Welcome to the Madison Bikes Newsletter. September is peak bike month as people return to work and 8,000 incoming freshmen drop into our city, many of them with bicycles. Please extra careful, patient, and helpful to the newcomers.
Regent Street (Randall to Park St) reconstruction
The City has just launched its Regent Street reconstruction, with a Public Information Meeting scheduled for Sept 15 and a survey open until Sept 22. Please take the survey! Last year, Madison Bikes community held a bike audit event that was a real eye-opener about just how many bikers use and cross Regent St and frequent the businesses there despite how the street has no bike facilities. It also revealed just how congested and claustrophobic the pedestrian facilities are. Six months ago, business owners announced a pedestrian- and gameday-centric vision for the street. This section of Regent Street is ripe for major improvement!
In semi-related news, last week, the Transportation Commission unanimously voted to test removing rush hour lanes from Willy Street. The test results could change the City’s perspective on what’s possible with arteries like Willy St, Monroe St, and Regent St — streets with 15,000 daily cars, rush hour lanes, dense business districts, large residential populations, poor pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, and no bike facilities.
Lakeshore path – Limnology Bypass
UW is improving the Lakeshore Path where it passes the Limnology Bldg, just west of the Memorial Union. Work begins Sept 2 and lasts until November-ish. During the construction, bikes will detour to the north side, sharing the pedestrian path. Please go slow and be courteous. That path sees 7,500 people a day, making it by far Madison’s busiest path.
Seems simple, right? Take a peek at the years of work behind this!
Big Tent Advocacy
A recent facebook thread asked people to encourage the UW to follow-up on last year’s study of options for paving and lighting Lakeshore Path. The response was animated, and a bit negative, with many saying they wanted no improvements because they liked the gravel path just the way it is. It was a good reminder that bicycle advocacy is a very big tent, and 100 bicyclists likely have 100 different opinions about how to make bicycling better.
We see that also with Midvale Blvd’s resurfacing (survey open until Sept 2). Where some bike advocates see a chance at long-overdue Midvale bike lanes, others are content to write off Midvale and focus on improving other routes.
<soapbox> Differences of opinion are healthy and part of what makes our big tent of bicycling great. But I encourage everyone to always be thinking beyond their own bicycling needs and comfort. Think about people who bike out of necessity, not choice. Think of people who don’t know the back roads and might use google maps for navigation. Think about ways to grow bike ridership. Think about helping people choose biking over driving. Think about routes, lifestyles, seasons, and tolerances other than your own.</soapbox>
The Virtue of Patience
A few weeks ago, we reported that the newly-opened Wilson St cycletrack took seven years to come to fruition. Seven years is how long it took to land on the moon. It’s also how long it took Caeser to conquer Gaul, for Hoover Dam to be built, and for the Beatles to play music together. My first reaction was “Wow, that’s FAST!”
It’s painful how slow and piecemeal bike infrastructure comes together, how strong the headwinds are, how haters point out “it doesn’t connect anywhere!“, and how fickle and easily derailed these projects can be. The Glacial Drumlin connector and North Mendota trails are two high-profile examples if long, slow projects. The West Beltline path is another.
Stretching from Whitney Way to High Point Rd, the West Beltline path has been planned since 1997 and has been built in segments over the last 25 years. Its penultimate segment — a short 1000′ link from Zor Shrine Rd to High Point Rd — was just finished and you can now pick it up behind REI. The final segment is planned for 2028. When done, it’ll have taken over than 30 years to complete. I think about that and wonder what other projects take nearly half a lifetime to finish? Can anyone imagine any 3-mile road taking 30 years to complete?
This is both a rant and a meditation on what it is to be a bicycle and trail advocate. I look forward to the West Beltline Path ribbon cutting … just three short years from now!
Rapid Fire
September RoundTrip Smart Trips Challenge! Win prizes just by logging your trips (bike, walk, bus, and even carpooling) and playing Bike Bingo
Sunday September 7 from 5 – 6:30pm is the next Bike Advocacy Meetup at Machinery Row Bicycles. (if you’re not too tired after the Ironman)
October 2 Bicycle Film Festival! Last year’s was a gorgeous evening full of community and grooviness. This year promises to be even better.
Interested in plugging into a real-time advocacy feed? Join the Madison Bike Advocacy discord group (this sign up link works until Sept 7).
Nakoma Rd construction is taking longer than expected. Any bets that it’ll be done before winter?
The Tancho Drive Path is kicking off. Path construction is expected in spring 2026.
That’s all for this newsletter. Thanks for reading, have a great week, and enjoy the early fall weather.
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!
4:00–5:30 PM – Stone Horse Green, Downtown Middleton
