LEXINGTON, Ky. — The City of Lexington is aiming to make one of its main roads in the downtown area more accessible.

The city said complaints from residents in the neighborhood of high-speed traffic and not feeling safe while walking or riding a bike. Starting next week, they’re making changes from Woodland Avenue to Rose Street, hoping to make it more accessible to all forms of transportation.

“It’s a heavily biked and walked area,” David Filiatreau, Lexington’s traffic engineering manager said.

It’s why the city of Lexington is looking to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety along High Street. Traffic in the area will be reduced from two lanes to one while adding a separated bike lane and 36 parking spots.

“This project, based on our traffic simulation modeling and some other investigations, should be able to accommodate all modes efficiently,” Filiatreau said.

The project is part of Lexington’s Complete Streets policy. Filiatreau said there should be mostly unnoticeable changes for drivers while other modes will see improvement.

“It’s likely there will be some delay increase at certain peak hours but what we don’t want is for it to completely fail altogether, so we’ll look at that and since it’s all pavement markings we can make changes, if necessary, on the fly even,” Filiatreau said. 

“It’s really exciting to see Lexington really get behind making Lexington more bikeable and walkable,” said Keith Lovan, board member with Bike Walk Kentucky.

Lovan said he walks and bikes around Lexington frequently. He said this is a much-needed upgrade for this stretch of road.

“It’s not easy. I am an experienced cyclist so I feel comfortable riding on the road, but the majority of people don’t,” Lovan said.

Since this is a pilot program, people may or may not see this configuration permanently; the city said they’ll reevaluate that in 2026.