Author: Robbie Webber

There aren’t any meetings or events coming up this week, but here’s a little news catch up and some reminders.

Catching up on news

Madison Bikes represents at the National Bike Summit

Three Madison Bikes board members – Jacob Bortell, Alicia Bosscher, and myself – attended the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, March 11-13. This meeting is a combination of workshops, rides to see innovative infrastructure in DC, national speakers, and lobbying on Capitol Hill. It’s a great opportunity for board members to meet others from around the country, hear about programs we might want to replicate, and get information to help us push the city and country forward. Plus, we go up to talk to our Senators and House members about federal policy, funding, and legislation.

The biggest news to come out during our visit – although not good news – was the announcement that the US Department of Transportation plans to cut projects that contain bike infrastructure. We put out an action alert from the League of American Bicyclists, but we are still trying to figure out the details of the administrative memo and what this will mean for Madison. 

The Wisconsin Bike Fed wrote a good summary of our congressional visits and the two federal initiatives we were pushing. 

Renee Callaway retires

Renee Callaway – formerly the city Pedestrian and Bicycle Administrator and later promoted to Assistant Director in Traffic Engineering – retired on March 20. Renee has been working in bicycle planning, outreach, and engineering for 25 years or so. She has worked for the UW, WisDOT, the Madison Area MPO, and the city. We’ve been so lucky to have her working to improve bicycling all these years. You can read more Renee in a City of Madison post highlighting her career.

Now she’s going to enjoy more mountain biking, skiing, hiking, and general exploration. She’s got quite a travel itinerary planned, but she’ll also be around Madison a lot. Happy retirement, Renee, and thanks for all your hard work over the years! 

Elections

Spring is upon us, and that means two things: Spring elections and road construction. They can both be painful, but if you pay attention, good things (or bad) may come of the pain.

April 1 is the spring election for local and non-partisan statewide offices. We all know that “non-partisan” is in name only for statewide offices, but since we are a local group, let’s concentrate on the local elections that will most impact bicycling, housing, transportation in general, and other close-to-home issues. 

Every alder in Madison will be elected this year. In the future, half the Council will be elected each year in April. Because spring elections tend to be much lower turnout than fall elections, your vote counts even more. In 2023, one alder race was a tie, and the winner was selected by drawing a name from a hat. One more vote would have made the difference!

If you want to know more about the people that will be deciding what the city looks like, how it feels, how we can move around, and where we are going to spend money, check out this great resource that Madison Bikes board member Craig Weinhold put together. It has every candidate, their websites, the answers to questionnaires from local groups (including the one that Madison Bikes did jointly with others), and organizational and media endorsements they have received. Madison Bikes does not endorse candidates, but the answers to the questions we submitted for the joint questionnaire will give you some good information. 

The election is April 1, but you can also vote in-person absentee – aka “early vote” – at locations around the city until March 30. To see who is on the ballot, where you vote on April 1, or where to vote early, go to MyVote.wi.gov/.

Road construction

East Wilson St

Work continues on the reconstruction of E Wilson St in downtown. This will include the extension of the two-way cycle track on Wilson St. But things are going to be messy from April 2 until mid-June. E Wilson will be fully closed from King St to S Pinckney St. More information can be found on the city of Madison site.  

Seyne Rd

Work on Seyne Rd where it crosses the Cap City Trail in Fitchburg is scheduled to begin Monday, March 24. As always, there’s some flex in that date, due to coordination with local utilities. There may be disruptions to the trail crossing, and walking one’s bike across may be necessary at times. 

When a Madison Bikes Community member asked the city of Fitchburg about turning onto Seyne Rd, this was the response:
“For parts of the summer, the north/south path along Syene will be closed. I don’t have expected dates for when that will be, as it will depend on the contractor’s work schedule. We’ll be posting on social media and our website with weekly updates on closures and openings as the project progresses. The Capital City trail will remain open throughout construction, but there may be times when bikes need to be walked across the crossing with Syene.”

