Lexington moves forward with ban on parking in bike lanes. Does it go far enough?
In an effort to make Lexington streets safer for the city’s cyclists, an Urban County Council committee advanced a new ordinance banning drivers from parking in city bike lanes — although there are several exemptions to the ban.
The council’s social services and public safety committee moved an ordinance forward that would fine drivers anywhere from $50 to $100 for parking in a bicycle lane.
The ordinance would be enforced by LexPark in the downtown area and by the Lexington Police Department in other parts of the city.
The full council will take the ban up on Aug. 11. If passed, there will be either a 30 or 45-day window to educate residents on the ordinance before enforcement begins.
The ban stems from a recommendation by a 2025 city task force focused on making city roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.
Alyssa McKenzie, the legislative aide for 10th District Council member Dave Sevigny, presented the new ban to the council committee. McKenzie said there have been 205 bicycle collisions with injuries from 2020 to 2025 - nine collisions in that time were fatal for the bicyclist.
McKenzie said studies have shown cars parked in bike lanes are a major cause of bicycle collisions. City officials regularly hear complaints about vehicles parked in lanes, forcing cyclists to stop and merge onto higher-speed streets. Sometimes vehicles merge quickly into a bike lane to park and force cyclists into a sudden stop.
“People want to see us creating a culture where all modes of transportation feel and actually are safer,” McKenzie said, “and a bike lane ordinance would be a positive step in doing that.”
But the ordinance is far from an outright ban. Any driver that is actively dropping off or picking someone up — or is actively loading or unloading materials — would be exempt from the ordinance, so long as they leave the caution lights of their vehicles on and are parked for 10 minutes or less.
The carve-out is meant to serve bus drivers, delivery drivers and rideshare drivers for companies like Lyft and Uber.
One Instagram page called Bike Lexington regularly posts pictures of such instances. A recent post showed truck drivers parked in the High Street bike lane while unloading goods. “Under the proposed bike lane parking ordinance, this would be legal. Why?” the caption reads.
“Lexington currently doesn’t have the infrastructure to support completely prohibiting stopping, standing or parking in bike lanes,” McKenzie told the council.
Tom Eblen, who represents the city’s 3rd District on the council, said it became apparent as he and others worked on this ordinance that there are not enough dedicated loading zones for truck and delivery drivers downtown. That lack of loading zones particularly impacts food and beverage distributors for local restaurants and bars.
“One of the things that we think is a next step is really to help identify more loading zones downtown to try to alleviate this problem,” he told the council.
“But I think having them park for a long time in bike lanes is not the solution either,” he said of the 10-minute limit.
McKenzie said the exemptions were a large concern among Lexington residents who shared feedback on the ordinance through the city’s online Engage Lexington platform, as well as stakeholders like local bicycle shops and street safety advocacy groups.
“We know this ordinance is not a complete fix for cyclist safety, and it’s not intended to be. But it is a meaningful immediate step that supports broader street safety work happening across our city,” McKenzie said.
More protected bike lanes, separated from car traffic through physical buffers, would help prevent cars from blocking bike lanes, she added.
Later this year, the council will vote on adopting a new Complete Street Design manual that will set new standards for how Lexington roadways should be built to improve bike and pedestrian safety.
Other recommendations from the STREEET Safety Task Force, which recommended the prohibition on parking in bike lanes, include adding more roundabouts through the city and improving street light and crosswalk light timing.
