time here.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
A little yucky, I'll try to get a couple visuals for
you, but we're also trying tospend a whole lot of time here.
A little yucky, I'll try to geta couple visuals for you, but
we're also trying to keep thingsa little dry in the camera
department.
Yeah, I'm glad we made it overhere.
Interesting to point out,though, that the KCATA does
operate on both sides of theborder here, so that's not
(21:03):
something you see every day,necessarily, that the same
transit agency crosses statelines, but in this case it makes
a lot of sense that it does so.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Um, yeah, even transit agencies around new york
.
It's rare that they reallyoperate too far into the other
district, so it's cool to see ithere.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yep, um, cool.
Well, with that, we're going totry to catch again either the
101 or 106 back over to kansascity.
Um, we're going to go warm upfor a little bit once we get
over there and then we're goingto continue on our journey to go
see where the North Street carextension is going, as well as
an area where there's a proposedhighway removal.
It's still it's not in the likephase where it's going to
(21:37):
happen yet, but there is somegrassroots conversations about
making it happen.
Personally, would love to seeit.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Very cold.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So cold, it's so cold .
We're at a transit tangents alltime low Literally.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
The wind chill is 21 degrees right now and it's like
30 mile per hour, winds andraining.
We're very lost for a while,yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
All right, we're back at it with warmer clothes.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
We're in slightly better shape right now.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yes, we had to go back to the hotel and warm up
for a little bit.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
The temperature has dropped from around 65 degrees
this morning to around 39 or 40,and the wind chill is about 20
to 17 degrees.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yes, not great.
We didn't have a lot to showyou.
But we struggled kind ofgetting back from the Kansas
side of Kansas City.
The buses it was anintersection where there were
bus stops everywhere.
It was really confusing whichone to get to.
We had to ask a bus driver or arandom person.
Eventually we figured out a bus.
It was like another 10 minuteswe're sitting there waiting in
(22:38):
the cold and wind.
Then it seemed like the buswasn't going to show up.
Yeah, it disappeared on the map.
We almost gave up.
I had Uber pulled up just incase, yes, and I was like no, no
, no, like we're gonna betransit tangents tough, we
almost didn't, we almost weren't.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Louis says transit tangent's tougher than me.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yes, it did show up and we did make it back here, so
we're not gonna catch thestreetcar, though, to the river
market area and we'll pick it upfrom there.
Before checking out RiverMarket, we wanted to catch a
glimpse of the northernextension to the Kansas City
streetcar.
Despite the weather, we walkedup onto a bridge and took a look
.
All right, it's prettymiserable out, but we walked
(23:17):
across this highway bridge toshow you the streetcar line.
You can see some of the tracksare already down.
Some of them are still beinglaid.
There's a lot of new developmentall the way along here, which
is great to see, and this is thenorthern extension.
At the far end of this is thesoccer stadium, so you've got
the women's soccer stadium, lotsof new development, and all of
(23:39):
this will funnel into theexisting line downtown and then
go way south to where we wereearlier in the day at the
University.
We're really putting ourselvesout here in the cold to bring
you this and if you think usstanding on this bridge to bring
you and show you exactly what'sgoing on here is worth it to
you, if you want to throw fivebucks on our Patreon, we would
(24:01):
very much appreciate it.
If you haven't liked this videoor subscribed.
Those are both also great waysto help support the show.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
So after checking out the extension of the Kansas
City streetcar, we walked backover to City Market.
This is a really awesome area.
On the weekends it's full ofvendors, produce markets and
it's sort of surrounded by allof these little restaurants,
coffee shops and other reallycool shops.
The City Market dates back toaround 1857 and was one of the
(24:32):
original sites of Kansas City,so really cool historic place to
check out.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
While we were on the streetcar on the way over here
we actually crossed over theNorth Loop section of the
highway.
So if you look at a map ofKansas City, there's a ton of
highways all around it andfamously there is kind of a
square around the downtown areathat really breaks it up from
the rest.
And when you look at oldhistorical satellite view of the
(24:56):
area it is insane what wasdemolished to build these
highways to begin with.
Some of the locals here sharedwith us that there was this
really cool survey done in the1940s where every single
property in all of Kansas Cityhad its photo taken in 1940 with
a man standing in front with anumbered sign on it.
And you can actually go todayand look at a map and click
(25:17):
around and see what used to bein some of these areas,
including where the highwaysused to be.
Unfortunately, now obviously youhave the highway there, there's
quite a bit of surface parkingall around the existing highways
, so the downtown fabric kind ofbreaks up as you cross these
areas, which is common in somany cities.