This is part of a larger project on Seyne Rd. If this is part of your ride or commute, you may want to check out the full project site. 

Get your discounts via Bike Benefits

The warmer weather is bringing out more cyclists, so we wanted to make sure Bicycle Benefits is on everyone’s radar. You can get discounts at participating businesses around town by showing your helmet with a Bike Benefits sticker. Although Madison Bikes doesn’t run the program directly, we’ve sold the stickers in the past and plan to again. 

So how does Bike Benefits work? It’s simple:      

1. Cyclists purchase (for $5) a small Bicycle Benefits sticker for their bike helmet.
2. Show it at a participating location in order to get a discount or reward for arriving by bike.

The sticker does not expire, and most users will agree that it’s the best $5 they’ve ever spent.  We hope that cyclists and individuals see the value in seeking out and patronizing locations that prioritize healthy transportation in the community.  It’s affirmative-transportation-action led by the most progressive local businesses.If you know a location that you’d like to see pop up on the roster, pass them the link to sign-up.  If you’d like to help us out as a volunteer ambassador or want more information on the program, send Ian Klepetar a message at ian@bicyclebenefits.org

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.

Thanks to our sponsors who make our events possible!

If you believe Jimmy the Groundhog in Sun Prairie, we’ll have an early spring. But Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania says six more weeks of winter. Depending on how you feel about cold weather and local vs national prognosticators, you can believe whichever rodent you like. Either way, it’s been an unusually dry winter, so our normal concerns about snow plowing have been mostly moot.

With a gray start to the week, it’s going to be pretty quiet as far as meetings. 

The week ahead

Wednesday: Transportation Commission

You can take a look at the agenda and how to watch or participate, but the only interesting item is the quarterly traffic safety reports by the police department. There are lots of charts and numbers about how many tickets and traffic stops they’ve made in various categories. You’ll also see slides about grants, special initiatives such as safety patrols around schools, targeted enforcement, and comparisons to past quarters and years. Each quarter, the MPD also presents a detailed analysis of any traffic fatalities. 

If you are a data nerd, there’s lots to work with, although sometimes the categories aren’t always useful. Why are pedestrian and bike safety tickets under “hazardous offenses”? I’ve asked that before, and I don’t even remember the full explanation, but it seems any ticket involving vulnerable users is considered a “hazardous” driving offense. These are almost entirely tickets issued to drivers for not yielding to pedestrians or bicyclists, or some other driving violation, not tickets issued to bicyclists. 

Sunday: Third meeting of the book club 

The third session of the book club reading “Killed by a Traffic Engineer” meets on Sunday, Feb 9, from 4-6 pm at Machinery Row. 

The first session, on Jan 26, focused on community building and allowed participants to discuss initial impressions of the book and some areas of the city that need attention. The second session, on Feb 2, featured presentations from city Transportation, Traffic Engineering, and Engineering staff on city initiatives and how decisions are made on what our streets look like. 

The third session, Feb 9, will focus on advocacy and what we as community members can do to help build an all ages and abilities biking city. 

Speak up for what you want

During Sunday’s session with city staff, they discussed how during public meetings about road reconstructions, there are many competing interests. Sometimes even the bicyclists testifying don’t agree! There is considerable pushback to change: narrowing lanes, removing parking in favor of bike facilities, and slowing speeds. All of these changes would make walking and biking safer and more pleasant, but neighbors show up en masse to object. As bicyclists (and pedestrians and transit users), we have to be there to show support for the changes the staff has proposed. We have good city staff, but we must provide the public push to show that there is demand for these changes. 

Staff mentioned two projects specifically, both of which have been mentioned in Monday updates previously and are being discussed now:

South Stoughton Rd. This is a Wisconsin DOT project, but city staff have weighed in on the side of a slower, narrower boulevard with more crossings. But many people showed up at the public meetings and completed surveys in favor of keeping the road faster and with limited access. You can comment and see information on the project – including slides and alternatives presented at the meetings – on the WisDOT project page.

