COVINGTON, Ky. — If you've made your way down one of Covington's main thoroughfares recently, you may have noticed a different road design.
There are now two vehicular lanes instead of three, each slightly narrower than they previously were. The changes make way for the new five-foot-wide bike lane that is now painted beside them.
It runs along a half-mile stretch of West Fourth Street, between Garrard and Johnson streets. It's the first dedicated lane for cyclists in Covington's history.
WATCH: See how Covington's first dedicated bike lane is pedaling solutions to public safety
"So much safer to get out on a bicycle in traffic when you've got your own lane. Man, just so much smoother and faster," Alan Pickett said.
Pickett is a bike enthusiast who served as executive director of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Covington for more than a decade. Following his retirement in 2023, he became the leader of his own ministry called Pickett's Corner, which repairs and distributes bicycles to those in need.
"Cycling has been a passion of mine my whole life," Pickett said. "In the last two and a half years, we've given away 1,100 bicycles to people in Covington and throughout the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati area who need transportation. Mostly homeless people, people who have other transportation options — many of them walking many, many blocks just to get to jobs and to stores."
Pickett was one of dozens of cyclists who pedaled to Tuesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony. They joined community leaders in celebrating the new path to improving public safety in the area.
"Once the drivers, once everyone understands that there's going to be bicyclists in this lane, this ups the ante to everyone to be safe. You know safety is not guaranteed," said Mayor Ron Washington. "We're trying to be more of a bikeable type city, but we also have to understand we're an older city, so there's going to have to be adjustments made throughout our community as we're expanding pedestrian and bicycle access."
The bike lane and redesigned road are the culmination of a collaborative effort that began in 2023 between the city, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) District 6 and Tri-State Trails.
Following the death of local cyclist Gloria San Miguel, a woman who worked in Covington and lived in Newport, the three entities partnered on an "action plan" to create safer spaces for other cyclists.
It sparked the creation of the Covington-Newport Bicycle Transportation Plan, which was formally adopted in August 2024 by both the Covington and Newport city commissions. The plan now serves as a long-term vision and guiding framework for bicycle transportation planning in both cities.
Wade Johnston, who serves as executive director of Tri-State Trails, said his organization conducted traffic surveys on every road in Covington, but ultimately determined West Fourth Street was the best option to cater to both vehicular and bike traffic.
The plan also recommended a Northern Kentucky Urban Bike Loop, with 4th Street serving as a key segment of the Covington–Newport connection.
"Fourth Street is critical because it's an east-west connector and it's sandwiched between two major infrastructure projects -- the new Fourth Street Bridge between Covington and Newport over the Licking River and the Brent Spence Bridge project, which is supposed to have a series of shared-use paths built in tandem with it," Johnston said. "Additionally, the Clay Wade Bailey bridge, which is supposed to have a designated bike lane path to get to Cincinnati."
Tri-State Trails tracks trail usage across the region. The Purple People Bridge is consistently the most-used trail in Greater Cincinnati, averaging nearly 1,900 daily trips in 2022. The Riverfront Commons Trail in Covington and Newport averages around 285 daily trips, comparable to the regional average, but is poised to grow significantly as new connections are completed, Tri-State Trails Project Manager Brad Bowers told us.
Washington said this may be the city's first dedicated bike lane, but assures the city has always been bike-friendly and is committed to working with community partners in expanding its network of bike trails and lanes.
"We are restricted somewhat by our budget. We have a lot of good things happening in our city," Washington said. "One of the things, though, that happens in an older city, as it becomes more prosperous, as more people move to the city, is that people still bring their cars, so we have to make room for both cars and bike lanes."
Because of Covington's old infrastructure, most roads are narrow, with any available space typically allocated for street parking.
"A lot of the bike lanes are occupied by cars that have been parked in front of cars for many, many years because people are used to parking in front of their homes. So, we have to look for opportunities. This is an opportunity, right in front if the Covington Central Riverfront, where we have 23 acres of development, so it made sense to put it here," Washington said.
Because West Fourth Street is a one-way road, moving traffic west to east, Tri-State Trails is working on identifying another stretch of road that will allow cyclists to have a safe, dedicated path of travel from east to west.
"We would love to see more bike lanes," Pickett said. "There's already a lot of them in the Cincinnati metropolitan area, so expanding that into Northern Kentucky just builds that network so people can get across the river and back and forth wherever they need to go safely on a bicycle."
