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2025 is history. I have tried to capture highlights here but so much has happened that I may have missed a thing or two. Not much good transportation news out of Washington but some good news locally. Some of the highlights are chronicled below.
We value your support of Madison Bikes. As a board member, I’ve been so impressed with what Madison Bikes accomplishes without paid staff. That’s partially due to hard work by board members, but the willing, hardworking volunteers we have are vital to our success. Our success relies on people like you – whether you volunteer at an event, advocate for safer bike facilities with your alder, read and share our weekly updates, attend our events, or simply ride your bike for transportation. It truly takes a village, and every contribution reinforces our message.
Bike Week
What an inspiring event! Another huge turnout with 89 events and over 300 attendees at our end of week party. Bratcakes on the path, Party with a Pig, Wonders of Physics, Cheddar Waffles and Lattes, an infrastructure tour, and so many more fun and informative events. In case you’re interested, Bike Week 2026 is May 31 through June 7. Start cooking up your event now!
Infrastructure highlights
More good infrastructure was built this year, and more is on the way. Input from bicyclists was critical for some projects (see below). It’s really nice to see pieces of the network filling in.
In August, we joined the mayor and city staff to celebrate the completion of the Wilson St two-way cycletrack. The seven-year project provides all ages, all abilities access to downtown Madison connecting key downtown corridors with a less strenuous grade to the square. This project would have looked much different without public input. Thanks to all who provided comments. Here’s a video showing the Wilson St. Cycletrack just before opening.
One high profile project focused on a critical crossing at West Wash and the Southwest Path. This intersection saw a spike of people on bikes being injured. After much deliberation and critical input from cyclists, a solution was reached. Most important was narrowing W Wash to one lane at the crossing with the help of temporary construction barrels. In the medium term, this configuration will be made permanent, and instead of a flashing beacon (RRFB) a full traffic signal will be installed. A detection system will trigger the traffic signal automatically when path users approach the intersection. Other options were not possible because of restrictions imposed by the railroad. One concern is whether path users will consistently wait for the signal before crossing.
After 8 years of a dead-end path on Zor Shrine Place, Phase 2a of the West Towne Path is finally open to High Point Rd. For cyclists, this removes an increasingly busy crossing at High Point Rd and a congested stretch along D’Onofrio Dr, and provides easy access to the excellent overpass of the Beltline on High Point Rd.
A contraflow lane on W Gilman was finished linking University Ave and the campus to the State Street area. This should reduce bicycle-pedestrian conflicts on the narrow sidewalk.
The Badger-Rusk shared use path was completed this fall.In this project, bike lanes were replaced by a 0.4-mile-long, grade separated path along W Badger Rd and N Rusk Ave. A nice link in the bike route that connects existing paths on W. Badger Rd and N. Rusk Ave as well as a pedestrian overpass over the Beltline.
The first section of the North Shore Drive Path was completed this summer and provides a link from the SW path to Bedford St. Next year, when bicycle traffic is detoured for JND construction, this path will become more significant. When John Nolen Drive is completed the link will extend all the way to Bassett and Broom, helping to solidify the network on the isthmus.
The Autumn Ridge Path Overpass was completed in December of last year but the ribbon was cut in 2025. The project connected Sycamore Park and Milwaukee Ave. via a bridge over Highway 30 resulting in a safer route. We had a great time celebrating the ribbon cutting with the mayor!
Some infrastructure we’re watching in 2026
- Progress on JND reconstruction with separation of bike and pedestrian paths
- Formal opening of the Tancho Drive Path,
- The repaving of Midvale Avenue has been delayed. After a contentious debate about turning on-street parking into buffered bike lanes, city staff have proposed to patch up the existing street without any changes and make more fundamental changes as part of a full reconstruction. Timing to be determined.
- Planning meetings for the Cannonball Path connection to the Wingra Creek Path, Regent Street Reconstruction (early stages), and Glacial Drumlin to Cap City Connector Path (looks like this one might finally happen)
Community meetings
We had so many good meeting ideas for 2025 that we had to push some off to 2026. Again, we had a variety of events. This resulted in an awesome spread of topics and events. Of course there was International Winter Bike Day in February. We provided coffee and donuts for over 50 participants on a cool winter morning. The wood stoves this year may have enticed some to stay a little longer.
This year’s April bike wash was as popular as ever. We washed lots of bikes, and did some on the spot checks, and had lots of good discussions with new and not so new bicyclists.
Madison Bikes partnered with the Wisconsin Bike Fed and Machinery Row to host a presentation by Madison Bikes board member Alicia Bosscher and her father Dirk Debbink. It was a first-hand account of pushing for change following the death of Sarah Debbink Langenkamp to traffic violence, the inception of the “Sarah’s Bill”, and its bipartisan progress through Congress. It was fascinating to hear how this exceptional work building bipartisan consensus is possible today.