But what is really excitingabout here is there are some
(25:38):
proposals to actually remove theNorth Loop section of the
highway.
We'll kind of put links to someof that information so that if
you are interested you can goahead and check it out.
But another potential highwayremoval project we've talked
about some successful highwayremoval projects as well as some
other planned ones and otherepisodes in the past that we'll
link below if you want to checkthose out.
It's been a journey today a bitof a very, very cold Kansas
(25:59):
City in a day using only publicstarted out 60 something degrees
, it's now like close to 30 andthe windchill is around 15 ish
it's cold.
It's cold.
I was saying that my hands feelfine, but it's because I can't
feel them anymore.
We've had a really nice time inKansas City in general.
We had a really warm welcomewith a happy hour event and
(26:21):
everything.
So thank you to everyone whocame out to that event and gave
us a lot of ideas to do todayWay too many ideas, frankly,
because it's impossible to hiteverything in a day.
I think overall, we were prettysurprised at how big Kansas
City was.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
I'm very surprised at the size of Kansas City, at the
density of a lot of theneighborhoods, at the beauty of
a lot of the architecture Likeseeing the Union Station was
amazing that was a highlight,for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, like early in the day, but I also think I got
slowly jaded throughout the dayas to how cold it was.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
I got my popcorn.
It was awesome.
Yes, I started the day full ofhope.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yes, as far as the transit goes, I mean we got
lucky, I will say.
For the first half of the daythe max buses seem like those
actually run a pretty goodservice.
We were seeing them at 20-ishminute frequencies which I'm
being generous with the wordgood there in the morning and in
the evening it seems like theyrun at slightly higher
frequencies than that, but ingeneral those seem like the more
(27:18):
reliable lines.
Yep, the additional buses afterthat start to become a little
bit more of a crapshoot whenyou're talking every half an
hour, every 45 minutes or everyhour long.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah, coming back from 18th and vine, we had a
longer wait than we anticipatedfor that bus and then, um, what
really sort of took a turn waswhen we decided to venture into
kansas city.
Kansas mistake.
Everyone in missouri told usnot to go.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, um, but we had to check actually did we had to
check out the other kansas city.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Uh, and then that was when the weather also took a
turn and we got stranded for aminute.
The signage very confusing itwas raining harder, it was
windier.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, we were tired.
Uh, couldn't quite figure outwhich bus stop was where.
We almost called it quits.
We powered through.
Um, that was definitely achallenge and the thing is, is
that experience very likelyhappens to people quite a bit?
yeah, probably not uncommon inkansas city.
Yeah, I mean it's.
We're not in a warm climate Inthe wintertime you are gonna,
(28:17):
when you're dealing with buses,every half an hour you get one
bus that's canceled or one busthat's delayed for too long.
You are standing in thefreezing cold wind at many bus
stops that don't always have ashelter.
Maybe do kinda sorta have ashelter and you can stand behind
to protect yourself from thewind, but frankly, like that
sucks, like it's not fun.
So, work to be done andunfortunately, you know we we
(28:38):
explained a little bit earlieron about the funding cuts and
whatnot that are coming to kcataand those frequencies are not,
unfortunately, going to beimproving anytime soon yeah, so
hopefully, uh, the city canfigure out a way to keep those
funded, or at least maybe we canbring those back, maybe they
can introduce a fared structure.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
We'll see, because all in all, I think our
experiences in Kansas City werepretty positive.
Again, a couple of issues hereand there, but for the most part
we got around fine.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, and I will say, like the streetcar, two thumbs
up.
I mean yeah, so it's.
It's weird because it's soshort.
I kind of came into thisassuming it's like a novelty
thing and no one was going to beusing it.
But even at its short lengthright now, before the extensions
, there's been people on it.
There's been people on it everysingle time and quite a few
(29:26):
people on it.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
It has good ridership , it does get you across town
quickly and pretty efficiently,and when it finally extends from
the soccer stadium all the wayto UMKC it's going to be a
really valuable asset to thecity and I think it's going to
get a lot more usage.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, and I mean we're seeing a lot of
development along thoseextensions as well, which is
also going to boost withridership and help with
ridership and hopefully can youknow when those extensions open
it also may relieve somepressure from the bus system so
that the funding can be, youknow, kind of allocated where it
needs to be, because for kcstreetcar and the buses are in
are different systems that workreally well together but are
(30:02):
independent of each other.
So different funding mechanisms, yeah, um yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So, with all being said, I think we're going to
wrap it up so we can catch thetrolley that, or the streetcar
that I think is about to comearound the corner, and to get
dinner and try out some kcbarbecue.