Midvale Boulevard: Neighbors insist they want parking to remain on the street, but this would make it difficult to add bike lanes between Mineral Point Rd and University Ave. You can watch a recording of the public meeting that happened on Jan 30, see the schedule for a decision on this project, and provide your input via the city project page. There was also an article about the project in the Wisconsin State Journal. Midvale Blvd will be before the Transportation Commission on Feb 19.

In proud-of-Madison-bicyclists news

Lyllie Sonnemann, daughter of former Madison Bikes board member, Emily Sonnemann, has been invited to compete in the World Cyclocross Championships in Leiven, France. Wisconsin has a proud tradition of world cyclocross competitors, with Madisonian Caleb Schwartz competing in the world championships in 2020-2021 and Racine native Kaitlin Keough competing in 2019. 

Way to go, Lyllie!

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.

Thanks to our sponsors who make our events possible!

We had your first real blast of bitterly-cold weather, which prompted questions on our Facebook Community group about how to cope with winter weather. We seem to get the same questions every year: gloves/mittens/cold hands, foggy glasses, studded tires, etc. But that’s OK, because the community discussion group is here for you. Ask all your winter biking questions, and someone — or many people — will have an opinion on the best way to keep biking all year.

The East High School bike repair club got some wonderful media coverage this past week. The club helps members keep their bikes in good shape and teaches skills, cooperation, budget management, as well as helps fellow students with their bikes.

You may see some familiar names in the article, including Bike Fed High School Education Manager, Ben Varick, and former Madison Bikes board member, Emily Sonnneman.

The week ahead

This week has some opportunities for input — to Madison Bikes, Traffic Engineering, and Wisconsin DOT. Plus some positive moves by the city, which is a great chance to tell your representatives that you approve. As always, your voice makes the city and region better. It’s important to speak up.

Monday: Community meeting/brainstorming session

Join us on Monday for our December Community Meeting at the Central Library on West Mifflin St, Room 301. This month we will have a brainstorming session for what you would like to see at community meetings in 2025. Last year we had a ton of great suggestions, ranging from, “Legal dos and don’t if you get into a crash,” to “Combining biking and paddling.”

This is your chance to make suggestions for future topics and activities, and maybe even have a chance to help make it happen. A talk, a ride, a movie, or any other event — it’s up to you.

Even if you don’t have any ideas, come by to meet others from the community. Maybe a great topic will pop into your head when you hear from others.

Tuesday: District 5 traffic safety meeting on Zoom

The Regent Neighborhood Association on the near west side is partnering with city Traffic Engineering to host a Q&A event about traffic safety. You can join via Zoom at 5:30 pm. Although this is geared to alder District 5, it is a chance to bring up for any concerns you might have for bicyclists and trouble spots. Traffic Engineering staff will take back your suggestions and identify future opportunities.

Tuesday: BCycle closes 

BCycle normally closes on Dec 15, but because falls on a weekend, the bikes will stay out until Dec 17 to allow staff to finish removing them from the kiosks and docks. So you have a couple more days to use the BCycle before they are gone until March 15. With the acquisition of BCycle by Bicycle Transit Systems, the winter break will probably also be used to rebrand the system. 

Tuesday: Autumn Ridge ribbon cutting – 2nd try

Due to the bitter cold last Thursday, the ribbon cutting for the Autumn Ridge path and overpass was delayed until this Tuesday, Dec 17, at 8:30 am. If you would like to attend, head over to 4346 Commercial Avenue. More about the path and the ribbon cutting event can be found on the project web page.

You can check out what the new path looks like via this great video Nick Davies made of his ride.

Friday deadline: Stoughton Rd input to WisDOT

We posted about this in our Facebook Community group, but here’s another reminder. The deadline to provide input on the redesign and rebuilding of the southern portion of Stoughton Rd/Hwy 51 is this Friday, Dec 20. A recording of the last public meeting on November 19, plus all the information about the project is available on the WisDOT project page. 

