KCATA Partnership with The National Park Service

Target Audience: This project targeted those who live and work around the Blue Ridge Boulevard and Bannister Road in South Kansas City area.

Strategy Objective:This submission shows what a great partnership can do when two groups come together to provide transportation needs by bringing in new bus routes to the area along with 26 park-and-ride spots, while preserving the history of the national trails and educating the public about the trail history. There are custom panels on the covered facility as well as narrated videos on KCATA's first interactive Smart City CityPost digital kiosks. KCATA is the first transit agency to install Smart City kiosks directly into the framework of our shelters. KCATA teamed up with the National Park Service to co-brand the transit center signage. These projects were unchartered, and we wanted to highlight these amenities at the grand opening.

Situation Challenge: KCATA created a new transit center and partnered with The National Park Service to make it an official national historic trailhead marking the area nearby, where the California, Oregon and Santa Fe national historic trails converged. The trailhead has custom interpretive panels designed by 3-Trails West, Inc. and the National Park Service that illustrate the historic significance of the trails and stories of the travelers with ties to the area. This trailhead is one of the first identified along a 47-mile national historic trail experience being planned that retraces the path of the three national trails in the Kansas City area from Sugar Creek, Mo., to Gardner, Kan. A dedication was held in the spring of 2018 to honor the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System.

Results Impact: The new facility spurs economic development while allowing bus riders to make transit connections to popular locations in the region. With the addition of several routes to the transit center, this provides more opportunities to the people that we serve. The Smart City kiosks allow riders the ability to access more information than ever before and is one of the first interactive smart kiosks to be installed into a bus shelter in the nation. These digital kiosks have real-time arrival schedules, RideKC services, community news, and even have the ability to take selfie photos.

Why Submit: This partnership is unique in that it is the first partnership the National Park Service has had with a transit agency. Showing the history of the three national trails not only in print but onto a bus shelter interactive digital kiosk creates a cutting-edge information platform and a learning environment in a new area of the Kansas City region. The grand opening brought excitement to the community and educated them on these new amenities.