LEXINGTON, Ky. — Lexington recorded seven more traffic fatalities and 54 more serious injuries than its safety goals called for last year, the region’s transportation planning body learned this week, even as staff raised pointed questions about whether the governor’s recommended state highway plan would help close that gap.
The Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Committee, chaired by Vice Mayor Dan Wu, adopted new safety and transit targets and received detailed briefings on the state highway plan and a proposed federal transportation bill during its February meeting. The committee took action on two resolutions and held extended discussions on both state and federal transportation policy.
MPO Director Chris Aviglia delivered the sobering safety data while presenting Resolution 2026-2, the region’s annual highway safety targets. Lexington’s fatalities, serious injuries, and crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists all exceeded the benchmarks set under the MPO’s Vision Zero policy, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2050. Non-motorized crash statistics — of particular concern to several committee members — ran roughly 50 percent worse than the target.
Compounding the bad news, Aviglia noted that Lexington is trending in the wrong direction while the state of Kentucky as a whole is improving. Nearly every contributing crash factor the MPO tracks — alcohol involvement, running red lights or stop signs, drug involvement, and several speed-related categories — increased over the prior year.
The committee unanimously approved the resolution, setting 2026 targets of 37 fatalities, 101 serious injuries, and 22 non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries. The targets follow the MPO’s glide path toward zero by 2050. Aviglia acknowledged there are no federal or state consequences for missing the benchmarks, but urged the committee to weigh the data when evaluating which road projects to fund.
Council Member Whitney Elliott Baxter pressed on the lack of dedicated funding to meet the targets. Aviglia said the MPO uses its Metropolitan Transportation Plan and Transportation Improvement Program, or TIP, to steer project selection toward crash reduction, but conceded that the state legislature often favors a different set of priorities.
“I just want to really emphasize that these are all people, not just numbers,” Baxter said before the vote. “I hope that we all feel the weight of that while we’re reading this.”
The committee also unanimously adopted Resolution 2026-3, setting transit asset condition targets for Lextran, the region’s public transit agency. The benchmarks call for no more than 20 percent of revenue vehicles and no more than 40 percent of non-revenue vehicles to exceed their useful life, along with facility condition standards. Lextran currently exceeds both vehicle thresholds but told the committee that new buses entering the fleet should bring those numbers into compliance within a year or two. Council Member Chuck Ellinger II sought and received assurance from Lextran that the agency would not be set up for failure by the targets.
The meeting’s longest discussion centered on the governor’s recommended state highway plan, which has been sent to the General Assembly for consideration ahead of an expected April vote. Aviglia walked the committee through several projects his staff flagged as problematic, including a proposed major widening of New Circle Road estimated at $170 million to $180 million. Staff noted that even during the afternoon rush, speeds on the targeted freeway sections hover around 55 miles per hour — the posted limit — leading Aviglia to ask what congestion problem the project would solve. The MPO’s own plan instead recommends lengthening on-ramp merge lanes and installing ramp metering at a fraction of the cost.
Staff also questioned a proposed feasibility study for a new Interstate 64 interchange near Royster Road east of the city, estimating a price tag of at least $30 million. The project was not vetted through the state’s formal prioritization process and would require changes to the city’s Urban Growth Master Plan.
On Versailles Road, the state plan placed a different section of the corridor in the near-term biennium budget than the segment the MPO Policy Committee had previously boosted as its top priority. Council Member Shayla Lynch, who represents parts of the affected area, said even state legislators she had spoken with could not explain the discrepancy. A Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 7 representative at the meeting acknowledged the disconnect, saying the district had coordinated with the MPO but was not in the room when the final plan was assembled.
A proposed sound barrier project along New Circle Road between Tates Creek Road and Nicholasville Road also drew skepticism. Aviglia noted that federal rules prohibit spending highway dollars solely on sound walls, that research shows limited noise reduction of 10 to 15 decibels, and that cold, cloudy weather — common in Lexington — can actually worsen sound transmission over barriers. The project did not go through the state’s scoring process.
On a brighter note for the region, Aviglia reported progress on the long-sought Hamburg Connector and said conversations with state legislators about securing design funding are advancing.
The committee also received a briefing on the proposed federal Basics Act, a bipartisan House bill that would reshape how transportation dollars flow to local governments. Among its provisions: a 25 percent set-aside of bridge program funds for MPOs, a major increase in the sub-allocated funds that come directly to regional planning agencies, and the elimination of the local match requirement for federal planning dollars — a change that would save Lexington’s government roughly $230,000 a year. The current federal authorization, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, expires Sept. 30, and Aviglia said a short-term extension is likely while Congress works on a replacement.
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for April 29 at 1:30 p.m. in Nicholasville.
