2024 was a pretty good year to be a cyclist in Louisville, all things considered. In last year’s piece, progress on bicycle infrastructure in the city did not seem to be moving forward rapidly. Despite the bad omens of 2023, we saw the largest increase in separated bike infrastructure (outside of the Louisville Loop) in city history. A new council ordinance allowed for the construction of parking protected bike lanes and this resulted in Lexington Avenue becoming parking protected. Ellison Avenue also saw the addition of a bike lane protected by flex posts. Both of these projects increased our protected bike infrastructure from a quarter mile to approximately 1.25 miles.
There are also a good amount of bike infrastructure projects coming down the pipeline. 2024 saw construction begin on the East Market streetscape redesign, which features a one-way protected bike lane going east-bound, adding another mile of protected bike infrastructure. This should eventually go hand-in-hand with a west-bound one-way protected lane on Main, although these projects may not be completed in 2025. River Road will see multiple changes, with an extension to 13th street that will entail some bike infrastructure improvements between 3rd and 7th street. The River Road widening project will see the construction of a new multi-use path. Work will also be continuing on sections of the Louisville Loop.
Separated bike infrastructure is the focus here, as it is generally accepted to be the best for cyclist safety and increasing ridership. Case studies in multiple cities such as New York City and Boston have shown several-fold jumps in bike-share ridership when protected bike lanes are constructed. A comprehensive 13-year study showed that cycling lanes benefit the safety of all road users. Perception of safety is vital for increasing ridership, and this feeling of safety usually only comes when there is separated infrastructure. As Louisville builds more protected bike lanes, they will be used more often, and lead to an increase in overall road safety.
The Census Bureau recently released their 2023 5-year ACS estimates. This data is less accurate than their census data but it gives us the most up-to-date image of Louisville’s commuting patterns. This data shows that bicycles are still the least common commuting method, sitting at 0.2% (or around 764 cyclists), which is also the lowest proportion it has ever been since the Census Bureau began recording bicycles as their own commute method. Louisville’s share of bike commuters last decrease was from 0.4% to 0.3% in 2016. 2024 numbers are yet to be released, but bike commuting has always occupied 0.2 - 0.4%.
Despite the share of bike commuters going down, there has not been much of a shift in collisions. 2024 saw 111 reported collisions involving bicyclists in Louisville. This is a slight, but not very significant, increase. Collisions with cyclists are still on an overall downward trend, but things have remained relatively stagnant since 2022.
.jpeg)
Traditionally, this kind of data is mapped out with a heat map. In the case of Louisville, a heat map would not really paint an accurate picture. The city does not have many bike users, and those that exist tend to congregate in the urban core. At face value, a heat map would indicate that places like Downtown and Old Louisville are pretty dangerous, and that places such as Fairdale are a cyclist's paradise. Many of the “cool” areas end up reflecting where it is actually the least safe to bike, as many cyclists end up avoiding the area. This is why every incident is visible individually. Below is a dashboard that shows where all the collisions in 2024 occurred, mapped out individually utilizing data from the Kentucky State Police.
For mobile viewing, open the map in a separate window.
A lot of the most dangerous locations remain from last year. The roads with the most collisions tend to be large, urban roads that lack bike infrastructure. These areas likely see more bikers, higher daily vehicle traffic, and generally higher speeds. This pairing creates conditions that are ideal for collisions with vehicles. Dixie Highway, Broadway, and Taylor Boulevard are all perfect representations of these conditions. The one upside of these hotspots, at least, is that cars are still going slow relative to more suburban streets.
In 2024, there were three cyclists killed in collisions with vehicles. Two of these were in more suburban parts of the county (outside 264), and one was on Westport Road near Trinity High School. All of these roads lacked physical bike infrastructure; Preston and National Turnpike have none at all, and Westport Road only has sharrows. All of these roads are major or minor arterials, and owned by the state.
Both the most collision-prone and deadliest roads generally share similar design elements. Dedicated bike infrastructure is minimal or non-existent. They are arterials in some form, with wide streets and higher traffic volumes. The main difference is speed and presence of intersections. Higher speeds, of course, make hitting a cyclist, pedestrian, or any vehicle more deadly for everyone involved. Intersection density may seem counterintuitive, especially since they can increase total collisions, but they also slow down cars and require drivers to pay more attention. This lack of intersections has been shown to increase injury severity for bicyclists.
Louisville is currently on a long march of improving bike infrastructure, but safety problems still persist. There are a variety of projects that will address the problems along these unsafe corridors, such as the ones mentioned earlier, Broadway all the Way and the 22nd Street Redesign, but some lie quite a few years away. In the meantime, it is worth taking a look at some ways to improve cyclist safety, especially ways that are relatively cheap/simple. NATCO is releasing their new urban bikeway design guide tomorrow, which will be a useful guiding document if it is similar to past releases. Some relatively simple infrastructure is outlined in past editions, such as bike boxes, that have been shown to increase safety and currently do not really exist in Louisville.
.png){kind=logo}
