Biking in Lexington
Keeping Lexington Livable.
A robust city values diversity: populations, housing, industry — and transportation.
Diversity allows communities to be more creative and resilient. When we invite a mix of people from different industries, backgrounds, incomes, home-styles, and when we offer them multiple ways to get around the city, we are protecting our city from economic and social stresses and shocks.
Cycling is important in securing this diversity.
Lexington has made improvements over the past several years, but we lag behind other cities. We must improve our cycling culture to strengthen livability and health. City Rankings from Places for Bikes (PFB), an organization that rates and ranks cities’ bike-friendliness evaluates a city’s biking culture by considering Ridership, Safety, Network, Reach and Acceleration.
Lexington received a 1.3. Out of 5.
The “benchmark” cities that Lexington uses to target improvements in economic and social performance consistently do better:
- Madison: 3.0
- Austin: 3.0
- Raleigh: 2.4
- Minneapolis: 2.0
- Boise: 1.7
- Kansas City: 1.5
- Charleston: 1.5
Achieving a high score is more than just bragging rights. The specific policy steps that trigger improved scores improve the lives of our neighbors and our children.
I previously outlined some steps to improve Lexington’s cycling culture:
We want to protect cyclists with bike protected intersections, such as corner refuge islands, protected curb extensions, forward stop bars, setback bike crossings, a buffer zone between bikes and car traffic, and bike-friendly signal phasing, special lights to indicate when bikes should cross, and raised bike lanes.
Lexington already reduced speed limits on many downtown streets to 25 mph, and that was a good step. On Council I will raise a firm voice to give priority to safe bike lane planning, and I will advocate for equitable distribution of biking resources. People of color bike at higher rates than other populations, and the City should plan accordingly.
Moreover, “invisible cyclists” — those who might be experiencing homelessness, or don’t own a car and use cycling as their primary mode of movement — need to be considered as well. We should develop a cycling infrastructure that spikes out from downtown and invites residents to come in. When living in food deserts, a mile on a bike with a backpack is much easier than a mile walking with bags.
I will also find opportunities to strengthen partnership with healthful living and biking promotion organizations to create a culture of biking. The more our neighbors “normalize” biking, the more new cyclists will end their reliance on carbon-emitting transportation.
