U.S. 69 Highway: Say YES to Traditional Widening, and NO to Express Toll Lanes!

Please sign this petition saying you support Traditional Widening, but you do not support Express Toll Lanes.

U.S. 69 Highway needs to be expanded and improved. Anyone who has driven on it can agree on this point. It's the busiest four-lane highway in Kansas, and it's been the highest local improvement priority for years [1]. But funding (from our taxes) keeps getting pulled from updating 69 Highway, and instead funds are used on other highways or other projects altogether. Just 2 weeks ago Sharice Davids asked for $403 million for the Johnson County Gateway, $199 million for the K-10 Corridor, and a measly $15 million for improving 69 Highway [2]. 69 Highway is taking a back seat again!

After reading all the material and attending several meetings, I can't help but come to the conclusion that the express toll lane option for 69 Highway is nothing short of a money grab. Now that they are finally looking at the design options, once again they are being very short sighted with their preferred approach (i.e. Express Toll Lanes). The issue at hand with congestion and safety isn't so much a lane issue, but rather a poor design and merging issue.

For example, southbound on U.S. 69 Highway always gets backed up during rush hour (and even outside of rush hour) because you have motorists trying to merge over 2 lanes of traffic from Blue Valley Parkway to exit at 135th St. You could add 2 more free lanes here and you'd still have congestion until this onramp is redesigned with a bridge to go over 69 Highway. In fact, a new bridge should be built that goes over 69 highway and lands between the highway and a new auxiliary lane that is the exit for 135th St (but motorists need to enter the auxiliary lane just after 119th St). This way those heading south on U.S. 69 have unimpeded flow throughout the corridor. How many major highways can you think of where motorists get on the highway on the left and immediately try to cross all lanes to exit on the right?

The same holds true for the dual northbound onramps at 135th St and College Blvd. At 3 cross streets (135th St, 119th St, College Blvd), there are five entrances. Can we not reduce those down to 3? Or add collector/distributor roads? Countless drivers head north at 135th St, immediately merge over to occupy one of the 2 lanes (which slows down traffic), only to exit at Blue Valley Parkway. Why isn't there an auxiliary lane connecting the onramps and the exit to Blue Valley Parkway? It's a common sense answer to a problem, and it doesn't involve adding Express Toll Lanes.

This may be difficult to explain without fancy maps, but all I'm saying is this isn't a "one lane short issue", but rather an overall design issue. It's not rocket surgery. If they go with the Express Toll Lane option, they won't be fixing the overall design (on one of the calls a representative from KDOT said they won't need collector/distributor roads and auxiliary lanes ... no wonder this is the cheaper option). A traditional widening is the best approach for Kansas long-term. We need to spend our tax money and do it the right way, and build the collector/distributor roads and auxiliary lanes as needed. (And I didn't even touch on the economic inequalities that come with an Express Toll Lane, or the fact that prices can be raised whenever and they go on forever.).

Please sign this petition saying you support Traditional Widening, but you do not support Express Toll Lanes. I would like to get this petition in front of the Overland Park City Council before they vote on the Express Toll Lane option.

Here's the plan for adding General-Purpose Lanes:
This alternative would involve adding one new general-purpose lane in each direction for all motorists. In addition, collector/distributor roads and auxiliary lanes would be added. The U.S. 69 interchanges at Blue Valley Parkway and at I-435 would be reconfigured. Improvements to local interchanges and supporting cross streets would be made and existing pavement and bridges would be reconstructed.

[1] https://www.69express.org/about/
[2] https://shawneemissionpost.com/2021/05/13/rep-davids-lenexa-highways-121874/