Covington is opening its first dedicated bike lane.
City leaders, state transportation officials, and representatives of nonprofit Tri-State Trails cut the ribbon on the half-mile bike lane Tuesday morning. It runs along West Fourth Street from Garrard to Johnson Street.
Mayor Ron Washington says the bike lane replaces a former vehicle lane on the “oversized” West Fourth Street. The street is now two lanes of vehicle traffic, instead of three.
“We did a traffic study, and we saw that there was not going to be an impact ... on traffic,” Washington said. “Traffic is still going to flow. We're going to have bicycles here on this new path. We're excited.”
He says he hopes the project will make West Fourth Street safer for all users.
“Once the drivers, everyone understands that there's going to be bicyclists in this lane, I think this ups the ante [for] everyone to be safe,” Washington said.
Advocates have been pushing for better bike infrastructure in Northern Kentucky for years, especially after a car hit and killed cyclist Gloria San Miguel on the 11th Street Bridge in 2022.
The new bike lane is five-feet wide with a two-foot painted buffer between cyclists and vehicle traffic.
Washington says it will connect the Roebling Point area with the Central Riverfront development site.
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