Katie Meeker, Opinions & Humor Editor
When attempting to navigate the odyssey that is Richmond traffic, there is nothing more enraging than getting stuck behind a cyclist.
As someone who frequently drives in the city, I am very familiar with this frustration.
However, as someone who is also often the very cyclist holding up traffic, I am more concerned with how dangerous this anger — and road-sharing in general — can be.
Richmond has a huge cyclist community, with infamous biking clubs such as the Broad Street Bullies and bike shops such as RamBikes and Outpost Richmond contributing to a thriving, accessible culture. Beyond these more involved cyclists, there is also a large population of both VCU students and regular Richmonders who use bikes to commute to school and work.
However, like most American urban centers, there is a suboptimal amount of infrastructure in Richmond specifically dedicated to protecting this population. Bike lanes are limited to only a few major roads — and no, the bus lane on Broad Street doesn’t count as one — leaving cyclists to decide whether to tempt death via automobile collision or get heckled riding on sidewalks.
Compared to other cities, Richmond ranks pretty low in the PeopleForBikes’s national bikeability ranking, holding a total network score of 25 in 2025, falling below the national average of 30. The score is attributed to the city’s lack of protective infrastructure and its reputation for aggressive drivers.
Thankfully, Mayor Danny Avula’s administration has made progress on this issue as part of his plan to promote road safety in Richmond. The city has been suffering from what is best described as a pedestrian safety crisis — in 2025 Richmond had more motor vehicle crashes involving pedestrians per capita than anywhere else in the state, with eight people killed so far this year alone.
In January, after six pedestrians were killed within the first three weeks of the new year, Avula announced he was fast-tracking funding for multiple “street safety improvements,” with one of these projects being “advancing roadway reconfigurations for dedicated bus and bike lanes.”
We have already seen some of his efforts come to fruition. Bike lanes were added to busy roads in the months following his announcement, such as on Libbie Avenue in Willow Lawn and on 8th Street near the Capitol.
It also seems like City Hall is finally branching out from just focusing on improvements on the northeast side of the city. Areas such as Southside, neglected and underserved, are also seeing the development of bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Bike lane construction on Hopkins Road, among other projects, is expected to be completed this fall.
Neighborhoods in Southside have the highest need in the city for better bicycle facilities, according to the Richmond Connects Strategic Plan. This is both due to the quality and quantity of current infrastructure and the fact that formerly redlined areas, like Southside, are much more likely to suffer from high rates of pedestrian fatalities.
Through prioritizing the construction of bike and pedestrian infrastructure, Avula is helping make Richmond a safer, more equitable city. There is, no doubt, still a lot of work to be done, but it is comforting to know that visible progress is being made.
However, bike lane construction is not the only way to improve cyclist wellbeing in the city; it is only one small piece of the puzzle. We need to nurture a city that not only protects the physical safety of cyclists, but also their property and the culture as a whole.
Bike theft is always an issue in densely populated areas, and Richmond is no exception — almost everyone I’ve talked to within the community has a story of their bike, or a part of their bike, being stolen. The fact that Richmond police rarely take these thefts seriously only exacerbates the issue.
U-locks, no matter how sturdy, are as fallible as whatever they’re linked to; my own bike was stolen after, left with no better options, I foolishly locked it to an easily-breakable wooden fence. Constructing more bike parking racks in highly visible areas across the city is a good first step to start preventing theft.
Perhaps the most important step we can take as a city, though, is to start treating each other with a little bit more empathy.
While protected spaces remain under seemingly-perpetual construction, cyclists, pedestrians and drivers need to learn to respectfully share the road. This charge isn’t limited to just drivers needing to tone down their road rage — cyclists can help keep both themselves and others safe by better following road signage and rules.
As Richmonders, it is up to us to create and nurture a safe and welcoming city — policy and infrastructure can’t fix everything.
So the next time you’re stuck driving behind a cyclist, take a deep breath and try to remember: inconvenience is the price we pay for community.