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Bike News

Madison Bikes Calendar Highlights (5/30/17)

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This Week

It’s a short and quiet week following Memorial Day, but there are a number of events for kids this weekend. On Saturday, there’s an organized family bike ride from Leopold School to the Fitchburg library. On Sunday, you can choose between the MSCR Learn 2 Ride event at Warner Park or the June edition of Kiddical Mass, which will depart from the Cargo Bike Store and head down to Monona Terrace and the Capitol.

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

Categories
In The News

West Wilson Street reconstruction plans progress without bike infrastructure

The Cap Times, May 27, 2017

Abigail Becker reports about the upcoming reconstruction of Wilson Street, quoting Madison Bikes president and Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission member Grant Foster. 

Categories
Bike News

Action Alert: Safe Biking on Highway M

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The loop around Lake Monona is a popular ride among many Madison cyclists. It’s scenic and much of it is on trails or low-volume streets. Lake Mendota is a different story. While the Mendota loop scores high on the scenic scale, large stretches are uncomfortable and unsafe to ride. This is especially true for the stretch on Highway M. Lots of cars, a 55 mph speed limit, and only an unprotected shoulder for people riding bikes.

We have received word that the Dane County Board environment committee is considering holding a committee hearing in Waunakee on the topic of bicycle routes in northern Dane County, especially along the Highway M corridor. A bike path has been proposed there to provide a safer alternative to Highway M. A committee hearing would be an important step forward to making this a reality. Please take three minutes and email the following committee members:

Downing@countyofdane.com;

Jones.Nikole@countyofdane.com;

Ritt.Michele@countyofdane.com;

Salov@countyofdane.com;

Kiefer.timothy@countyofdane.com

And please tell them that you support holding a public hearing in Waunakee of the County Board’s Environment Committee regarding county funding for bicycle routes and off-road bike paths, especially along the Highway M corridor.

Thanks for making your voice heard.

Categories
Bike News

Madison Bikes Calendar Highlights (5/22/17)

Last Week

There was plenty to keep us busy last week with the Wilson Street project on the agenda for approval at the Board of Public Works, commuter stations to help celebrate Bike to Work Week, and the Mapathon to help improve Open Street Map data for the upcoming Places for Bikes low-stress bike network map (stay tuned for more!).

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Robbie has a brief update of the Wilson Street Board of Public Works meeting up on our blog that helps make the connections between the embarrassing process that we’ve all been suffering through and the absence of a Director of Transportation in Madison. The short version is that the Board approved reconstruction of the street as-is (with no bike facilities), based on the recommendation of city staff and the alder for the district, Mike Verveer. But thanks to Alder Demarb, an amendment was added that commits the city to build out the needed bike facilities on this section of Wilson Street once Judge Doyle Square construction is completed (estimated 2020). The item will be in front of the Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission on Tuesday and then in front of the Common Council in two weeks.

And thanks to some great sponsors, there were a number of commuter stations throughout the week. Big thanks to those that chipped in and stepped up like Cafe Domestique, HotelRED, Revolution Cycles, and the Monona Eastside Business Alliance.

This Week

This week, Wilson Street heads to the Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission on Tuesday before landing in front of the Common Council for final approval in June. Watch for one more action item on this project in the next couple weeks.

Middleton will be holding a bike meeting on Thursday at the city hall to talk about Century Avenue among other things.

And Friday, don’t forget to Bike your Brat to Work courtesy of Saris.

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

Categories
Bike News

Wilson Street: What happened last week

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The West Wilson Street reconstruction and the question whether the street should be reconstructed as-is or include safe and comfortable accommodations for people biking was discussed at the Board of Public Works (BPW) last Wednesday. The proposal by City Engineering and supported by the district’s Alder Mike Verveer argued for the former, but at the meeting many voices disagreed. Looking beyond the West Wilson project itself, the BPW meeting perfectly demonstrated why Madison needs a Director of Transportation, someone who would be the liaison between the often-competing interests and desires of various interest groups and the city staff who are charged with maintaining and rebuilding our streets.

Alder Mike Verveer, in whose district the W. Wilson reconstruction project is located, said that he felt “whiplash” by the requests for protected bike lanes, constituents who fear losing on-street parking, other alders –⁠ including two on the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission — who requested that the PBMVC needed to see the project again, and city staff who had already sent a letter to adjacent property owners saying there would be neither a pilot test of the protected bike lane that had previously been proposed. Verveer also claimed that this project was being used to fight a turf battle between different city committees.