If you like this episode,please make sure to like and
subscribe.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Also, if you want to support us, we have our patreon
where you can catch episodesearly and additional content, uh
, but with all that being said,thank you all so much for
watching this episode fromkansas city and enjoy the rest
of your transit tangents tuesday.
Doors are closing.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Public transit.
That's my way to roll On themetro.
I'm taking control.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Bus stops, train tracks it's my daily grind.
Transit, it's the rhythm of mylife.
This week on Transit Tangentsis our last episode from our
spring trip to Kansas City.
Kansas City in a day using onlypublic transit, From the buses
to the street, car and even thebike share system.
We put Kansas City's publictransit to the test.
(00:31):
All of this and more coming upon Transit Tangents.
Alright, we are in downtownKansas City doing Kansas City in
a day using only public transit.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Which Kansas City Louis.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're in Kansas City, missouri, which, after last
night's happy hour, sounds likeit is the right Kansas City to
be in, but I don't know Kansasis great.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It is an amazing place to be.
All right, we're trying tostart drama.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I may be trying to start drama, but a lot of people
were not saying that last night, so we'll see.
We're going to go check it outlater.
We're about to hop on thestreetcar.
We're joined by a special guesttoday, Josh, who lives here in
Kansas City.
The streetcar is about to pullup right now, though, so we're
going to head over to UnionStation and we will catch
everybody there as you'rewatching.
(01:16):
If you're enjoying the video,please hit the like button and
consider leaving a comment.
You can also subscribe to seemore content like this from
other cities.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh beautiful.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, this is awesome .
As you can see, we are in thisbeautiful building.
Josh, tell us where we are.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So this is Union Station.
This is a 1914, I want to sayconstruction.
It was the replacement for theUnion Depot down in the West
Bottoms and came after a floodcame through.
So all the railroads cametogether and built this train
station and it was a majorpassenger rail and freight rail
hub for the entire country.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, and it's absolutely beautiful.
You walk in and it's just likeoh my God, like I wish we had
more of this still around.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
It's depressing to think that we lost all of this.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, in some conversationslast night with folks, it sounds
like we almost lost this too ata certain point.
I mean there's some images andif you're watching we'll put it
up where.
I mean the building was in suchbad shape that I mean there
were pieces of the ceilingfalling in.
They actually had to installlike a dome for folks to be able
to walk through, to be able toboard trains, which is yeah, and
(02:23):
you would board outside of thisbuilding and not even wait in
here at some point.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It got so bad.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Compare this to Dallas' Union Station.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Or Austin's Amtrak Station.
Oh, Austin's Amtrak Station isbeautiful.
We have a little Amshack.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Don't make fun of our Amshack.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What's really exciting, and a big reason why
we're in Kansas City, is rightnow you all are working on your
streetcar extension.
On this Patreon membersupported trip to Kansas City,
we had a chance to actually meetwith the Kansas City streetcar
team to learn more about theplanning for the streetcar
extension and get a behind thescenes look at their maintenance
facility linked in thedescription.
While we were still with Josh,we wanted to ask him about some
of the history behind thestreetcars in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So Kansas City had an extensive electrified streetcar
network that was really builtout in the late or in the early
1900s as the city was sort ofbooming and growing.
And you know, they sort ofended service in 1956 I think
was the last year the countryClub line ran and there were a
(03:25):
number of challenges withstreetcar service.
And the streetcars in KansasCity were sort of privately
owned for a very long time andbuilt alongside sort of
speculative real estatedevelopment and they were, you
know, developers would buildthem and operate the streetcars
and so I think you had multiplecompeting you know operators for
some period of time and thenthey all consolidated and were
(03:47):
put under the Kansas City PublicService Company and so the heir
to that was the Kansas CityArea Transportation Authority.
That was created in the late60s, early 70s, through a
bi-state compact.
But yeah, streetcars have a longhistory here.
We had several, several routes.
All of them converged downtownin just a really messy grid, and
(04:08):
part of their downfall too was,you know, automobiles becoming
more and more popular anddowntown getting crowded and
congested.
They all ran in mixed.
Traffic Wasn't a problem in1905, but it became a big
problem in 1930, 40, and 50.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
While Chris eats his popcorn.
From here we're gonna head overto the World War I Memorial,
which is kind of right acrossthe street here, and then
eventually we're gonna hop onthe bus, because the streetcar
doesn't extend there, and head alittle bit further south into
Kansas City, if you're in KansasCity, you may notice this
really tall obelisk-likestructure.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
This is the National World War I Museum, originally
opened in 1926 as the LibertyMemorial or Liberty Museum, and
then in 2004, it was designatedby the US Congress as the
nation's World War I Museum andMemorial.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
So we just wrapped up here at Union Station and the
World War I Memorial.
