Newsletters
| Transit & Infrastructure
Newsletters
| Economic & Community Development, Housing, Transit & Infrastructure
- Newsletters
- | Economic & Community Development, Housing, Transit & Infrastructure
By Ross van Dongen, Chief of Infrastructure and Workforce Development at AFA
Public servants know the deep satisfaction of watching a community project they helped shape come to life, often after years of steady work. Transit and infrastructure projects, in particular, face a long runway from planning to completion, which made my recent trip to Kansas City even more special.
Kansas City was among 11 U.S. cities selected as a World Cup host city. To serve the hundreds of thousands of soccer fans descending on the region for the World Cup, AFA and our colleagues at Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) worked alongside Johnson County, Kansas officials since 2023 to support the development and launch of a new circulator bus system designed to connect the county’s major population centers directly with Kansas City International Airport.
In June, I got to experience the circulator firsthand when I traveled to Kansas City to join my family, Johnson County, KS Chairman Mike Kelly, Kansas City, MO Mayor Quinton Lucas, and roughly 36,000 Netherlands fans for the largest Oranje Fanwalk in U.S. history. Getting to attend the 2026 World Cup is one of the moments that I will cherish as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – not just because of the teams that were playing or the game itself, but because I got to attend the game in a city and a region that has come to mean so much to Accelerator for America.
Like so many American communities, Johnson County, KS is car-centric. For the circulator to work, it had to be reliable and consistent enough to get people to the airport in about the same time as driving themselves or calling a rideshare. County leadership knew that even one missed flight because of a service breakdown could sink the whole effort. But Chairman Kelly and county leaders saw something bigger in the World Cup — a chance to prove this system deserves to stick around long after the final goal is scored.
The circulator is one of 10 projects that made up AFA and SIP’s Innovative Infrastructure Initiative (i3) cohort, an effort to work hand in glove with community leaders to achieve some of their most ambitious infrastructure projects. The i3 cohort identified best practices, alternative delivery, and non-traditional financing models that moved forward projects representing $2 billion in new investment.
Over the course of 2024 and 2025, AFA connected Johnson County leaders to procurement experts from Partners for Public Good and the Center for Transportation and the Environment to discuss fleet size, headway needs, and the range of transmission options. AFA collaborated with Building Better Cities and its founder and CEO, Kate Gasparro, to develop a process map that guided the county through potential public-private partnership strategies to finance the circulator service and the necessary facilities. Johnson County leadership also joined their i3 cohort colleagues for convenings in Atlanta, San Diego, and Phoenix for dedicated workshops with industry leaders on infrastructure financing, transportation innovation, and project delivery best practices.
During this time, Johnson County was able to secure more than $2 million federal funding and $1.5 million in state and local funding for the circulator that allowed riders to utilize the service at no cost during the World Cup. Officials also reached agreements with the cities of Overland Park and Lenexa in Kansas to host pick-up and drop-off locations for the service.
As 2026 arrived and the logistics for the circulator – now known as the Johnson County United Airport Drop and Ride – fell into place, AFA and Johnson County developed a plan for an elasticity study that would test variables such as the size of the fleet, headway times, and cost of service and how they impact potential rider interest. In May, AFA facilitated a partnership between the county and an international transportation firm to conduct the study following the conclusion of the World Cup.
My time in Kansas City for the World Cup was everything I hoped for from the community I have grown so attached to over the last several years. Vibes were sky high. Fan Fest was packed. Residents, business owners, and visitors alike were smiling and joyful. Despite the scattered thunderstorm during the day of the match, the streets were filled with orange jerseys. And yes, the Netherlands went on to defeat Tunisia and win Group F. (We do not need to discuss what happened next!) To top it all off, in one of those rare full circle moments, I was able to take advantage of the Johnson County United Airport Drop and Ride myself.
The shuttle picked me up exactly when and where it was supposed to – and we even got to the airport a few minutes ahead of schedule. My shuttle’s operator (a school bus driver who signed up for the service to play a part in her home’s World Cup festivities) was a delight, and before she knew who I was or why I was so interested in the service, she encouraged me to take the survey and tell others. And survey results show my experience wasn’t singular, with 95.5 percent of riders rating the service as excellent. Respondents noted the buses’ comfort and cleanliness, ease of use, and the helpful staff as the top reasons they enjoyed the service.
Projects at this scale are not easy. They are expensive, complicated, and evolve over months and years. The dedicated civil servants that lead these projects are stretched beyond their capacity on a good day. Recognizing this challenge, AFA and SIP collaborated to deliver targeted support and additional capacity to communities through the i3 cohort — making success stories like this a reality. Although the cohort has wrapped up, the essential work in Johnson County and across other i3 communities continues. We will be there to support them each step of the way.
