COVINGTON, Ky. — Covington's Board of Commissioners voted to approve an infrastructure plan Tuesday, which will expand and connect much of the city with Newport's biking and walking paths.
Newport commissioners unanimously approved the plan during an Aug. 19 meeting.
Discussions of the plan date back to early 2023, and Tri-State Trails, the Cincinnati-based transit nonprofit that furnished the plan, presented it to the commission about a year later in January 2024.
The plan surveyed the existing bike infrastructure in the city and offered ideas to make changes. The study was funded by the Devou Good Foundation, a nonprofit that also focuses heavily on transit reform.
"I think it is an important stake in the ground for cyclists in Northern Kentucky to know that their city governments now have a plan that they will be working toward in the coming years to connect to each other and connect people to where they need to go," said Wade Johnston, executive director of Tri-State Trails.
The plan is more of a list of recommendations that both cities can choose from to move forward with development projects, Johnston said.
Covington City Manager Ken Smith informed the commission that the plan had few substantive changes since March and stressed the city had wiggle room in how it implemented the plan’s recommendations.
“Nothing in it is guaranteed,” Smith said, “and we will evaluate each thing as it comes along for implementation.”
"We want to make sure that when we are making improvements, we have a road map of how to best integrate bicycle infrastructure into the implementation of those plans," said Elizabeth Wetzel, director of special projects & inter-governmental affairs in Covington.
In addition to infrastructure recommendations, the plan recommends some policy and operational changes to create a more bike-friendly city overall. These include making a dedicated line item for bike infrastructure in the city budget, expanding the public bike share program, creating dedicated detours for cyclists to circumvent construction projects and road closures as well as generally expanding education and advocacy for cycling, among other measures.
Johnston said the recommendations were born out of a host of different public discussions, as well as meetings with the plan's steering committee.
"It highlights routes that we propose putting infrastructure on in the coming years, both short, medium and long term," he said. "It will take time to see transformational progress, but in our view, every mile counts."
The plan first took shape in late 2022 after the death of mother and Roebling Point Books and Coffee employee Gloria San Miguel.
Family and friends told WCPO 9 back in August 2022 that San Miguel was riding her bike with her partner along the 11th Street Bridge in Newport when a driver hit her and took off.
"That created a lot of attention to the importance of this issue in the community," Johnston said. "So, wanting to make a positive out of a very negative, tragic situation, both cities came together."
Mark Phipps, 60, pleaded guilty on July 26 to second-degree manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, tampering with evidence and driving with a suspended license, in connection with San Miguel's death.
You can find more information about the plan here.
