Lexington is laid out like a wheel. Major roads radiate from downtown like spokes, each named for the town it leads to: Nicholasville Road, Richmond Road, Harrodsburg Road, Versailles Road, Winchester Road, Paris Pike and Tates Creek Road. New Circle Road forms an inner ring around the city, and Man o' War Boulevard arcs across the south side as an outer ring. I-75 and I-64 share a stretch along the northeast edge of town, then split toward Cincinnati, Knoxville, Louisville and Huntington.
That spoke-and-ring layout funnels traffic onto a handful of corridors. Nicholasville Road is the busiest, running past the University of Kentucky and the south side shopping districts, and it crawls at rush hour and on game days. New Circle Road has frequent interchanges and short merges, and Man o' War is lined with signals. An urban service boundary keeps development compact, so just beyond the subdivisions the roads narrow into two-lane country routes between horse farms, with stone fences and almost no shoulders.
Blue Grass Airport sits on the west side along Versailles Road, across from the racecourse. Lextran runs buses throughout the city, and plenty of students walk or bike around campus. Most people still drive, though, and many commute to Georgetown, Nicholasville and Richmond, or in from those towns. A repair done in the driveway or the office lot saves a trip back onto the spokes. Spring and fall race meets at the racecourse and big UK events pack the roads on the west and south sides, so planned work goes smoother on quieter days.