WisDOT has divided rebuilding Stoughton Rd into two separate projects, and this survey covers the area from just south of Hwy 30 to just south of the Beltline. This portion has neighborhoods on both sides and a frontage road on both sides that provide access to the businesses and other land uses. It’s horrible to cross without a car, and the frontage roads aren’t much fun by foot or bicycle either. LaFollette High students need to cross the road if they live on the east side of Stoughton Rd. /shudder/

We have a chance to rebuild the road as an urban boulevard, and city staff are supportive of this alternative, but your input is very important. City staff is practically begging people to fill out the survey in favor of alternative 4 or 5, but many of the neighbors and businesses are supporting keeping the road as a high-speed highway with frontage roads. If you would like to see the full city presentation on this project from the Transportation Commission last week, including the current feedback results, I’ve bookmarked where to start in the meeting recording. 

Neighbors may be afraid of traffic in their neighborhood if additional crossings and connections are built, as suggested for the slower-speed alternatives. And they may just like being able to jump on a fast north-south connection. But if we want connections across this road and a chance to make it more pedestrian and bicyclist friendly, we need to make our voice heard. 

If the majority of public input supports a big, fast, limited-crossing option, it will be hard for the city to argue that WisDOT should reduce the cross section, lower the speed limit, and add additional street connections. Please fill out the survey before next Friday.

Also: City kicking off 20 is Plenty

The city plans to lower the speed limit on residential streets – generally streets with no center line – to 20 mph. Right now, the default speed limit is 25 mph, and while 5 mph may not seem like much, it can make a huge difference in how a street “feels” to those walking, biking, or playing in the neighborhood. 

Although most people are in favor of safer, slower streets in their own neighborhood, there has been a lot of negative feedback on social media and in the press. This would be a great opportunity to send a note of support to your alder. Letting them know you like a policy or change is just as important as contacting them when there is a problem.

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.

This week’s image is just a reminder that we see so much more when we are biking. I spotted this sandhill crane next to the Campus Dr Path. We watched each other from a distance of a couple dozen feet for about 15 minutes, until we both got bored. When we bike, we are more likely to see amazing sights such as this, and we can easily stop to enjoy them.

It’s been a quiet week, and the week ahead is pretty sleepy as well, if you don’t count construction that will either close or slow parts of two important trails. Ah, road construction even hits the paths we use.

The week ahead

Monday

Pedal and Paddle Community meeting

Do you like to bike? Do you like to paddle? Then July’s community event is for you. 6:00-7:00 pm at the Central Library on W Mifflin, Room 104. Beverages and snacks provided.

Local author and silent sports disciple Timothy Bauer will offer a fun and informative presentation on combining pedaling and paddling, along with helpful basics, tricks, and considerations to get things started. All are welcome, no experience necessary.

Wisconsin has oodles of dedicated trails throughout the state — most of which cross over or even run alongside beautiful rivers. In Madison, we have beautiful lakes visible on almost every bike ride. 

Bike Fitchburg monthly meeting

Also on Monday, Bike Fitchburg will hold their monthly meeting 7:00pm – 8:30pm, Fitchburg Senior Center, 5510 Lacy Rd

Thursday

The Joint Campus Area Committee – a city committee comprised of UW entities and representatives from surrounding neighborhoods – will meet virtually at 4:45 pm. The committee receives various updates on campus projects, holes in the ground, and the buildings you see going up. The primary item of transportation interest will be an update on the survey and planning for updates to the Howard Temin Lakeshore Path – the subject of a recent public meeting and some discussion on the Madison Bikes Facebook discussion group – and improvements to the path where it passes the Limnology building. 

Construction and detours

Post Farm Path in Shorewood Hills to close

Also a reminder that the portion of the Post Farm Path from Marshall Ct to Perdue in Shorewood Hills – that’s the piece that runs between the pool and the RR tracks – will be closed starting Monday. You can still get through by using the old path north of the pool, but please be careful and yield to the many pedestrians, including lots of kids, that are in the area.

