A city park in Roeland Park now features a new amenity unlike anything else in the Kansas City metro: a traffic garden.

Equipped with mini-roundabouts, stop signs, crosswalks and small hills, the traffic garden at R Park, 5535 Juniper Dr., is meant to teach children about safe bicycling on the road.

The project was years in the making

• Roeland Park City Councilmember Jennifer Hill, resident Duane Dougherty and former resident Laura Steele, director of education at Bike Walk KC, started working on a traffic garden proposal in 2018.
• The trio wanted to make it as safe as possible and looked at similar concepts in other communities, mostly on the West Coast.
• The city’s parks and sustainability committees both worked on the concept, Hill said.
• “I’m really happy with it,” Hill said. “There have been so many kids out there playing and it makes me really happy when I drive by and see it out there.”

Traffic garden keeps green space in R Park

• The main pushback the city received about initial plans for the project was about it’s lack of green space, Hill said.
• Originally, the concept featured painted lines on asphalt — but after multiple design iterations, the final product turned into a circular trail meant to mimic a roadway, surround by grass.
• Berms and plantings will be added at a later date, Hill said.

Traffic garden meant to teach basic road rules

• The goal is for kids to learn how to maneuver their bikes on the road while in a safe space away from actual traffic.
• Children can practice which side of the road to ride their bikes on, when to stop, where to look for cars and how to merge, Hill said.
• “I know my own children, I was scared they would run a stop sign or run out in traffic and just not quite understand how the rules of the road works,” Hill said.

The new Traffic Garden at R Park aims to teach children about road safety in a safe environment! The current playground is under construction (open spring 2023), the Traffic Garden is ready for use. Check out this fun video for a look at @mprpks learning a very important lesson! pic.twitter.com/AdV8qICajA

— Roeland Park, KS (@RoelandParkKS) January 20, 2023

More changes are coming to R Park

• The official opening of a new playground near the traffic garden at R Park has been delayed in recent weeks due to the weather.
• Hill said the city needs to wait to pour the pad underlying the playground’s soft ground cover after daily temperatures reach 50 degrees.
• The playground and traffic park are likely to see a grand opening this spring, Hill said.

Go deeper: Read up on R Park improvements here.