Kansas City Metropolitan Area - Transportation

Transportation

The Kansas City metropolitan area has by far more freeway lane-miles per capita than any other large metropolitan area in the United States, over 27% more than the second-place Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, over 50% more than the average American metro area and nearly 75% more than the large metro area with the least, Las Vegas.

Kansas City is also served by long-distance Amtrak trains from Union Station.

Some of Kansas City's interstates include:

• I-29 – To Saint Joseph, Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska, to the north.
• I-35 – To Des Moines, Iowa, to the north and Wichita, Kansas, to the south.
• I-70 – To St. Louis, Missouri, to the east and Topeka, Kansas/Denver, Colorado, to the west.
• I-435 – Bi-state loop through Missouri and Kansas suburbs. Second longest in U.S., fourth longest single numbered beltway in the world.
• I-470 – Connects South Kansas City with Lee's Summit and Independence.
• I-635 – Connecting the Kansas suburbs with Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City International Airport.
• I-670 – A southern bypass of I-70 and southern portion of the downtown loop. Signed as East I-70 when exiting from I-35 while traveling north.

Other major highways:

• U.S. 24 - Independence Ave. and Winner Rd. between downtown Kansas City and Independence MO, serves as a street level connection to Independence.
• U.S. 40 – U.S. 40 is one of six east-west US-numbered routes that run (or ran) from coast to coast. It serves as a business loop and an alternate route for I-70.
• U.S. 50 – Enters the area in southern Johnson County, follows I-435 from the west to I-470, then splits off I-470 in Lee's Summit to continue eastward to Jefferson City and St. Louis as a regular highway. Its former route through Raytown and southeast Kansas City was renumbered as Route 350. U.S. 50 is also one of the six coast-to-coast east-west US highways.
• U.S. 69 – Connects Excelsior Springs, Missouri, in the north and serves as a freeway in Johnson County suburbs.
• U.S. 71 – In the north, concurrent with I-29 to Amazonia, Missouri, and serves as a freeway (Bruce R. Watkins Drive) south from downtown.
• U.S. 169 – Connects Smithville, Missouri, in the north.
• K-5 – A minor freeway bypassing the north of Kansas City, Kansas, connecting the GM Fairfax plant with I-635. K-5 continues as Leavenworth Road west to I-435 then on to Leavenworth, Kansas.
• K-7 – A freeway linking Leavenworth County, Kansas, Wyandotte County, Kansas, and Johnson County, Kansas.
• K-10 – A freeway linking I-435 and Lawrence.
• K-32 – A highway that links Leavenworth County, Kansas, and Wyandotte County, Kansas.
• MO 9 – A minor freeway northwest of North Kansas City, and serves as a commercial backbone to North Kansas City, Riverside, Platte Woods, and Parkville.
• Route 150 – A highway linking southern Lee's Summit and Grandview to the Kansas suburbs at State Line Road.
• MO 152 – A freeway contained entirely in Kansas City's Northland, stretching from Liberty in Clay County west to its intersection with I-435 near Parkville, Missouri.
• Route 210 – A minor freeway east of North Kansas City that, as a two-lane road, stretches to Richmond, Missouri.
• Route 291 – Formerly an eastern bypass route of U.S. 71, the minor freeway connects Harrisonville and Lee's Summit to Independence, Sugar Creek, Liberty and Kansas City North. It is signed along with I-470 north of Lee's Summit.
• Route 350 – Crosses through Raytown as Blue Parkway.

Other notable roads:

• Ward Parkway – A scenic parkway in Kansas City, Missouri near the Kansas-Missouri state line where many large historic mansions and fountains are located.
• Broadway – A street that runs from the west side of downtown Kansas City to Westport. The street has long been an entertainment center, with various bars, live jazz outlets and restaurants. It also forms the eastern border of Quality Hill, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Kansas City
• The Paseo – Part of the city's original system of parks and boulevards developed beginning in the late 1880s, it is the longest of the original boulevards and the only one that runs the entire length of the pre-World War II city, from the Missouri River bluffs in the north to 79th Street on the south
• Troost Avenue – A north-south thoroughfare 11 blocks east of Main Street, named for an early Kansas City settler and dentist, Benoist Troost. The street roughly divides the city's mostly black neighborhoods to its east from its mostly white ones to its west
• Swope Parkway – Running on the south side of the Brush Creek valley eastward from The Paseo, then southward from its junction with Benton Boulevard, this street is the main route from the city's midtown to its largest city park, Swope Park