However, three Madison Bikes board members and several other bicycle advocates testified or submitted comments to the Board of Public Works on Wednesday evening, saying that the public process has been botched, the street was unsafe for bicyclists, and insisted that the BPW and city staff follow the city’s many transportation and sustainability plans that point out the need to provide safe infrastructure for all road users.

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Public testimony at the BPW meeting

It was apparent that the BPW felt very uncomfortable with the conflict playing out in front of them. Normally their schedule is filled by nothing more controversial than approving bids for infrastructures and assessments for new sidewalks.

Staff from City Engineering insisted that there was no time to send the matter back to the PBMVC and still meet a September deadline to use Tax Incremental Financing for the project. Additional there was the procedural question whether the Board even had the authority to refer the matter to another committee. In the end, the BPW approved the project to be rebuilt exactly as it is now: no bike lanes, no widened sidewalks, and no test of a protected bike lane in place of parking on the south side of the street. But staff claimed that the design would be “flexible,” should anything change in the future.

While this may sound disappointing, there was a bright spot: The resolution to go forward with the reconstruction as-is was amended. Alder Denise Demarb introduced a provision that city staff will develop a plan to make the entire length of Wilson St bicycle-friendly all the way from King Street to Broom Street by the time that the construction around the Judge Doyle Square project is completed (expected to sometime between 2020 and 2022).

We will continue to push for a safe, comfortable design on West (and East) Wilson Street that will give space for people biking and walking and support the oft-stated goal of the city to encourage bicycling, walking, and transit use. And we will continue to push for a better public process so that these issues can be resolved and all interested parties can be involved long before a financial deadline is looming.

The Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission will discuss the matter at their meeting tomorrow, and the project will be before the Common Council at their June 6 meeting. We will keep you updated for when your input is going to be most effective. Thanks to everyone who testified or submitted written comments: They really made a difference.

Categories
Bike News

This Friday: Bike to Work Day

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It’s a little confusing: There’s the League of American Bicyclists Bike to Work Day on May 19; there was Global Bike to Work Day on May 11; and of course there’s the Bike Fed’s Wisconsin Bike Week in June. All on different dates. But hey: The more days to celebrate biking to work and elsewhere, the better!

In that spirit, Madison Bikes and Cafe Domestique will be hosting a commuter station on the Cap City Trail at Dickinson this Friday, 7-9 am. We’ll have free coffee, Madison Bikes stickers, and some small snacks. Stop by and say hi! And thanks for riding your bike, on Friday or any other day!

RSVP on the Facebook event page or just stop by.

Categories
Bike News

Madison Bikes Calendar Highlights (5/15/17)

This Week

In addition to the important Board of Public Works meeting on Wednesday, there are a few other interesting events to attend.

On Monday, the Madison Bikes Events Committee is meeting at Cafe Domestique at 7:00pm.

On Friday, make sure and be counted on National Bike to Work Day. And on Saturday, join bike geeks and map nerds for the mapathon event to help improve bike map data for the forthcoming People for Bikes low-stress bike map.

And if you missed it over the weekend: Madison Bikes is looking for people interested in hosting attendees to the Places for Bikes conference at the end of June.

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

Categories
Bike News

What’s happening with Wilson Street? Action Alert

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The reconstruction of West Wilson Street is on the agenda again, and we need your help. A quick recap: The initial proposal was to mix people biking and walking on a slightly widened sidewalk. At a public meeting in March there was near universal opposition to this plan–neither people walking nor people on bikes like to be thrown together. Especially not in a downtown environment that includes a hill and busy driveways. Consequently, the city’s engineering department proposed a pilot project: Remove one lane of on-street parking to test if that space could be re-allocated from car storage to a protected bike lane. However, apparently even a month-long pilot project was too much for some and Alder Verveer withdrew his support at the last minute.

Following this unexpected death of the pilot project for this summer, City Engineer Rob Phillips, is looking to push a recommendation through the Board of Public Works this week and then through the Common Council on June 6th that would reconstruct Wilson Street as-is. That’s right: A recommendation to change nothing and to continue to devote 40′ of public right of way to car travel and car parking with no space dedicated to safe and comfortable bike travel on this key downtown connector.

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The recommendation includes language about maintaining ‚Äòflexibility’ to change street use in the future. But it’s evident that reconstructing the street as-is would be a major impediment to building out a connected low-stress bike network in our city and is an abdication of responsibility to come up with an appropriate design. There won’t be a better time to have the difficult deliberation and to move forward with a street design that prioritizes people over cars and kicking the can down the road will only cost us money and time.