We're getting ready to hop onone of the MAX buses here, the
M-MAX, and it's going to take usheaded south.
It runs kind of alongside wherethe streetcar will extend
eventually not right on it, verylikely due to construction and
(05:16):
whatnot happening.
I would imagine that this routeis probably going to be
reconfigured once the streetcarextension is opened.
But we're going to be takingthis down to the plaza area.
And an interesting thing is agroup called Urban Labs that
we're also speaking to on thistrip and there'll be an episode
about actually made a proposalto pedestrianize this area.
It has not been pedestrianizedyet, but we'll be sure to talk
(05:38):
about that when we speak withUrban Labs.
So right now the bus says it'llbe here in about five or six
more minutes.
This bus runs every 20 minutes.
I believe it's more frequentduring rush hour, but right now
it's about 10 45 in the morning.
So 20 minute frequencies iswhat we've got.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Thank you Sorry.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
The Cheesecake Factory is right on the Max line
, so I think city nerd wouldlikely approve of the location
very transit oriented cheesecakefactory, similar to in houston.
We had a transit orientedcheesecake factory in houston
too.
All right, so we made it to theplaza area.
Uh, again, we heard a lot aboutthis last night and, uh, one of
the interesting things thatthey had mentioned was the
person who designed this hadbeen on a trip to Spain and took
(06:47):
the inspiration from that trip,and it is very apparent here,
as you're walking around, we'renot getting very Midwest-y vibes
, we're getting very Europeanvibes.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
No, this person went to Spain and said, oh, I really
miss that really walkable citythat I was in.
You know what.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
We should recreate it and add a shit ton of parking
yes, so this, this was created,opened in 1923 and it's
considered to be the first orone of the first kind of
suburban shopping centers in theunited states.
Um, yeah, a lot of the parkingis kind of hidden around.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's a really beautiful area and our kansas
city is known for, I think, alot of its architecture, a lot
of Art Deco and this isdefinitely not Art Deco, very
Spanish, but it's really prettyand it may not fit in with the
rest of the city, but the streetgrid is pretty well integrated
with the surroundingneighborhoods, yeah, and there's
a lot of development aroundthis.
Yes, so, even though it may bea little bit of a mismatch, it
(07:40):
feels really comfortable justwalking around it.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, and I mean to be clear.
It's basically it is a mall.
It'd be nicer to have some morelocal shops here.
I'm sure there are some mixedin, but it's just like funny.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
You have like the nicest looking cheesecake
factory anywhere with this likeornate fountain and lots of
other shops you'd see in a mall,but there's a ton of parking.
It's now mostly hidden.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, either above or below ground, ground but, yeah,
interested to see the future ofthis, though, and if Urban Labs
and the City of Kansas City areable to pedestrianize at least
a portion of this, I thinkthat'd be a huge win.
You may have noticed when wewere getting on and off the bus
and streetcar, and you willnotice throughout the day, that
(08:18):
we haven't been tapping ourphones or using an app or
anything like that, and that'sbecause Kansas City's transit is
actually fare free, yep.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
It is the largest US city with a free transit system.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah, and that is great in a lot of ways and also
presents some challenges.
Later in the day we'll kind oftalk about some of the budget
issues happening in Kansas Cityat the moment as far as their
transit goes.
But when you're having budgetissues at the same time as not
collecting fares, it's a trickything and there's a lot of
arguments for and against this.
(08:51):
One of the arguments forcontinuing to keep it fare-free
is that the cost of implementinga fare system actually eats
away at some of it, although,while I do think there is a cost
associated there having somerevenue to play with, there
might be higher upfront cost toset it up initially.
Again, yeah, but that's goingto go down over time.
You'll mostly pay off that costover time.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
What was also really nice to see on the bus that we
took from Union Station to theplaza is that the bus was pretty
full, right, a lot of ridersand I guess the best way to say
this a diverse ridership.
Yeah, it's the only people fromall different places in KC were
really riding this bus to getacross town, so it's good to see
that.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Totally, and I think whether you are fare-free or not
, especially if you put insubsidies for folks who need the
help, I don't know that it'sgoing to affect ridership
necessarily.
I personally am of the mindsetthat I would rather see more
service at a cost, and mereceiving good service for that
(09:53):
cost, than having it be free andkind of constantly under
potential threat.
Right now, as the system hereis, of having service be reduced
and it's it's hard because youcan't necessarily like, oh,
you're reducing service, butlike what do you expect it's
free can be an easy mentality tofall into here.
