Safer Streets for Kirkwood and St. Louis County

06/16/2026

“MoDOT’s own safety programs do not support waiting simply because Manchester Road was recently redone. Show-Me Zero says deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable, MoDOT’s traffic-safety policy focuses on engineering strategies to reduce fatal and serious crashes, and MoDOT’s traffic-study policy says pedestrian and bicycle facilities should be considered on every project.

Unfortunately, when MoDOT planned the Manchester Road project, there was no support from City Hall to lower the speed limit. Safer Streets for Kirkwood advocated with both MoDOT and City Hall at that time. That missed opportunity should not now be used as an excuse to delay the next round of safety improvements.”

Show-Me Zero / Missouri Strategic Highway Safety Plan — MoDOT says death and serious injury are unacceptable, and that the system should account for human mistakes. That directly supports additional speed, crossing, visibility, median, and traffic-calming countermeasures on Manchester.

MoDOT EPG 907 Traffic Safety — MoDOT states it is committed to implementing engineering strategies to improve safety, with a focus on reducing fatalities and serious injuries.

MoDOT EPG 905.2 Traffic Studies — MoDOT policy says pedestrian and bicycle facilities should be considered on every project.

MoDOT EPG 907.1 Safety Program Guidelines — Missouri receives federal safety funding, and most is distributed to MoDOT districts for projects intended to reduce fatalities and serious injuries.

MoDOT to study lower speed limit on Manchester Road, but warns progress will be slow. Link:
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_835d2b47-e4ab-4751-8a1c-0514d255a893.html

06/13/2026

Kirkwood residents need answers before Thursday’s Council meeting.

I am hearing non-published information that the Water Department has lost a significant number of service field employees, and that some of those employees have been hired by a Kirkwood vendor.

I am also hearing that, to cover interim water-main repairs, Street Department employees may be providing the manual labor. If true, that means street maintenance could be short-staffed while Kirkwood’s roads are already behind.

City Hall needs to answer these questions publicly:

Who is now repairing water-main breaks?

Are certified or properly qualified water-distribution personnel supervising the work?

Do the Street Department employees assigned to this work meet the needed qualifications for drinking-water handling, disinfection, flushing, sampling, and restoring service?

The City has not yet published a public RFP. If a Kirkwood vendor has reportedly hired former City water employees and assembled a service team for water-main work, does the City intend to use that vendor? If so, where is that cost authorized and shown in the existing budget?

This also raises a larger question: does this change the public’s view of keeping the Water Department as a City-owned utility?

The street budget issue makes this even more serious. Kirkwood had a $1.8 million base street maintenance budget, and the TDD was forecasted to add about $3 million in additional revenue. The mayor publicly promoted Prop T as a way to deliver streets to the standard residents expect, and the news reported the City estimated the tax would generate an extra $3 million per year.

Immediately after passage of the TDD, the City cut the street budget from $1.8 million to $1 million.

Residents did not vote for the TDD so City Hall could reduce the existing street maintenance commitment after the tax passed.

Before Thursday, City Hall should explain the staffing plan, vendor plan, water-safety qualifications, budget impact, and what street work will now be delayed.

The city received the $27.5 million offer in March from Missouri American Water, according to minutes of a closed City Council meeting obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

06/11/2026

People keep crashing and dying while MoDOT plays hide-and-seek with the public instead of providing clear crash-reduction goals and safety accountability.





Tap on below to here story.

Four people have died in crashes along Gravois Avenue this year, prompting residents to voice frustration over waiting for safety improvements. Major construction on the Gravois safety project is n…

06/11/2026

MoDOT continues to refuse to listen and the results are embarrassing

This Facebook reel sums up the communication failure we continue to see from MoDOT in our region.

A large grocery store sits across from clear pedestrian demand, yet the nearest crosswalk is more than 600 feet away. There have been multiple deaths and serious injuries in this area, but the public conversation is still stuck on whether a crosswalk is “needed.”

That is by MoDOT design in failing to educate the public.

FHWA basic guidance on crosswalks separated by more than 300 feet supports a marked, pedestrian-lighted crossing with a Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon.