Sometime in August, the entire route from Shorewood Blvd to Marshall Ct will be completely closed, and the only option will be local streets through Shorewood Hills or crossing to the south side of University Ave. More on that as the time approaches. All this inconvenience is due to the need to replace a large sewer pipe that is directly under the path.

Cap City Trail

Sections of the Capital City Trail will be undergoing maintenance July 22 – Aug 2, 2024 from 6:00 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. The trail will remain open but expect to slow or stop when you see maintenance signs, vehicles on trails, or staff working. Staff will help direct trail users around areas where culverts are being installed. The sections of trail that will be impacted are: Syene Road to Verona Rd. and Syene Road to Glacier Valley

Request for participation in UW study

Students from the UW-Madison Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture are conducting research on bicycle habits and safety perceptions in the Madison area. Your participation will be greatly appreciated, and will be used with local partners to help improve bicycling in Madison. 

You can complete the survey here: https://arcg.is/1yr9yy0

You are encouraged to share this survey with those around you, both riders AND non-riders, as this survey has questions for all people, regardless of how much riding they do. 

Community rides

Friday is the weekly e-bikes lunch ride from Machinery Row, although all types of bikes are welcome. It is described as, “a casual-pace ride starting at noon from Machinery Row Bicycles to a local eatery for lunch.” 

Sunday is the weekly Century Training Ride with two pace groups leaving from Machinery Row at 8:00 am. Routes vary.

For more information on both of these rides, connect with @machineryrowbikes on IG or FB for the route each week or contact lauren@machineryrowbicycles.com to join the email list.

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.

Other than the blazing hot weather we’ve been experiencing, making biking a soggy and exhausting affair, things have been pretty quiet this last week. 

I had a friend visiting, and he wanted to go to the Fete de Marquette while I had an appointment. “Will there be bike parking?” he asked, since he’s bike touring. Well, there’s good news and bad news on that front. I assured him there was lots of bike parking, but finding an empty spot was like a game of “Where’s Waldo.” He took my suggestion and parked a few blocks away to find a relatively safe and clear spot for his Surly. 

Even after spending a few days cruising around Madison and seeing everyone on bikes, and knowing our reputation for being bike-friendly, I think he was taken aback by the shear volume of bikes parked at Fete.

The week ahead

In big and small ways, we are starting to see resistance to planning, funding and building bike and pedestrians infrastructure. In addition, with the looming budget deficit and possible referendum, a few folks have decided that even matching funds for federal grants are ill-advised, if the grant would improve walking and biking.

Take a look at the items coming up this week, and make sure to let your elected officials know if you think these are good investments in our community.

Tuesday

At the Council

Two city plans starting final review process

At the Council, both the Northeast Plan and the West Area Plan formal adoption process are beginning. These plans are the first of 12 that will be adopted over the next few years, and each area plan has transportation components as well as land use and zoning elements. 

The controversial proposal to build both a north-south and east-west paths through the Sauk Creek Greenway was one of the transportation recommendations in the West Area Plan. After neighborhood objections, the north-south path was removed by city staff from the West Area Plan. 

These two plans will  move through various committees over the next several months, and each committee can make final recommendations for what should be included in the plans. Then they come back to the Council for final adoption. The two plans will be at the Transportation Commission on July 31. 

Northside bike/ped facility grant application

City is applying for a federal grant to develop a plan and design for an all-ages-and-abilities facility from the north side. One comment was received saying that the city shouldn’t apply because local matching funds would be required. 

Curb management grant application

The writer of the above-mentioned objection to the federal money also objects to another item on the agenda that would apply to the Wisconsin DOT Carbon Reduction Program to begin a study of curb management. In this case, the local match would be paid from the Parking Utility funds, which are completely separate from the city general fund, so the matching funds wouldn’t affect the deficit one way or another.

