LEXINGTON, Ky. — Pedestrian safety concerns are rising in Lexington. Over the past few weeks, the city has seen a series of fatal pedestrian-involved car accidents across its busiest roads.
As part of the rekindled Frontrunners Lexington LGBTQ+ walk and run group, Taylor Steele and hundreds of others take to Lexington's parks and trails during the week and participate in marathons throughout the year. The group even recently ran a marathon in Tennessee for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
But when they aren’t in long-distance events, they enjoy the city. It's why safe measures for runners and pedestrians in Lexington are at the top of their minds entering 2024.
“If you think about what five or six miles are, you cover a lot of ground in Lexington," Steele said. “By having protected areas that you can cross these large roads, it opens up other areas for us in Lexington.”
While protective gear such as lights and reflective vests may help, drivers may not see everything in their surroundings, Steele said.
“If you're in Lexington, you will notice when you're sitting at a traffic light, there's usually one or two cars that will try to beat the red," Steele said. "You don't think much of it until you see that pedestrian standing there that's getting ready to cross, and they have to stop."
For a smooth traffic flow, pedestrians and drivers need to follow normal traffic rules, city leaders have said. Each year, engineering in the city's environmental quality and public works departments record traffic patterns, implementing tools and initiatives to better serve areas such as New Circle and Nicholasville Road.
“We can put tools into place to help encourage drivers to respect the speed limit and then also put some tools in place that will highlight the areas where pedestrians are trying to cross the road so that they can do it as safely as possible,” said Nancy Albright, Lexington commissioner of environmental quality and public works.
Recently, Frontrunners member Mia Ibrahim was hit and killed on Nicholasville Road, near Rosemont Garden. They were a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky, studying music education.
Steele said this incident is a major reason the group plans to advocate for safety bills that include enforcement for red light running and yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks.
"We're now going to use that to shed light on pedestrian safety around Lexington and work with other running groups in the new year to make something good come from a terrible, terrible thing," he said.
Steele added he encourages pedestrians and runners follow safe protocols.