NEWPORT, Ky. — Two Northern Kentucky cities are getting closer to adding bicycle infrastructure thanks to a partnership with Tri-State Trails.
Newport and Covington signed a memorandum of understanding with Tri-State Trails more than a year ago. Since then, the organization has been developing a bike plan to help connect the two cities and add bicycle-friendly infrastructure.
It's something Michael Haas thinks is needed. He said he moved to Newport in part because he and his wife would be able to commute to work in Cincinnati by bike. Now, he works at Reser Bicycle in Newport.
“I generally get on the bike feeling safe and confident," he said.
But Haas said he's had some close calls, mostly involving distracted drivers.
“It’s easy to get around, but it would be nice if there were dedicated lanes for cyclists," he said.
Adding dedicated bike lanes is one of the goals of Tri-State Trails' Covington and Newport plan.
“We’re trying to connect major destinations to where people live," said Wade Johnston, executive director of Tri-State Trails.
The plan includes recommendations for infrastructure like protected and unprotected bike lanes and traffic calming measures on streets where a bike lane might not be possible.
“We leave it fairly open-ended for the cities for which infrastructure they want to implement on which streets," Johnston said.
The plan identifies different streets as high, medium and low priority for bike infrastructure so the cities can implement the changes over time — street by street, but it also recommends different routes that would go together, like a loop concept.
It would connect Newport and Covington, plus provide access to bridges leading to Cincinnati.
The plan also has non-infrastructure recommendations, including a complete streets program.
You can find more information about the plan here.
To Haas, more protected bike lanes are ideal, but the fact that this conversation is happening at all is a positive.
“We’re in a scenario that anything’s gonna help us at this point because there’s really not a lot available at all right now," he said.
The next step towards implementing this plan is for Newport and Covington to vote to adopt the plan, and then Tri-State Trails said it would work with both cities to implement projects that are part of the plan.
