Opinion contributor
I’ve been riding Louisville streets on my bicycle for over 50 years. This is an amazing city for cycling with so much potential! I’ve seen our city go from zero bicycle infrastructure planning to accelerated planning over the years. There was tremendous growth several years ago with expanded bikes lanes, like you see on Kentucky Street and Breckinridge Street. There was funding available for kids to learn bike safety with dedicated staff to teach and promote it. There were Bike to Work Day celebrations. There were bike summits to bring folks together to plan a better, more bike-friendly city. What happened?
It feels like planning and growth of bike projects is on perpetual pause. Bike lanes are full of glass. Bike infrastructure is deteriorating and is half finished. Projects are moving slowly if at all. Not very long ago, Louisville was discussing funding and completing bicycle-related projects right and left. In 2009, there was a bicycle summit where the mayor, area bike organizations, leadership and cyclists were invited to attend a 2-day summit to discuss ways to accommodate cyclists. We need this again now more than ever.
In recent years, there was talk of adding River Road bicycle facilities from Waterfront Park to Zorn Avenue to make that section of roadway safer and now we hear it may finally be completed this year. We shall see. There was talk of reopening the old Riverwalk Trail from the Belle of Louisville west to Shawnee Park, closed due to roots under […]
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