Curb management is studying and laying out policies for the entire curb area based on surrounding land use and the needs identified. The curb area is most often used for car parking, but could also be used for street cafes, bike sharing kiosks, bike lanes, loading/drop-off zones (for deliveries or taxi/Uber/Lyft), street amenities like benches and trees, bus-priority lanes, or even additional personal vehicle movement. 

Many cities have studied curb management and developed policies that use this precious space efficiently and equitably. A study of needs and best use of the this limited resource in various areas of the city is the first step in developing a curb management policy that serves all in the community.

UW Lakeshore Trail survey and meeting

If you ride the UW Lakeshore Trail from Willow Creek east to the Limnology Building, you know that parts of it are unpaved and unlit. The unpaved areas can be wet, muddy, and/or icy, depending on the season and recent weather. And with no lighting, it’s hard to see the ice, puddles, and ruts during the long winter nights. (This was my commute to my UW campus job, and I had to find a new winter route, because I didn’t trust the surface when I got off work after dark. Even in the daytime, the trail was often very rutted and slippery.)

Now, the UW is considering paving and lighting the path. They will hold a meeting on Tuesday, July 16, from 5-8 p.m. at the Memorial Union. They also have a survey available online and a map where you can comment about specific locations of concern. 

Wednesday

Transportation Commission

The Transportation Commission will meet on Wednesday, but the agenda is fairly short. The one item of interest to bicyclists might be a report on the first year of the city Transportation Demand Management program and suggested modifications. The city TDM program requires that any new, or substantially-changed land use, as well as any request to increase parking, take measures to offset demands for driving and parking. It will be interesting to hear how the program is going after a year.

TDM aims to both increase transportation options and decrease [motor] vehicle miles traveled. The requirements of the program are reviewed as part of the standard land use approvals. Applicants are assigned a certain number of points to offset parking and driving and can earn these points by reducing or limiting parking, providing incentives to use transportation options other than driving, and educational efforts on transportation options for residents and commercial tenants. Examples in the bicycle realm might be classes on finding a comfortable bike route or how to be comfortable riding in traffic, providing BCycle memberships, bike parking and amenities above and beyond minimum requirements, providing showers and lockers, etc.

Community events and rides this week

Monday: Madison Bikes board meets at the Central Library at 6:00 pm. All are welcome

Friday: Lunch brunch e-bike ride leaves from Machinery Row at noon for a casual social ride to a lunch spot. All types of bikes welcome.

Sunday: Century Training Club leaves from Machinery Row at 8:00 am with two pace groups.

For more details on community events, including contacts for questions, see the Madison Bikes Community Calendar.

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.

The Madison Bike Week 2024 webpage is up! Events are starting to come in, and soon the calendar will start filling in as groups, businesses, neighborhood associations, non-profits, and individuals start submitting their plans. Do you want to host an event? The form to let us know what you’d like to do is on that page as well. There are some pre-approved locations from the city in public parks and rights of way (streets), but you can also add events on private property or get city permission for additional locations. Let us know if you have questions.

Updates from the past week

The nasty, cold weather cleared away for a great Bike Wash and Safety Check on Sunday, thanks to board member Pete Taglia. We saw familiar faces – and many new ones too – and got a chance to wash off the road grime or salt, check to be sure our bikes are ready for warm weather riding, and talk about Madison Bikes and our plans for the coming months. We had a some people drop in because they saw chalked announcements on the Brittingham Path and signs near the closed street. Thanks to Freecycle for helping us out. WMTV channel 15 had a nice piece on the evening news.

Coming up this week

North-South BRT public meetings starting Monday. Just a reminder from last week’s newsletter that the city is hosting a barrage of public meetings about the proposed North-South BRT Line. On Monday April 22, you can go virtual, on Tuesday it’s at the Urban League on S Park (South Side), on Thursday it’s at the Warner Park Community Center (North Side) and on Monday April 29 it’ll be in Fitchburg.

