Jason Reser wonders why Gloria San Miguel — or any bicyclist — has to die.
“These deaths are preventable, and it’s just up to driver behavior, roadway design, and design of our cities,” said Reser, the owner of Reser Bicycle shop in Newport and the trail development director for Cincinnati Off-road Alliance.
San Miguel was struck and killed while cycling early Saturday morning on the 12th Street Bridge between Covington and Newport.
Reser said these things are typically only discussed in the face of a major tragedy, such as the death of San Miguel, but Reser has been working to improve cyclist safety since he opened his shop on Monmouth street in 1999.
While he’s seen improvements in the region, it still has a far way to go, and he said he thinks it might not be moving fast enough.
“It falls on many people to make this happen,” Reser said. “It’s a city issue. It’s a state issue, too, because a lot of these roads are state roads.”
When it comes to improving bicycling infrastructure in the area, it often means that somebody has to be lobbying on behalf of the industry, according to Reser.
“It’s really down to the state to make it happen, and I hope that the collaboration is there to make safer spaces,” Reser said. “More people want to live in these pedestrian friendly, bike friendly areas that they can get around.”
There have been many changes in other Kentucky cities, such as Louisville and Lexington.
When Bicycling Magazine lists its top cycling cities, it considers one factor above all first – safety. They take into account how cities are friendly to all types of riders and the type of infrastructure. Louisville is consistently in its top 50 list — most recently it ranked 37 in 2018.
Since 2005, more than 500 people have been killed on Northern Kentucky streets, according to Vision Zero NKY, and more than 30,000 injured. Vision Zero is a worldwide program that was first instituted in Sweden in the 1990s. The Devou Good Foundation launched a task force in 2019 to support NKY cities to implement Vision Zero.
Vision Zero works on projects to make infrastructure more pedestrian friendly. In some neighborhoods, they’ve worked to make crosswalks more visible by putting in yellow signs that require drivers to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.
Matt Butler, Devou Good Foundation president, said that part of the issue in Northern Kentucky is that there isn’t a comprehensive plan, because the metro region doesn’t have a centralized government. In order to implement any sort of plan, the group must work with each local government.
“We don’t have a comprehensive bike and pedestrian plan like Lexington,” Butler said. “We’re, you know, a lot more fragmented here and there’s not been one entity, like a county or Southbank (Partners) that has picked up on that.”
The group relies on neighborhoods to invite them to work on projects.
“What our organization does is we try to support folks in neighborhoods that want to make positive change,” Butler said.
There have been some changes in Northern Kentucky. In 2012, the Kentucky General Assembly awarded $26 million for the Route 9 project that connected Licking Pike to the Taylor Southgate Bridge, creating a new 4-lane entrance to Newport and including two new roundabouts (one at the base of Veterans Bridge and one at the Taylor Southgate Bridge). The project also added bike lanes along the route.
However, the speed limit on that road is 45 mph. When the speed limit is that high, it is more likely that a collision with a bicyclist ends in a fatality, according to Reser, and that when drivers start increasing speeds to 35 to 45 mph, it makes death from a collision more likely.
Reser noted that in areas with decreased speeds of 20-25 mph, a collision is less likely and is also most likely not going to end in a fatality.
When getting between Covington and Newport, there are two options – the 4th Street Bridge and the 12th Street Bridge, where San Miguel was killed. Both bridges offer little in terms of space for cyclists, which are often forced to hug the shoulder as cars speed past them.
In 2009, the 12th Street Bridge was expanded to include two 12-foot lanes in each direction. The bridge received $9.8 million from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment to fund these changes. Talks of improving the original bridge, which was purchased by the state of Kentucky in 1986 for $1.25 million, started in the 1980s. The current version was finished in 2001, so it took roughly 20 years to make the improvements.
“It really just has too many lanes,” Butler said. “It’s built more like a highway and that’s why you get such excessive speeds on it and that’s why it’s a very dangerous road for bikers.”
While the 12th Street bridge only has a sidewalk on one side of the bridge, there are planned changes to the Fourth Street Bridge that include enhancing both bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
“The bridge that connects Covington and Newport, and what that looks like, and how that operates, and how it’s multimodal is going to be critical for the success of our growing cities going forward,” Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli said during Newport City Commission meeting in April about the 4th street bridge. “Walking and biking trails and that connectivity will be critical.”
The historic 4th Street Bridge carries a growing amount of vehicle traffic as well as a significant amount of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, LINK nky reporter Kenton Horneck reported in April. Due to narrow one-foot shoulder widths, which do not meet modern design standards, the bridge is classified as functionally obsolete.
Bicyclists traveling between Covington and Newport are forced onto the roadway since they are lawfully prohibited from riding on the sidewalks. The addition of a shared-use bridge would accommodate non-motorized travel. Once implemented, the next goal of the project would be to connect the sidewalks with the Licking River Greenway Trail for recreation and commuter use.
