Louisville Metro Council Member Markus Winkler, center, speaks about the proposed lighting study during a press conference.
A resolution co-sponsored by all 26 members of the Louisville Metro Council calls for a study of lighting conditions at school bus stops across the county.
The proposal asks the city, Jefferson County Public Schools, and Louisville Gas & Electric to work together on the study. The resolution urges them to map existing bus stops and identify the nearest overhead streetlights, while also determining whether any lights are not functioning properly.
Council Member Markus Winkler, a Democrat representing District 17, authored the resolution, which will be introduced during the council meeting Thursday night. Winkler said the study aims to help inform JCPS’s yearly decisions on where to place its thousands of bus stops.
“I had a constituent in my district who has a bus stop at her house reach out to me and ask for a streetlight,” Winkler said. “I happened to drive by that stop one morning and realized there’s already one 75 feet down the road. That got me thinking, why would we install a bunch of new streetlights?”
Winkler said he contacted James Craig, vice chair of the Jefferson County Board of Education, to explore whether a practical solution could address the issue.
In an interview with LPM News, Craig said the idea was an obvious one for him.
“This should be paramount for us,” he said. “We’ve had several incidents at our bus stops over the years that have been horrific.”
He pointed to the 2022 killing of 16-year-old Tyree Smith, who was shot while waiting for his bus to Eastern High School. Another woman was also shot and killed while walking a child to a bus stop at the start of this school year last August.
“We want to deliver outcomes for Jefferson County Public Schools, but the No. 2 thing that parents are thinking about with us is safety,” Craig said.
Supporters of the study say creating a partnership between Louisville Metro, JCPS, and LG&E is both practical and necessary.
Under the Kentucky Constitution, school districts cannot spend money on non-educational purposes. Because of that, JCPS must work with Louisville Metro on matters such as traffic guards.
If the study identifies lighting problems at bus stops, the resolution calls for the three groups to evaluate the cost of possible solutions. These solutions could include relocating bus stops, asking LG&E to repair broken streetlights, or having the city install new ones.
Winkler said city leaders are exploring technology that could help estimate the number of streetlights across Louisville Metro. The city is also working with JCPS operations staff, who already understand the conditions at many bus stops.
“When we then have a map of, ‘Here’s where streetlights are, here’s where the bus stops are,’ the next phase will be JCPS taking that information and figure out which stops they can reasonably move,” Winkler said. “The third leg of the stool will be, once we’ve got those two data points, here’s the bus stops we don’t have covered and Public Works will need to look at the cost of adding lighting.”
Local officials plan to continue the partnership even after the study, as JCPS adjusts its bus stop locations each academic year for the roughly 50,000 students who ride the bus to school.
The Jefferson County Board of Education approved its own resolution supporting the partnership during its meeting Tuesday night.
Metro Council’s resolution will now be assigned to the Public Safety Committee, which is scheduled to meet at City Hall on March 18 starting at 4 p.m.
Leave a Comment