On South Park St, there will probably be some changes that affect bicycle infrastructure – some good, some not so great. There will be fewer changes on the north side, but there might be opportunities to improve connection. 

Wednesday

The Transportation Commission agenda has several items that may be of interest. You can watch and/or comment on any agenda item at 5:00 pm online

The Safe Streets Madison project list contains relatively small projects that are meant to make streets, paths, crossings, and other infrastructure safer for all users: pavement markings, flashing beacons, small sidewalk and path connections, and signal changes. Safe Streets Madison replaced the previous neighborhood traffic calming program. For this year, Traffic Engineering is proposing 29 projects for a total cost estimate of $1,108,000. 

The Traffic Signal Priority list reports on locations where changes were considered to lights and stop signs. If you have a [least] favorite location for crossing, you may be interested to see why things are or are not changing. 

Thursday

The Joint Campus Area Committee – a committee that coordinates projects between the UW, the city, and adjacent neighborhoods – will be discussing a possible bypass of the Limnology Building.

If you are one of the 15,000 pedestrians or bicyclists that uses the UW Lakeshore Path every day, you know how frustrating it can be to negotiate the tight quarters at the eastern end of the path where we have to pass between the Limnology Building and Bascom Hill. It is narrow, people are entering and exiting the building, sightlines are very bad, and sometimes equipment and vehicles are stored close to the path, making it even narrower. No one is happy with the situation, but a new project will make it much more comfortable. You can see the slides to be presented at the meeting, but the short version is that the entire area south of the building will be widened by cutting into the hillside and building a retaining wall. This will create a better/safer entrance to the building, a dedicated delivery area, and a wider path for bicyclists. Pedestrians will still use a path on the north side of the building. This one is in person at 4:45 pm in room 132 in the WARF building on campus

Saturday

Blackhawk Trail Spring Work Day. If you use this mtb trail, or would like to meet others, come out and help get the trail into shape. Meet at the east chalet on 10118 Blackhawk Road, Middleton at 9:00 am for instructions and to enter your name in the raffle.

Celebrate Trails Day! with Bike Fitchburg 10 am-1 pm at the Velo UnderRound (where the Military Ridge, Cannonball, and Cap City Trails all meet.) Enjoy non-alcoholic drinks from national sponsor Athletic Brewing and snacks, pick up bike maps, and learn how we advocate for biking and walking that’s safer, easier, more fun, and more equitable in Fitchburg.

Sunday

Capital Bike Club 2024 Membership Party, 3-5 pm at Capital Brewery in Middleton. Come say hi to your cycling friends new & old. Snacks and beverages will be provided to paid members of the bike club. And if you aren’t a member, but would like to join, head over to their webpage.

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.

I hope everyone has been able to get out and enjoy the (weirdly) warm weather recently. Although the riding has been very pleasant, it’s a bit unnerving that we have weather this warm in February.

The week ahead is somewhat slow, but we have a great community meeting coming up Monday (today, if you are receiving this by email.) In the fall, we invited our members and friends to brainstorm about what they would like to see as event, talks, rides, activities, and information in the future. This Monday’s topic came out of that meeting. See below for more details.

Monday

Our Community Meeting at 6:00 pm at the Central Library will be on the topic of “Know Your Rights: Biking and the Law” with Clayton Griessmeyer, Bicycle Injury Lawyer. If you have questions about what to do if you have a crash, or important aspects about biking on paths or roads, this will be an event you don’t want to miss. 

Also Monday, Fitchburg Bikes will meet at the Fitchburg Senior Center, 5510 Lacy Rd at 7:00 pm.

Wednesday

Transportation Commission will meet virtually at 5:00 pm. On the agenda are a number of projects scheduled for both this year and planned for in the future. (See items on 5, 6, and 9 on the agenda. Under item 9, items marked TAP are pedestrian/bicycle improvements.)

