Council Hears the Complete Streets Action Plan

In Tuesday’s Council Work Session, Council will hear a presentation on the City’s new Complete Streets Action Plan.

For the past 50 years, Lexington has planned and designed streets primarily for fast/efficient vehicle transportation. This type of road design can include higher speed limits, straight roads, and wider/more lanes. While this can make car-based transportation faster, it can also make roads more dangerous for road users. Studies show that the chance of a fatality in a car accident can double for each 10 mph increase in vehicle speed. But, it can be especially deadly for vunerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle users.

• In 2023, there were 147 collisions involving pedestrians in Lexington, 20 of whom were killed.

• The four roads with the most pedestrian accidents last year were Broadway, New Circle, Limestone, and Nicholasville.

• Cyclist deaths from vehicle collisions in Lexington are up 44% over the past decade, according to WLEX-TV.In December 2022, Council passed a Complete Streets policy aiming to make Lexington’s streets safer for all users. Part of this policy called for the creation of an Action Plan to set targets, goals, and benchmarks the City could meet in its Complete Streets effort. Much of 2023 was spent by the City gathering input from Lexington residents, community stakeholders, and industry experts to craft the Action Plan.

The Complete Streets Action Plan has 39 tasks, each including deliverables and target deadlines for completion, as well as which City divisions will lead each goal. Some goals for 2024 include:

• Updating street design standards to enhance safety for all roadway users

• Creating two new staff positions: a Complete Streets Coordinator within the Division of Environmental Quality and Public Works, and a Vision Zero Coordinator within the Lexington Metropolitan Planning Organization

• Running a Complete Streets education campaign for residents

You can view the entire presentation starting on page 71 of this packet. You can learn more about Lexington’s Complete Streets initiative here.

Council Work Session will be held on Tuesday, January 16th at 3pm in Council Chambers. You can attend in-person or watch live on LexTV.

Republished from CivicLex.

CivicLex’s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

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