LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Ten months after Lexington created a street safety task force, the group has released its first round of recommendations focusing on making the city's roads safer through quick, cost-effective solutions.
Councilmember Hannah LeGris, chair of the Education Subcommittee, discussed the recommendations released by the group this fall.
We Follow Through
Lexington street safety task force working to release recommendations this fall
"We want a city where we can do immediate fixes," LeGris said.
LeGris outlined several areas of focus for improving street safety in Lexington, including "safety, connectivity, complete streets, good design, best practices."
One of the best ways forward, through Lexington's street safety task force, is to develop short-term solutions.
"We have a lot of people who are working together to make these recommendations," LeGris said.
The first round of recommendations released last month focus on three areas: enforcement, education and engineering. The engineering component features a quick-build program.
"That's putting initiatives in place that are quick, that are easy, that make a big impact," LeGris said.
Vice Mayor Dan Wu showed LEX18 one example trying to making neighborhoods safer in the process. On East High Street between Woodland Avenue and Rose Street, the city added a bike lane, reduced two lanes of car traffic to one, and created 36 parking spots.
Another task force recommendation involves expanding traffic infrastructure.
"We need more traffic circles...they are shown to make for a safer roadway," LeGris said.
In terms of education, LeGris says additional engagement with residents is crucial so they know what the city is doing, what the impacts are, the why and the how.
On enforcement, LeGris adds the task force has a strong interest in two pieces of legislation: a drag racing ordinance and a no parking in bike lanes ordinance.
"We're also interested in some more engagement we can do with the state legislature around automated enforcement options," LeGris said.
Overall, LeGris emphasized the collaborative nature of the effort.
"This is a collective effort," LeGris said.
The task force is known as STREEET to showcase the three significant talking points. A website designed to allow residents to drop a pin of problem areas to alert the city has been designed by Lexington.
The next meeting for the task force takes place December 4.