So when filming this in earlyMarch, kc ATA was under threat
(10:14):
of needing to cut service due tobudget constraints.
Unfortunately, it seems as ifthose cuts are underway.
We may get into this further ina future episode, but for now
we have linked more informationin the description of this video
.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's a really beautiful area.
I think what would make this areally cool neighborhood would
be if the second floors or eventhird floors of these buildings
were Residences a little morelively yeah you've never seen a
photo to child that looks likethat.
Wild we just walked around theplaza area very nice.
Wild, we just walked around theplaza area very nice.
(10:48):
We're going to hop over to theNelson Atkins Museum of Art,
which is a famous art museumhere in Kansas City.
We're going to get there byjumping on the bikes and then
heading over toward theuniversity.
If you're in KC and you want touse the bike, there is an app
called Ride KC Bike.
You download this.
It will tell you where the bikestations are and how many bikes
are there.
The really cool thing about theKC Bike you download this.
It will tell you where the bikestations are and how many bikes
are there.
The really cool thing about theKC bikes is that these are all
(11:09):
electric.
So I have found one.
I am going to hit scan.
Scan it there Gives me the tripoptions.
It allows me to unlock for $1and then 25 cents per minute.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Interesting system where, instead of having a dock,
these locks are mechanical andwhen you unlock it it just
unlocks this back wheel.
Here it's like a round kind ofclip that goes in and locks it
and then you'll just lock itagain to one of these stations
again in the future.
Yes, no bike lane right here,which is unfortunate, but it
(11:45):
looks like there's a nice trailoff to our left here that it's
probably like kind of thedestination of this.
We talked to some folks or Italked to some folks yesterday
at the bar who said that thecity is improving some of their
bike infrastructure.
There are a couple of niceroutes but still plenty of work
to do.
(12:11):
Pleasant surprise here, alwaysnice when you accidentally bump
into some nice bikeinfrastructure.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We're getting off of it right away, though I am
really impressed with sort ofthe build out of Kansas City.
I mean, the apartment buildingswe rode by are almost like
Chicago.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Even some new development along the bus that
we were taking is hard to showbecause the bus was really
crowded so I wasn't able topoint out the window.
But yeah, I think.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I've been sleeping on Kansas City.
It's a Kansas City.
This is probably colder thanour scooter ride in Salt Lake
City.
Yes, yes it is.
We're on the bikes from the artmuseum it's a very chilly ride
over to the University ofMissouri, Kansas City.
This is a research universitythat was founded in 1933 and
(13:00):
currently has a studentpopulation of about 15,300.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And what's really nice is the current streetcar
extension is going to end righthere.
Yeah, pretty far south and likethis isn't the best view over
this building by the field house, but like there's a lot of
development off campus that'skind of in the direction of the
plaza area we were at earlier.
I mean, this is this is a densepart of town and it shows in
(13:25):
the ridership of the bus that wewere on.
It absolutely does, yeah, andit also really bodes well for
the streetcar.
Yep, I think it'll be a prettywell used line.
Yes, so this is the Southernterminus of the streetcar
extension.
They have been testingstreetcars on this even while
we've been here.
Basically, it looks ready toroll and will be opening later
(13:46):
this year, which is reallyexciting.
Obviously, we've talked aboutthe university being right here.
There's also definitely somenew development that's happened,
very likely spurred from this.
You've got a grocery store withapartments and whatnot.
On top of it there's also aparking garage and some open
space that I'm sure is beingheld right now and could very
easily be redeveloped in thefuture, with the streetcar
(14:09):
coming right to potential frontdoors of folks here.
So exciting to see it.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
So we walked from the southern terminus of the new
extension of the streetcar downa trail that is actually a
historic streetcar line.
It's really cool.
It's like a linear park andtrail system that continues on
into South Kansas City.
We stopped here at the CountryClub station.
It's a historic station spot.
I thought there was like alittle gazebo.
(14:36):
There's just a placard, butit's so cool to see where the,
the old stop, used to be.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Right now we're waiting to get back on the main
Max bus.
We're going to head southtowards the Brookside
neighborhood.
We were coming down here and Iwas like we need to hurry up and
cross the street.
We'll record talking about thelittle station from over here,
because there was a bus in whatis now probably five minutes and
then the next one's not forlike almost half an hour and
(15:03):
it's too cold to sit around andwait for half an hour.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So it's a little chilly.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So fingers crossed that we'llget a bus here.
In a couple of minutes We'll bedown in the Brookside
neighborhood.
We might pop in somewhere andget a little coffee and we will
update you from there.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Hello Woo.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Hello.
She's on schedule.