It’s also time to get serious about our transportation planning and implementation and for city staff to recommit to full and meaningful public access in that process. It’s shameful and inappropriate to continue to have decisions made behind closed doors that represent the interests of the well-connected few, while ordinary residents are left scratching their head. It’s time to commit to public discourse and debate and to work to realize the transportation vision we’ve set forth that prioritizes walking, biking, and transit over private car use. How much more money do we need to spend on plans like the Sustainable Master Transportation Plan, the Madison Sustainability Plan, the Madison Area Transportation Planning Board Bicycle Transportation Plan, the South Capitol Transit Oriented Development Study, and the Judge Doyle Square Master Plan when we continue to ignore what they consistently recommend? Why spend money on a bicycle center at Judge Doyle Square or a bike bridge between Wilson Street and Law Park when they will be connected to a street without safe bike accommodations? The question in front of us right now cannot be whether we should accommodate people biking on Wilson Street, but how to best accommodate them.

This ill-advised recommendation for business as usual also inappropriately side-steps the Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission whose charge is to “…consider all traffic policy matters, including but not limited to … geometric design and redesign of streets”. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that our Engineering department has attempted to push through a project without allowing for debate and deliberation by the PBMVC. In fact it has been such a recurring issue that in February of 2016 members of the PBMVC, Traffic Engineering, and Engineering met and formalized an understanding that, indeed, all major street projects should be referred to PBMVC early on in order to provide design guidance. Unfortunately, in the case of Wilson Street this has still not happened. Instead, it appears that the recommendation is based on something other than public debate and guidance from our Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission.

Tell City Engineer Rob Phillips, Alder Mike Verveer, and Members of the Board of Public Works to get this project back on track and to have it referred to the Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission for a comprehensive and serious evaluation of all alternatives that include safe and comfortable bike travel on Wilson.

Email addresses for the Board of Public Works members, Engineering staff, and Alder Verveer:

btrades@sbcglobal.net; district16@cityofmadison.com; jaclyn.lawton@charter.net; jclausius@charter.net; debkenjohnson@charter.net; debkenjohnson@charter.net; district19@cityofmadison.com; szwalling@charter.net; MHacker@cityofmadison.com; RPhillips@cityofmadison.com; CPetykowski@cityofmadison.com; YTao@cityofmadison.com; district4@cityofmadison.com

Also consider including your district’s alder to the list of recipients.

Here is some text that you’re welcome to incorporate into your email:

Dear Members of the Board of Public Works, dear Rob Phillips; dear Alder Verveer:

Regarding the planned reconstruction of West Wilson street, I strongly oppose moving forward with the current proposal. That proposal would leave the street as it currently is and therefore fails to take into account the needs of people biking and walking on this important connection to downtown, both going west to east, and east to west. This is not creating a “flexible design;” this is preserving the status quo that only works well for people driving. I strongly oppose any option that mixes people walking and cycling on the sidewalk, as that is neither safe nor convenient for anyone. I am also deeply disappointed with the process through which we have arrived at this point. “Public meetings” that were nowhere to be found on the city’s website; a “public input” process that ignored, well, public input; and a decision-making process that ignores the priorities of many of the city’s long-term transportation and sustainability plans and bypasses the bodies that are supposed to be in charge of making informed decision about our transportation network.

I urge you to not approve the Wilson Street cross section and to instead refer item to the Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission for a comprehensive and serious evaluation of all alternatives that include safe and comfortable bike travel on Wilson Street..

Thank you for your consideration.

Categories
Bike News

Places for Bikes Conference — Do you want to be a host?

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Madison is going to be the venue for this year’s Places for Bikes conference. Hosted by advocacy group People for Bikes, it will bring together bike advocates, city officials, and researchers from across the US to share knowledge and experiences in making quick improvements to bike infrastructure.

Places for Bikes has teamed up with Madison Bikes for a two-night Cycling Community Housing Program (Wednesday, June 28th and Thursday, June 29th). This program will help identify welcoming households with accommodations in the Madison area (hosts) and try to match them with interested conference attendees (guests). This will provide an opportunity for conference attendees for whom hotel accommodations may be too expensive and for hosts to connect with them.

  • Madison Hosts: Please submit your application form as soon as possible to allow guests enough time to arrange their travel.

Application to Host Madison Bikes Conference Community Housing

Send the completed form (or any questions) to hank@madisonbikes.org.

For more information about the conference, go to the Places for Bikes website.

Categories
Bike News

Madison Bikes Calendar Highlights (5/8/2017)

This Week

It’ll be a pretty quiet week this week, but be prepared for a potential action alert on the Wilson Street project the week of 5/15.

On Monday, the Madison Bikes Board of Directors will meet at the downtown library.

And on Saturday, it’s the 5th MadisonCycloFemme event at Olin Park.

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.