Every time Melissa Kelley rolls up to the intersection at Greenup Street and Pleasant Street, she’s cautious. She looks both ways and waits, preparing to cross the two-way street that is Greenup, with no stop signs or traffic lights to aid her.
"That's an intersection we go through a lot and have to sort of creep out into the intersection and hope nothing comes and hits you,” Kelley said.
Kelley lives in the Eastside neighborhood of Covington. The neighborhood is located right off the Girl Scout Bridge, so some amount of traffic is typical. But after the demolition of the 4th Street Bridge over the Licking River, the Girl Scout Bridge is now the only one connecting Covington and Newport. And now, the state transportation cabinet has started improvements on that bridge as well.
The increased traffic is bringing an increase in commuters driving through Eastside’s residential roads.
Who is affected
Eastside is home to residents from diverse income levels, ages and commuter types. Historically, it is a racially diverse neighborhood, and is an important historical focal point for civil rights for Black Americans. But residents like Kelley, who chairs the Eastside+ Neighborhood Association, say they’ve long felt unsafe with the traffic in the neighborhood.
From young kids playing on the streets to elderly people walking throughout the day, Eastside roads were not always designed for motorists.
“They were meant for people and buggies and horses,” Kelley said.
Pamela Mullins has lived in Eastside for about 60 years. She lives off 13th Street, and with the traffic detour, says it’s even riskier than it used to be to get home.
“There's no stop sign, there's no crosswalk or anything right there to make them slow down or anything,” Mullins said. “I mean, you just have to get in there.”
Another portion of the neighborhood residents are concerned about is the intersection between 9th Street and Greenup Street, which young children frequent during warmer months. Mary Rice, a senior resident, feels these considerations were left behind.
“They might have thought about the traffic, but they didn't think about the residents or the children in this area,” Rice said.
Rice also said the roads need to be repaved so the influx of cars can safely drive through them.
“It's not a rich neighborhood,” Rice said. “It just so happens — the bridge happens to be right here.”
Current improvement efforts
Recently, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has initiated different projects to make the roads safer. They began improvements coming off the Girl Scout Bridge in Covington on Monday and previously converted two nearby one-way streets to two-way streets.
Aaron Wolpert, a member of local transportation safety advocacy group COVStreets, said that while the changes are good, he wishes there was a larger, comprehensive plan rather than multiple small improvements over time. He said any changes take a long time because of traffic studies and citizen input.
“All of which is useful, but if you have to do that every single time you make a change, it takes forever to get anywhere,” Wolpert said. “Because you're kind of duplicating effort [by] doing the same thing in multiple spots throughout the city.”
Kelley also said the measures to improve safety as traffic increases from the city and KYTC feel reactive.
“I can understand that you wait and see what the problems are going to be, what the hotspots actually are, instead of trying to anticipate them,” Kelley said. “Which makes sense, but it does feel a little like we're just putting patches on things as they occur.
As the chair of the neighborhood association, Kelley works to communicate resident concerns to the city, which she says has been very accommodating.
Covington City Manager Sharmili Reddy was present at the last Eastside+ meeting to explain the changes coming to the Girl Scout Bridge and answer residents’ questions.
“Covington has worked in close coordination with KYTC and the city of Newport throughout this process to ensure the changes support safer, more efficient travel for people on both sides of the river," a Covington spokesperson said later about the project on the Girl Scout Bridge. "We’re grateful to KYTC for responding to local concerns and making adjustments that help improve traffic operations in this important corridor."
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said they will monitor the temporary detour to determine if adjustments to the Girl Scout Bridge are necessary.
Kelley said the neighborhood also wants to see more stop signs and other safety measures on residential roads.
“We knew, of course, the minute we heard that they were going to demolish the bridge and build a new one, that it was going to fall on us,” Kelley said.
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