Construction on the 4th bridge won’t likely start until 2024.
Devou Good also has short term and long term vision for projects, such as the 4th Street and 12 Street Bridge. In the short term, they hope to put in temporary barrier walls on both bridges, which will allow cyclists to cross the bridge safely while not mixing in with automobile traffic.
Since the 12th Street bridge is still relatively new, there are no long term plans from any local government to make significant changes. So Devou Good is focused on a relatively simple solution.
“Our offer to KYTC (Kentucky Transportation Cabinet) was to put in what’s called a water wall or a barrier wall, using one of the drive lanes, because actually the number of drivers using that bridge is very small in comparison to the Fourth Street Bridge,” Butler said.
But the group hit a snag with KYTC estimating project cost at $3.5 million — it would take roughly five years to get that grant money, Butler said. While they think that’s good for the long term of the 12th Street Bridge, Devou Good wants to focus on something between now and five years from now.
“That’s an option for the long term but how are we going to fix this in the short term meaning between now and the next five years,” Butler said. “Because this community can’t bear having another one or its members killed on any bridges between Newport and Covington.”
For the Fourth Street Bridge, Devou Good has a long term vision that includes a multi use path for cyclists and pedestrians.
“We actually have some renderings on the bridge, which would include a separated pedestrian and bike path,” Butler said.
Changes to this type of infrastructure are slow moving.
Another example is the Riverfront Commons Trail, which has been nearly 20 years in the making, Reser said.
“I’m excited to see progress, but it’s like one piece every five years at this point,” he said.
In June, a 1.5-mile section was completed on the west side of the Brent Spence Bridge that runs part of the way into Ludlow. The new path is separated by a concrete barrier, so cyclists and pedestrians are kept safely away from traffic.
“It’s difficult to convey the magnitude of what Riverfront Commons represents to Covington,” Covington City Manager Ken Smith said to LINK nky reporter Kenton Hornbeck in June. “On its face, it’s a recreational asset. But it also reconnects the Covington public to the region’s defining geographic feature. For too long, Covington hid itself from the Ohio River.”
Last week, the commonwealth recorded another budget surplus of nearly $1 billion. In 2021, the surplus was roughly $1.1 billion and was the state’s largest surplus to date. The focus of the Kentucky legislature is to cut the state’s income tax, and it’s unclear if any of that money will be spent locally to improve more pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.
On Aug. 23, the NKY Chamber of Commerce held a Government Forum at the Newport Aquarium. Senator Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) and former state Rep. Dennis Keene, who now is a commissioner in the Department for Local Government, spoke to the crowd about how to move the region forward and how money moves from state government to local governments. Keene was appointed to that position by Gov. Andy Beshear in 2019, and a special election was held to fill his seat in the 67th District that is now occupied by Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport).
The Northern Kentucky legislative caucus pulled in a lot of money for the region during the 2022 session, specifically $1.2B for a Brent Spence Bridge without tolls. This includes $250M to match the anticipated federal fund grants for the Brent Spence Bridge.
Elsewhere there was money to improve roads and infrastructure. There was more than $1.1 billion in the road plan budget and infrastructure. It breaks down as follows:
Total Road Plan Budget for each county from 2022-2024
- Kenton: $940,890,000
- Campbell: $47,702,000
- Boone: $155,645,506
The replacement of the 4th Street Bridge between Covington and Newport is expected to get $68 million, and roads around CVG and the Amazon Air Hub are expected to get $31 million.
McDaniel said that pedestrian friendly infrastructure is also part of the conversation in any funding mechanism.
“A lot of it will depend on what you’re doing and what your constraints are,” he said. “As somebody that’s spent a lot of time on a bicycle through the years, I’ve become more and more concerned about it.”
McDaniel also said people who want to live in these revitalized urban areas want to have walkability and bicycle infrastructure.
“I think you’ll continue to see us give deference to that,” he said.
Perhaps the area with the quickest growing bicycle infrastructure is Boone County. Reser said that the more rural county is outpacing even the urban areas. Sen. John Schickel (R-Union) believes that this is because it’s new infrastructure, and it’s not replacing older infrastructure that can be costly.
The Devou Good has plans to improve traffic flow around Covington to improve the safety of cyclists and pedestrians. On Friday, they will have representatives at Lil’s Bagels for Gloria’s fundraiser to show how people can get involved.
“We’ll have representatives there as well to talk to people just so they can learn more and find out how they can get involved and try to advocate for positive change in their neighborhood,” Butler said.
Reser hopes that legislators will invest in more people-friendly infrastructure with the financial windfalls in Kentucky from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
“I’m hoping maybe with some of these ARPA funds and the state’s willingness to invest in active transportation and safe streets, that we see that kind of investment in our cities, not just the other cities around Kentucky,” he said.
Kenton Hornbeck contributed to this story.