She's on schedule.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
We just left out.
That was a very I'm glad wecaught the bus because we would
have been sitting there for atleast 20 minutes waiting for the
next one.
But super fast to get here.
Yeah, it does speed things upwhen no one has to sit there and
tap and fiddle with to get here.
Yeah, it does speed things upwhen no one has to like sit
there and tap and fiddle withmoney.
I will say it does.
That is the perk of the no-faresystem.
It's no-fare All right.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
There's no reason to go to Europe.
You can just go to Kansas Cityand experience Seville, spain or
Tudor England.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yes, you love to see a place have their own little
branded bike racks.
This is like a little minineighborhood, like downtown
center in a neighborhood, like aneighborhood center, town
center kind of thing.
Yes, and it's like what islacking in so many like areas
(16:24):
outside of downtowns in the US,everywhere, like we have all
these sprawling suburbs withnothing that looks like this.
We have instead giant walmartswith super huge parking lots
that then lead to more giant bigbox stores, and here's a
neighborhood with wide sidewalks, and I mean street parking,
sure, but wide sidewalks andsome sidewalk cafe spaces, right
?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
um, it's really nice, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Uh, from here we're gonna kind of walking to the
east right now down 63rd street.
Um, we're gonna catch a busback north, uh, towards kansas
city.
Um, there is a bus that runseast west on the 63rd street.
That is kind of just across-town route.
It is only hourly, though wemissed the hourly one by a few
(17:09):
minutes.
We're not going to stand herewaiting for an hour, so instead
we're going to walk a mile andwe're hopefully going to then
catch the 25 bus, which is anevery half an hour route.
If Chris and I walk fast, whichwe're known to walk fast we'll
be able to catch it.
So this would be our first bus.
That is not one of the maxroutes.
(17:30):
The max routes generally run alittle bit more frequently, so
we're going to walk a little bitquick here and hopefully catch
this bus on time.
We're not running for busestoday.
They wanted to make us run.
We were like nah, the bus ispulling up right now, while we
(17:50):
have a second here Very nice busstop.
One of the other Max busesstops here, but this will be our
first non-Max bus experience.
We're getting on the 25.
Which is right there.
Sorry, how are you?
(18:25):
We're currently in the 18th andVine neighborhood.
One thing I want to point aboutthe 25 bus, before we talk
about where we are, is the busstopped at time points quite a
few times along the line becausewe were getting ahead of
schedule.
There's not much traffic thatwe've encountered here in
general, and we did stop at alot of those time points and
wait for a few minutes, and Ithink that's really important
when you have a bus network likehere in Kansas City, that isn't
(18:49):
as frequent as you would likeit to be, because if someone is
looking at their phone to seethe schedule and then they're
like, okay, I need to be thereat this time, it's not like the
bus was early and just blew byand now they're stuck waiting
there for another half an hour.
So we saw a few people showingup right on time and catching it
because of uh that, uh littlegap in the time uh, being left
(19:09):
there.
The 18th and vine neighborhoodis a great spot to go to learn
more about kansas city's history, in particular, when it comes
to jazz, baseball and blackculture, all in one neighborhood
.
It's home to the negro leaguesbaseball museum, the jazz museum
and the legacy of legends likesatchel page and charlie parker.
Our, our timing luck has finallyrun out a little bit yeah this
is not too bad, but, uh, we'vebeen kind of killing time
(19:31):
already here.
We still have probably anotherseven or eight minutes, but
about a 15 minute ish.
Wait, uh, for the 18 bus whichwe are going to pop on to get to
back in downtown kansas city,missouri, and we're going to
transfer on to either the 101 or106 to then go the rest of the
way over to Kansas City, kansas.
Yeah yeah, we'll see you inKansas, though You're not in
(19:54):
Kansas anymore, toto.
I'm not in Kansas yet, toto,right.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
I guess on the way back.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I should have said that back.
I should have said that we madeit downtown and got off our bus
to transfer onto the 101, whichwould take us into Kansas City,
kansas.
Despite the wait earlier forthe 25, the 101 was only a
three-minute wait before we wereon our way to Kansas City,
(20:21):
kansas.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
So we couldn't come to the area without with only
seeing one KC.
So now we are at KCK, yes,which is Kansas City, kansas.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Not as much going on A little quieter.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
It's also very cold and raining and yeah yeah, we're
not going to spend a whole lotof time here.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
A little yucky, I'll try to get a couple visuals for
you, but we're also trying tospend a whole lot of time here.
A little yucky, I'll try to geta couple visuals for you, but
we're also trying to keep thingsa little dry in the camera
department.
