Lexington drivers must learn how to safely coexist with bikes | Opinion

A few weeks ago, one of my friends was struck by a car while riding his bike on South Limestone. (I will refer to him as Carl to protect his privacy.) He was on his way to work on campus at UK.

Carl was swiped by the sideview mirror of a vehicle that passed him too closely, and he was launched from his bike and skidded on the road. His bike was left mangled on the side of the road. Mercifully, Carl only suffered relatively minor injuries and has been able to resume riding (he had a backup bike!), but his accident has been sobering to me (also a bike commuter) and many others in our community.

Lexingtonians choose to bike for many reasons. Some bike for recreation — our country roads that wind through horse country over rolling Bluegrass hills are a cyclist’s paradise. Others bike for exercise — my six-mile commute is my only consistent exercise; building it into my work schedule protects my evenings and weekends for family time. Others may bike to reduce their environmental footprint—I avoid as much as one metric ton of CO2 emissions annually by riding my bike rather than driving to work. And others may bike for economic reasons — I probably save the cost of three gallons of fuel weekly by biking to work, and I can also pass on paying for a UK parking pass.

But, unfortunately, Carl’s experience is not rare or unique. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 45,000 cyclists are injured and nearly 900 are killed annually in the US, with 14 fatalities and 232 injuries reported in Kentucky in 2022.

While biking, I stay vigilant to minimize risk of collision. I use hand signals to communicate my intentions to change lanes or turn. I check and double check before I change lanes or cross traffic. I assume that motorists don’t see me — so, if a car is rolling through a stop sign or creeping forward out of a driveway, I hit the brakes until I’ve made eye contact with the driver and feel confident that they are yielding the right-of-way.

But Carl does all these things, too, and it didn’t protect him from a motorist’s misjudgment of distance. Lexington’s motorists will also need to be vigilant to ensure that we all get to work and back home safely; here are a few suggestions.

First, look intentionally for cyclists. Cyclists are harder to spot than a car. When you see us, show us that you see us by making eye contact or waving us on. Slow-rolling through stop signs or out of driveways creates a dangerous ambivalence.

Second, respect bike infrastructure. I’m lucky that my route to and from work has a bike lane almost the whole way, but bike lanes only work if they’re not being encroached on by cars. At least once a day, I observe motorists treating the bike lane like a shoulder—they drift in and out or turn through it without checking first for cyclists.

Third, pass us carefully. Carl was struck when a motorist misjudged the distance between their sideview mirror and Carl. Don’t cut it close—give plenty of room. If you can’t pass with at least three feet of distance between your car and the cyclist, don’t pass. Wait.

If you sideswipe or fender-bend another car, you’ll have to deal with police reports, insurance claims, and delays. If you sideswipe or fender-bend a cyclist, they’ll carry that trauma, both physical and nonphysical, for the rest of their life, and they may not walk away.

Kenton Sena lives, bikes, teaches, and gardens in Lexington, KY, with his wife Susanna and their three children.