This is exactly what Safer Streets for the STL region has pointed out for years: pedestrian demand for crosswalks exists where people are already crossing.

MoDOT is not transparent in these vetting meetings. It is a game of deadly hide-and-seek by MoDOT management.

Refusing to provide a crash-reduction goal and crash-cost reduction target is not only disingenuous, it demonstrates weak morals.

MoDOT has a moral obligation to educate the public, disclose the expected safety benefit, and provide the crash-reduction and crash-cost reduction goals before asking citizens to spend their own time attending public meetings.

Tom Evers
Jenn Wade
click on the below link.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/36835572312700320/?fs=e&fs=e

06/09/2026

IT’S YOUR MONEY, IT’S YOUR ROADS.

06/08/2026

As seen in the Webster Kirkwood Times

Work Collaboratively To Make Kirkwood Streets Safer

As a Kirkwood resident, I recently renewed my efforts to curb speeding on our 20 mph street (Fairway Lane). I began by contacting the Street Code Issue Team (SCIT). I was told the city pays for a data collection service, and through sources like Apple Car Play and OnStar, it was determined that the average speed on our street in March and April was 12 mph, and the 85th percentile was 16 mph. This seems implausible at best.

I asked if there was a low cut-off mph to account for factors such as idling delivery vehicles, but have not received an answer. SCIT also provided a speed trailer to track speed on our street. SCIT stated that the average speed was 17.81 mph. The 85th percentile was 22 mph.

Again, hard to believe the average is below the limit. Kirkwood subscribes to the outdated 85th percentile speed, meaning the speed at or below which 85% of drivers travel. SCIT will not pursue anything further when it cites the 85th percentile as not problematic.

Des Peres conducted a robust study concluding that the presence of speed trailers skews data. Most drivers think trailers have cameras or license plate readers, and drive significantly slower as a result. Des Peres instead recommends using concealed black-tape monitors on the roadway. Why won’t Kirkwood utilize this technology? Why is Kirkwood feeding its citizens junk data from collection agencies and the trailer that skews the real picture?

I know I’m not the only concerned citizen to come up against SCIT, only to be told there is not a speed issue on my street. I challenge the Kirkwood City Council and SCIT to do right and work collaboratively with its citizens to make streets safer for its residents, especially its children.

Laura Elliott
Kirkwood

06/07/2026

TDD the same old games continue!
Kirkwood voters were told: “Our budget that we’ve had the last few years has been $1.8 million to do our streets. So the passage of Prop T will add another $2.8 million to our budget each year.”

Voters were also told this tax was “a direct investment in the infrastructure of Kirkwood’s street and sidewalk system” and that the revenue was “going to fund road construction.”

Yet street restoration funding was reduced by $800,000, (ironical the Leffindwell protect was transferred in $800K) and based on MPO records, about $1.3 million in North Kirkwood Road federal funding was forfeited when the project was not started on time.

The TDD committee should live with what voters voted for.

&Switch

06/07/2026

Know before you go!

06/05/2026

Modern Driver Tests Should Include Modern Street Safety Features.

No consequence for unsafe driving means pedestrians pay the price.

Traffic-calming curbs get a shave in South City
The new traffic-calming infrastructure around Tower Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden has been generally well received, save one small but vocal constituency: The people who’ve popped their car tires on it.

Several motorists have posted on social media in recent weeks photos of tires that popped after riding up on the curb at intersections like the one at Magnolia and Tower Grove avenues, right next to the new Tower Grove Connector pedestrian and bike path. They say that the infrastructure protrudes too far into the street and its curbs have angles that are too sharp.

The whole point of the bump-out is for it to protrude into the street to force drivers to slow down and make the turns with a slightly tighter radius. However, the city has been willing to make some concessions. Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez says that contractor Gershenson Construction has moved some of the curbs back by six inches and shaved down their edges. Because the build is part of a public-private partnership, she suggests that anyone who popped tires contact Gershenson to file a claim.
SLM reached out to Gershenson to get a sense of how many people had filed those claims. “I don't know if anybody has,” an operations manager told us. —Ryan Krull

06/04/2026