Yeah, I'm glad we made it overhere.
Interesting to point out,though, that the KCATA does
operate on both sides of theborder here, so that's not
(21:03):
something you see every day,necessarily, that the same
transit agency crosses statelines, but in this case it makes
a lot of sense that it does so.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Um, yeah, even transit agencies around new york
.
It's rare that they reallyoperate too far into the other
district, so it's cool to see ithere.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yep, um, cool.
Well, with that, we're going totry to catch again either the
101 or 106 back over to kansascity.
Um, we're going to go warm upfor a little bit once we get
over there and then we're goingto continue on our journey to go
see where the North Street carextension is going, as well as
an area where there's a proposedhighway removal.
It's still it's not in the likephase where it's going to
(21:37):
happen yet, but there is somegrassroots conversations about
making it happen.
Personally, would love to seeit.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Very cold.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So cold, it's so cold .
We're at a transit tangents alltime low Literally.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
The wind chill is 21 degrees right now and it's like
30 mile per hour, winds andraining.
We're very lost for a while,yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
All right, we're back at it with warmer clothes.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
We're in slightly better shape right now.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yes, we had to go back to the hotel and warm up
for a little bit.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
The temperature has dropped from around 65 degrees
this morning to around 39 or 40,and the wind chill is about 20
to 17 degrees.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yes, not great.
We didn't have a lot to showyou.
But we struggled kind ofgetting back from the Kansas
side of Kansas City.
The buses it was anintersection where there were
bus stops everywhere.
It was really confusing whichone to get to.
We had to ask a bus driver or arandom person.
Eventually we figured out a bus.
It was like another 10 minuteswe're sitting there waiting in
(22:38):
the cold and wind.
Then it seemed like the buswasn't going to show up.
Yeah, it disappeared on the map.
We almost gave up.
I had Uber pulled up just incase, yes, and I was like no, no
, no, like we're gonna betransit tangents tough, we
almost didn't, we almost weren't.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Louis says transit tangent's tougher than me.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yes, it did show up and we did make it back here, so
we're not gonna catch thestreetcar, though, to the river
market area and we'll pick it upfrom there.
Before checking out RiverMarket, we wanted to catch a
glimpse of the northernextension to the Kansas City
streetcar.
Despite the weather, we walkedup onto a bridge and took a look
.
All right, it's prettymiserable out, but we walked
(23:17):
across this highway bridge toshow you the streetcar line.
You can see some of the tracksare already down.
Some of them are still beinglaid.
There's a lot of new developmentall the way along here, which
is great to see, and this is thenorthern extension.
At the far end of this is thesoccer stadium, so you've got
the women's soccer stadium, lotsof new development, and all of
(23:39):
this will funnel into theexisting line downtown and then
go way south to where we wereearlier in the day at the
University.
We're really putting ourselvesout here in the cold to bring
you this and if you think usstanding on this bridge to bring
you and show you exactly what'sgoing on here is worth it to
you, if you want to throw fivebucks on our Patreon, we would
(24:01):
very much appreciate it.
If you haven't liked this videoor subscribed.
Those are both also great waysto help support the show.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
So after checking out the extension of the Kansas
City streetcar, we walked backover to City Market.
This is a really awesome area.
On the weekends it's full ofvendors, produce markets and
it's sort of surrounded by allof these little restaurants,
coffee shops and other reallycool shops.
The City Market dates back toaround 1857 and was one of the
(24:32):
original sites of Kansas City,so really cool historic place to
check out.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
While we were on the streetcar on the way over here
we actually crossed over theNorth Loop section of the
highway.
So if you look at a map ofKansas City, there's a ton of
highways all around it andfamously there is kind of a
square around the downtown areathat really breaks it up from
the rest.
And when you look at oldhistorical satellite view of the
(24:56):
area it is insane what wasdemolished to build these
highways to begin with.
Some of the locals here sharedwith us that there was this
really cool survey done in the1940s where every single
property in all of Kansas Cityhad its photo taken in 1940 with
a man standing in front with anumbered sign on it.
And you can actually go todayand look at a map and click
(25:17):
around and see what used to bein some of these areas,
including where the highwaysused to be.
Unfortunately, now obviously youhave the highway there, there's
quite a bit of surface parkingall around the existing highways
, so the downtown fabric kind ofbreaks up as you cross these
areas, which is common in somany cities.
But what is really excitingabout here is there are some
(25:38):
proposals to actually remove theNorth Loop section of the
highway.
We'll kind of put links to someof that information so that if
you are interested you can goahead and check it out.
But another potential highwayremoval project we've talked
about some successful highwayremoval projects as well as some
other planned ones and otherepisodes in the past that we'll
link below if you want to checkthose out.