Also on the agenda is an item about safety, crowding, and speed concerns on the paths. There is a good presentation from city staff that lays out the issues with both crowding and any conflicts. We’ve had a discussion about this recently on our Facebook Community, and it comes up every couple of years, including in a recent letter to the media. Basically, we rely on everyone to be polite and aware of other path users, but that’s often a big ask.

Ongoing opportunities to comment:

The UW has a new master plan for the Lakeshore Natural Area. There was quite a bit of publicity about a new visitors center to be built near the entrance to Picnic Point. This would involve some changes to both University Bay Dr and the parallel Lakeshore Path, but mostly just relocating them closer to the marsh.

Much of the master plan involves landscaping, prairie and woodland restoration, and changes to some pedestrian paths within the area near Picnic Point, but the Lakeshore Natural Area also includes the Lakeshore Path all the way down to the Limnology Building near Memorial Union. There isn’t much information in the current master plan about the path in this area, but we have the chance to weigh in on future needs for this critical connector.

The intrepid may be able to navigate the path in all conditions, but winter makes the path quite treacherous, with rutted ice, repeated freezing and thawing, and most of the path completely dark during our short days. Thaws in the spring just mean huge puddles — with ice still present underneath — mud, sand, more ruts, and all users trying to navigate the dry areas, so moving side to side on the path to find dry ground.

If you would like to see changes to the path in the future (lighting, surface, width, improved maintenance, stabilizing areas near the path, etc.) you can comment by contacting the UW via the contact information here.

Dane County is accepting comments until March 15 about a proposed bridge across the Wisconsin River near Sauk City and a trail to Walking Iron County Park near Mazomanie. Information – including slides and a recording from a January public meeting – and a link to comment can be found here. 

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.

Now that we’ve had our first real snowfall — with more to come — I hope that everyone has figured out or remembered how to bike in the winter.

The city Bike Madison page (as opposed to this Madison Bikes page…. confusing…) had a nice set of suggestions about biking in winter. It’s really great to have supportive partners at the city, even if we sometimes want them to do more or go faster. We also had a nice call out from the City Traffic and Parking Facebook account that linked back to Harald’s end-of-year roundup. And they even suggested that people subscribe or follow us to keep up to date.

By the way, subscribing to the city Bike Madison page helps you stay up to date about construction, detours, and other official information. That’s why we try to put a link at the bottom  of our update each week. 

Unfortunately, we also saw two examples of “bike lash” in the paper this past week. First was an article in the Cap Times about the loss of urban trees, but also took aim at both the new wider sidewalk along Mineral Point Rd and the proposed multiuse path through the Sauk Creek Greenway. Then later in the week, a letter to the editor claimed that bicyclists don’t pay for the new infrastructure we are seeing. (This is untrue in multiple ways, but it’s a common misconception.)

This week

Things are still pretty quiet this week, with no big public meetings and not a lot of rides scheduled. Madison Bikes has been planning some exciting topics for our community meetings in the coming months, but those will be featured in future updates. There are a few items of interest coming up this week.

Wednesday

At 5:30 pm, Board of Public Works will be discussing two projects of interest to bicyclists, although there doesn’t seem to be much controversy around the projects, so no need to testify. (Unless you want to.) Agenda and Zoom link here.

The reconstruction of E Wilson St and E Doty St will add a two-way cycle track to E Wilson and new buffered bike lanes to E Doty St. This will complete the two-way bike facility on Wilson that Madison Bikes pushed for as one of its first projects. 

The final piece of the Lake Mendota Dr project will be also before the board, but the plans were already approved last year. This stretch from Spring Harbor Dr to Epworth Ct will add sidewalks, some bumpouts, space for a rain garden, and a traffic circle.

The monthly Queer Bike Ride meets the second Wednesday of the month at 6:00 pm. You can follow on Instagram for more details. All bodies are welcome.

Thursday

Freecycle will hold another Zoom meeting about what may be in their future. It looks like they’ll be doing this monthly after they started the conversation before the holidays. If you would like to join the conversation at 6:00 pm, you can get more information and sign up here.

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.