What a beautiful weekend we had. The bike paths were busier than ever, as evidences by the City’s bike counters: On the Cap City Trail, Saturday saw the highest ever daily March count, with 2262 people riding past the counter. The SW Path saw a count of 1209, which isn’t quite an all-time March record (March 16, 2015: 1480 riders) but still very respectable.
Advocacy 101 tonight
Tonight from 6-7pm is the Madison Bikes Advocacy 101 community meeting. We often get asked what one can do to advocate for biking in Madison, and so this 1-hour Zoom meeting will provide some answers to that question. Our board member and former Alder Robbie Webber is going to do a brief presentation and then there will be plenty of time for questions and discussion. is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. For active participation, join the Zoom call, or you can watch the meeting on Facebook Live.
Common Council Candidate Questionnaire
Elections for the Madison Common Council are on April 16 April 6 (early voting has started already). Where do candidates stand on issues related to biking and transportation? We sent them a questionnaire to find out and now the answers are in! Don’t know which district you’re in? Enter your address here. Note that not all candidates responded to our questions, and Madison Bikes does not endorse or oppose any candidate. Independent from our questionnaire, you may also be interested in the one from 350 Madison.
- District 1 (Barbara Harrington-McKinney)
- District 2 (Patrick Heck, Benji Ramirez)
- District 3 (Lindsay Lemmer, Charly Rowe)
- District 4 (Mike Verveer)
- District 5 (Regina Vidaver)
- District 6 (Brian Benford)
- District 7 (Nasra Wehelie): no response
- District 8 (Juliana Bennett, Ayomi Obuseh)
- District 9 (Paul Skidmore, Nikki Conklin): no responses
- District 10 (Yannette Figueroa Cole, Mara Eisch)
- District 11 (Arvina Martin)
- District 12 (Syed Abbas, Tessa Wyllie de Echeverria)
- District 13 (Tag Evers)
- District 14 (Sheri Carter, Brandi Grayson-Tuck)
- District 15 (Grant Foster)
- District 16 (Jael Currie, Matt Tramel)
- District 17 (Gary Halverson)
- District 18 (Rebecca Kemble, Charles Myadze)
- District 19 (Keith Furman, Aisha Moe)
- District 20 (Christian Albouras, Erica Lee Janisch)
Cap City Yield Signs
If you’ve been riding the Capital City Trail between Blair and Dickinson lately, you may have noticed new yield signs on the path. This stretch of the path has always been a bit of a hodgepodge when it came to who had the right-of-way at the crossings, but over the years the City had installed more and more stop signs on the cross streets. Those are gone now, and you can thank the “Office of the Commissioners of Railroads.” This obscure-yet-powerful office has wide authority under state and federal law to regulate anything related to railroad crossings, and they didn’t like the stop signs — presumably out of a concern that cars on the cross streets would back up all the way into the railroad crossing, creating a safety issue. So watch out for the new configuration and be prepared for people in cars and on bikes to be confused by the changes.
Save the Date: Spring Bike Wash and Safety Checks
It’s still a bit out, but mark the date: On April 24, we’re partnering with BikEquity, Down With Bikes, Dream Bikes, and Wheels for Winners for a spring bike wash and safety checks events. We’ll have cleaning supplies to wash that dirt and salt off your winter bikes, and experienced volunteers to do basic safety checks on your bike to get you started into spring. The event will take place on Clark Court, right next to Brittingham Park. Stay tuned for more details and let us know if you’re going on the Facebook event page.
As always, you can find an overview of all bike events on our Community Bike Calendar. Email us at info@madisonbikes.org to add your events. And if you value our newsletter and other work, consider donating to Madison Bikes. For construction updates, check out the city’s Bike Madison page.