Spring Street connects Louisville’s Irish Hill and Butchertown neighborhoods from Story Avenue to Lexington Road. The road was built for cars. As Louisville has been watching its image as a bike-friendly community, however, bike lanes were striped connecting Story Avenue to the Beargrass Creek Bike Trail at Locust Street. The bike lanes are broken now. No less than two-dozen cars were parked in the bike lanes near the railroad underpass despite clearly marked “No Stopping – Bike Lane” signs.
The threat of being towed was not even enough to stop these renegade autos. Farther down Spring Street, the bike lane becomes a narrow, barely-three-foot-wide stripe and is littered with uneven pavement and copious debris. Any bike brave enough to traverse this section of street would surely be done in by the broken glass and rock. But hey, the new bike lane signs look great!
The sidewalks along Spring Street aren’t any better. While uneven at best, vegetation has grown out of control to the point of fully blocking the sidewalk in certain spots, forcing pedestrians to cross a dangerous street without a crosswalk. Spring Street could be a great neighborhood street, but not yet in Possibility City.
