Louisville's largest gap in bicycle infrastructure: Downtown-to-UofL
If Louisville wants to invest in a big, protected bike thoroughfare, it needs to happen here.
As things stand now, Louisville has a grand total of 1.28 miles of protected bike infrastructure. This is not great at face value, but it is worth pointing out that a mile of this infrastructure was built in the past year or so, so things are trending positively. Despite this, though, there exists a massive gap in Louisville’s bike lane network: the connection between UofL’s Belknap Campus and Downtown. Old Louisville and the University neighborhood have the largest concentration of bike commuters in the city, and downtown contains the biggest concentration of jobs. Besides that, I have some negative experiences along these corridors.
I work downtown and live in Old Louisville. I have been commuting between these areas by bike for a little over a year now, totaling about 600 miles. I have quite a few stories from this time, but the one I was scared by the most was with a school bus. I was biking home after work last summer when a school bus decides to pass me, as it does so, a car turns around a corner right towards the bus. Suddenly, the bus has to turn back into my lane in order to avoid the car and I have to react by pulling into the street parking and hope that my bike can brake fast enough before I slam into a car.
Luckily, I managed to stop in time, but my front wheel was about 3 inches from the rear end of someone’s chevy pick-up. I have close calls, although usually not this close, along this route around once a month. Cars drive in the few bike lanes, or I have to bike past a highway exit where cars do not even look for bikes, or I am passed by an SUV uncomfortably close. Its dangerous, and something needs to change if we want folks biking between these two major hubs.
As of now, no protected bike infrastructure exists between UofL/Old Louisville and Downtown. The painted bike lanes that do exists are piece meal, and are only accessible from the far east side of Old Louisville. Painted bike lanes, especially in high traffic corridors, are very unsafe. The best example of this is Third Street’s southward bike lane. I intentionally avoid it, as cars parking and drivers not paying attention, will veer into the lane constantly.
Lanes like this will not be utilized properly until they are safe. Protected bike lanes are viewed as the safest by cyclists, and for good reason. A 13-year study across multiple cities showed protected bike lanes cut injuries in half. Protected bike lanes have also been shown to increase bicycle ridership. A protected bike route between UofL and Downtown would be a life-changing connection for many cyclists and even non-cyclists in Louisville.