It's been a journey today a bitof a very, very cold Kansas
(25:59):
City in a day using only publicstarted out 60 something degrees
, it's now like close to 30 andthe windchill is around 15 ish
it's cold.
It's cold.
I was saying that my hands feelfine, but it's because I can't
feel them anymore.
We've had a really nice time inKansas City in general.
We had a really warm welcomewith a happy hour event and
(26:21):
everything.
So thank you to everyone whocame out to that event and gave
us a lot of ideas to do todayWay too many ideas, frankly,
because it's impossible to hiteverything in a day.
I think overall, we were prettysurprised at how big Kansas
City was.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
I'm very surprised at the size of Kansas City, at the
density of a lot of theneighborhoods, at the beauty of
a lot of the architecture Likeseeing the Union Station was
amazing that was a highlight,for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, like early in the day, but I also think I got
slowly jaded throughout the dayas to how cold it was.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
I got my popcorn.
It was awesome.
Yes, I started the day full ofhope.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yes, as far as the transit goes, I mean we got
lucky, I will say.
For the first half of the daythe max buses seem like those
actually run a pretty goodservice.
We were seeing them at 20-ishminute frequencies which I'm
being generous with the wordgood there in the morning and in
the evening it seems like theyrun at slightly higher
frequencies than that, but ingeneral those seem like the more
(27:18):
reliable lines.
Yep, the additional buses afterthat start to become a little
bit more of a crapshoot whenyou're talking every half an
hour, every 45 minutes or everyhour long.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Yeah, coming back from 18th and vine, we had a
longer wait than we anticipatedfor that bus and then, um, what
really sort of took a turn waswhen we decided to venture into
kansas city.
Kansas mistake.
Everyone in missouri told usnot to go.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, um, but we had to check actually did we had to
check out the other kansas city.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Uh, and then that was when the weather also took a
turn and we got stranded for aminute.
The signage very confusing itwas raining harder, it was
windier.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah, we were tired.
Uh, couldn't quite figure outwhich bus stop was where.
We almost called it quits.
We powered through.
Um, that was definitely achallenge and the thing is, is
that experience very likelyhappens to people quite a bit?
yeah, probably not uncommon inkansas city.
Yeah, I mean it's.
We're not in a warm climate Inthe wintertime you are gonna,
(28:17):
when you're dealing with buses,every half an hour you get one
bus that's canceled or one busthat's delayed for too long.
You are standing in thefreezing cold wind at many bus
stops that don't always have ashelter.
Maybe do kinda sorta have ashelter and you can stand behind
to protect yourself from thewind, but frankly, like that
sucks, like it's not fun.
So, work to be done andunfortunately, you know we we
(28:38):
explained a little bit earlieron about the funding cuts and
whatnot that are coming to kcataand those frequencies are not,
unfortunately, going to beimproving anytime soon yeah, so
hopefully, uh, the city canfigure out a way to keep those
funded, or at least maybe we canbring those back, maybe they
can introduce a fared structure.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
We'll see, because all in all, I think our
experiences in Kansas City werepretty positive.
Again, a couple of issues hereand there, but for the most part
we got around fine.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, and I will say, like the streetcar, two thumbs
up.
I mean yeah, so it's.
It's weird because it's soshort.
I kind of came into thisassuming it's like a novelty
thing and no one was going to beusing it.
But even at its short lengthright now, before the extensions
, there's been people on it.
There's been people on it everysingle time and quite a few
(29:26):
people on it.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
It has good ridership , it does get you across town
quickly and pretty efficiently,and when it finally extends from
the soccer stadium all the wayto UMKC it's going to be a
really valuable asset to thecity and I think it's going to
get a lot more usage.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, and I mean we're seeing a lot of
development along thoseextensions as well, which is
also going to boost withridership and help with
ridership and hopefully can youknow when those extensions open
it also may relieve somepressure from the bus system so
that the funding can be, youknow, kind of allocated where it
needs to be, because for kcstreetcar and the buses are in
are different systems that workreally well together but are
(30:02):
independent of each other.
So different funding mechanisms, yeah, um yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So, with all being said, I think we're going to
wrap it up so we can catch thetrolley that, or the streetcar
that I think is about to comearound the corner, and to get
dinner and try out some kcbarbecue.
If you like this episode,please make sure to like and
subscribe.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Also, if you want to support us, we have our patreon
where you can catch episodesearly and additional content, uh
, but with all that being said,thank you all so much for
watching this episode fromkansas city and enjoy the rest
of your transit tangents tuesday.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.