Bike Fed, Machinery Row Cycles, and Madison Bikes co-organized a series of three book club discussions of Killed by a Traffic Engineer. The sessions were moderated by alder Bill Tishler.
The Bike Touring/Bike Packing Social at the Goodman Center was also popular. A great venue for sharing touring stories.
We have lots of ideas for 2026 but we’re always open to new ones. If you have an event that you’d like to organize with us, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Ride the Drive – wait til next year
All of the prep for our site on John Nolen drive was done. The smoothie bikes were ready to go and staff had been lined up. Unfortunately, a perfectly timed flood washed out this year’s event. Wait until next year. We couldn’t be that unlucky twice, right?
Administrative changes in city transportation
Renee Callaway, Bike/Ped Administrator and later Assistant Director in Traffic Engineering, retired after a distinguished career in bicycle planning, outreach, and engineering. We’ve been lucky to have her working to improve bicycling all these years. Fortunately, we have an able replacement, Kevin Lueucke, formerly of Toole Design. Kevin will manage the Traffic Engineering’s Pedestrian Bicycle Section, with staff responsible for pedestrian and bicycle concerns, projects and outreach, playing a role in related initiatives like Vision Zero, school traffic safety and Complete Green Streets.
Tom Lynch retired after seven years as Director of Transportation. He was a solid supporter of active transportation and improving transportation safety through projects such as Vision Zero and Complete Green Streets. We are grateful for his service. He is succeeded by Christof Spieler, a professional engineer with extensive experience in urban planning. He has written, “Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US and Canadian Transit.” A new book on the geometry of urban transportation will be published soon. Spieler has spoken and written extensively on transportation, urban planning, and sustainability coming to us from Houston. We look forward to perspectives he has developed working for several large cities in the U.S. He’ll be at our community meeting on January 22 so we can get to know him.
Spring elections
For the spring elections, Madison Bikes partnered with Madison is for People, Madison Area Community Land Trust, Affordable Housing Action Alliance and Strong Towns Madison on a questionnaire for Madison Common Council candidates covering transportation, housing and sustainability. We hope this helped you to get to know the candidates and make appropriate choices. And remember: Half of all council seats will be up for election again this spring!
Area Plans
Area plans are critical in transportation infrastructure. These plans only get updated every 10 years so it’s important to get involved when a review is underway. The West and Northeast plans have been adopted, and the Southeast and Southwest plans are now center stage. The city learned from prior plans and went all out to get input from the citizenry for the Southeast and Southwest plans. Input was not just on line but meeting people where they are in a variety of settings and formats.
Both plans are in Phase 3, review of the draft plan, with Phase 4, adoption and implementation expected in May 2026. The Southwest plan timing isn’t perfect because decisions made in the DOT’s Beltline PEL Study could have a major impact on bicycle transportation in this plan. Some good things in the plan include an All Ages & Abilities facility along Seminole Hwy from the Beltline to the Cannonball path, extending the Hammersley Path west to Elver Park, and flexibility built into the plan for Beltline crossings if the DOT approves these.
The Southeast plan is also in Phase 3. This plan is also complicated by the DOT’s Highway 51 project which impacts land use recommendations. There is uncertainty because of varying opinions on the design (high speed vs lower speed with more intersections) of Highway 51. There will likely be some improved crossings, and wayfinding, but the biggest bike/ped issues will be related to crossing or traveling parallel to Highway 51.
We’ll continue to cover these plans in 2026.
The Downtown Area plan process is just starting.
Small grants
Madison Bikes granted $2,270 in small grants to seven organizations during 2025. These grants include materials to paint a street mural outside of O’Keefe Middle School and a grant to RideABLE UW-Madison Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Team for bike parts needed to transform a semester of design work into a fully functional adaptive trike. Do you have a project idea? Take a look at our Small Grants page and consider applying! https://www.madisonbikes.org/small-grants/
Bicycle Film Festival
Our first Film Festival, Madison’s first ever, went well in 2024 with over 250 attendees. This year an even larger crowd attended on another beautiful evening and loved it. It will be back due to popular demand in 2026!
Winter Bike Fashion Show
The Winter Bike Fashion Show returned this year to rave reviews. Who knew that so many people (well over 100) were interested in winter biking. I guess we did but it was nice to see so many show up. What a great way to end the year! We also interviewed some attendees about winter biking — find the video clips on our YouTube channel!
I hope you enjoyed this recap. Have a happy 2026 everyone!