Join Our Board of Directors!
We are seeking applicants for our Board of Directors! Harald covered the gig in detail here; I also tried to list as much as I could remember about the work Madison Bikes has accomplished in just the past few years. Please share the Board application with those who you think might be a good fit. If you are at all in doubt, we would love to talk with you.
Last Week
The city held a session about John Nolen Drive, which is set for reconstruction in the next few years. Take their survey if you haven’t yet, and please share with others who get around by bike, bus, wheels, and feet. So far, the city has noted that the survey indicates “John Nolen Drive should be an automobile centered corridor” route, although as someone who has witnessed crashes on the narrow trail along the causeway, and has looked wistfully over at the multiple, mostly-empty traffic lanes while the multi-use trail was packed with cyclists, children, workers, couples, and joggers, I would argue that John Nolen could actually be much more than just what it is. This is especially important given the reality that we will very likely see denser development in areas like Bram’s Addition and other surrounding neighborhoods, and we should be doing better to connect those folks to the city safely and easily (including by bike and by transit).
Speaking of surveys, take the second Let’s Talk Streets survey. In direct contrast to the John Nolen discussion, this survey is looking for your approval to move forward with a vision of our streets being first for people and their safety. Really, take the survey!
This Week
Whoosh! It’s budget season. You might want to spend time brushing up on the Executive Budget, both capital and operational. Finance Committee hearings kickoff this week. On Monday, October 11, the Finance Committee will hear about Transportation (Public Works will come on Tuesday, October 12). Meetings start at 4:30 pm. I’d recommend checking out the map of the Capital Improvements budget items. Dane County also has a proposed Executive Budget out from County Exec Joe Parisi; I’m actually going to pass you over to Madison Bikes Community Facebook member Craig Weinhold, who summarized the bike-related items in that budget well here. You can read the budget memo here (bike stuff on pages 19-20).
Also on Wednesday at 6:30 pm, the Parks Commission will meet. A few of its items are relevant to the biking community, including options for a new multi-use path through Olbrich Park. You might also be interested in learning more about the PARC and Ride grant from Dane County.
There’s a lot going on with transportation in Madison and Dane County these days, and it’s hard to follow. I wanted to shout out to Madison Bikes’ President Harald Kleims (who also serves on the Transportation Commission) for writing a great Twitter thread about his perspective on the Bus Rapid Transit discussion and stop options. I’m the first one to jump into some jokes on this issue, but if you haven’t been following, I think Harald lays out clearly why no options are perfect (turns out, nothing is!), but why State Street is generally a better routing option.
Wow, did you get all the way to the end of this post? Sounds like you might be a great fit for our Board of Directors. We’d love to have you.
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.
