Category: Bike News

With the heat temporarily behind us—it’s coming back this weekend—we have a great week to get out and ride. We rely on you, our followers and members, to help us know both what’s good about our biking network and what needs to be changed. Our Facebook Group Community is an invaluable resource for both you and us. Although we know that there are still many gaps in our network (we’re working on that) and many places where the infrastructure could be better—places where some may feel comfortable, but others don’t—we also know that more people are biking every day, and we love to see the success stories as well.

I just got back from a little getaway to give myself some relief from the same scenery. I drove to my destination in the UP, and passed through a number of Wisconsin communities that tout their great biking environment. Yet the infrastructure I saw would not be appropriate for families, timid riders, people just getting back on their bikes after decades away, or middle school students trying out their independence. (OK, the kids might be willing to ride on a busy road with just a painted bike lane, but their parents would probably veto the idea.) Whenever I go away, I come back appreciative of the wonderful bike environment we have and heartened by the number and variety of riders I see on the streets.

We know that there is still much to do—we want everyone to feel comfortable biking anywhere, at any time, all year—but sometimes I think we have to pause to appreciate the community we have built, both the human community and the physical community.

What’s up this week?

One of the reasons I thought I should wax on about Madison is that there isn’t much on the calendar, and the Monday update would be pretty short.

Tuesday

The Council will be considering the plan for the former Oscar Mayer site. The Plan Commission has recommended a development plan that went through a thorough vetting with many community groups (including low-income and communities of color, a process led by a wonderful community group) and provides an opportunity to build dense, walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly housing. Part of the property is being preserved as a park, but there are proposals to make this park much larger, an idea that has been opposed by the Parks Department. They do not think there is a need for a larger park, and do not have the funds to develop and maintain the larger site.

Why should bicyclists care? Because if the housing is not built here, it will be pushed out to the periphery, to less multimodal-friendly sites. More habitat will be destroyed on the edge of town, and our biking environment will suffer.

You can register to speak or submit a letter to the Council. Instructions are here.

Wednesday

The Transportation Committee will meet. They will be considering the Cedar Street intersection with Park St. If you can’t picture the location, it’s that weird one where Cargo Coffee is located. More importantly, it’s where the new grocery store for the area will be built, so it’s important that people be able to safely cross Park St. At present, Cedar does not continue across Park St, but it will when that parcel is redeveloped. The crossings proposed were not very good for either pedestrians or bicyclists, so we are hoping a better design is presented.

A proposal will be presented at the meeting to add buffered bike lanes to Cedar St, but there is the perennial conflict with on-street parking, in this case to serve the grocery store. (Personal aside: Aren’t they building parking when the store is built? Why should we sacrifice infrastructure for those walking and biking in order to provide parking for a commercial building?)

Also note that the committee is considering changes to the traffic calming program. A subcommittee has been meeting, and they aren’t ready to present a report, but we’ll be keeping an eye on that.

Down the Bikes—a program run by former MB board member Pepe Barros—will be doing free bike check up at 2613 Stevens St (my driveway) from 8-11 am. They’ll check your bike and see if repairs are needed. If there is time, you can have them do the repairs. We did this last week, and it was very popular. The program runs on a pay-what-you-can model. If you are able to pay for the repairs, or if you just want to make a contribution when they check out your bike, that will enable them to provide services across the community to people who aren’t able to pay.

Also on the horizon

Don’t forget that there is a state primary election coming up on August 11. For some areas, because of a heavily-Democratic electorate and/or a lack of a Republican candidate, this election will likely determine who will be your state representative or senator.

Absentee ballots can be requested and you can check to be sure your registration is up to date at MyVoteWI.gov. You can also get information on who’s running, where you polling place it located, and all sorts of other useful information.

Your vote is important. Ask questions. And make sure the candidates know you can about transportation issues and how our state money is spent. If you live in Madison, you can also find out about in-person absentee voting, drive-up absentee voting, and all the information you need to vote at the City Clerk’s website. (They always need poll workers too, so you can sign up for that on the Clerk’s website as well.)

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.

Good news: there is a new counterflow bike lane on Ingersoll between Gorham and Sherman. While this is a short segment, it adds important infrastructure in crossing the isthmus safely.

This Week

On Monday, July 6, the Transportation Policy and Planning Board will meet. On the agenda includes the adoption and endorsement of a Vision Zero policy. Vision Zero is a framework that recognizes that humans will make errors and that all traffic deaths are preventable, specifically through better systems. Since the adoption of Vision Zero, cities such as Oslo, Norway eliminated all pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

Madison Bikes strongly supports Vision Zero, with the belief that police enforcement should not be a part of achieving this goal. Enforcement places BIPOC people at disproportional risk of violence at the hands of the police. Smart engineering and offering safe, convenient alternatives to driving is the best way to avoid the most common way Americans interact with the police – traffic stops – as well as to keep all road users safe. The Madison Bikes board will be releasing a statement about Vision Zero soon.

On Wednesday, July 8, the Board of Public Works will meet. A number of projects will be featured, including roadway geometry around Fish Hatchery-South Park Street; developments around McCormick Ave/Commercial Ave; Kipp Street; and 4003 E. Washington Ave. have new bike and pedestrian infrastructure proposed.

Future

One of our community members, Margie Franzen, is inviting everyone to join for a virtual book club on August 14 at 7 pm. The book is Cyclescapes of the Unequal City. A Look at Bicycles and Gentrification. The Facebook event is here.

New website

As you may have noticed, we recently launched our new website. This took a great deal of effort, including from a few super-volunteers, to make the back-end migration a success. This is one of many ways volunteers can help Madison Bikes with our mission – if you want to get more involved, sign up today!

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.

Last Week

Plans for the new Cedar Street connection between Park and Fish Hatchery changed at last week’s Transportation Commission. Instead of parking and two unprotected bike lanes–one of which was a door zone bike lane–Cedar Street will have two buffered bike lanes and no parking. Buffered bike lanes go a long way towards rider comfort and safety, and it’s good to see the city supporting their implementation.

Since this is construction season, a lot of roads have been getting a chip seal treatment lately. Chip sealing is a process where tar is laid down on a road and gravel chips are laid over it. The process is a fairly inexpensive way to extend the life of a road, but it is unfortunately an inconvenience to people on bikes. Bombay Bicycle Club put together a resource documenting where chip sealing has occurred.

This Week

Tonight the city is holding a virtual Public Information Meeting to update everyone on Wilson Street Corridor Study. The current recommendation is to include the two-way cycletrack on the south side of Wilson that Madison Bikes has been advocating for. Thanks to everyone who showed support for this option at meetings, and by writing to your alders and project staff over the years. This victory could not have been achieved without your help!

Of course, this fight won’t end with this meeting. The Corridor Study still needs to be accepted by the Common Council, approved by the mayor, and ultimately constructed. Stay tuned for further advocacy actions and updates on this project! You can read Addendum 2 to the Wilson Street Corridor Study for more information on the City’s current recommendations. You can also catch up on why Madison Bikes views Wilson Street as an important corridor for our advocacy mission by reading our previous blog posts here and here.

On Wednesday, the Madison Area Transportation Planning Board (MATPB) is having their monthly meeting virtually to discuss a variety of topics. One item is adding the Initial Bus Rapid Transit Project to the Fiscally Constrained Plan for the Regional Transportation Plan 2050. Another item is amending the 2020-2024 Transportation Improvement Program to include safety improvements at two intersections. One of the intersections is County Highway MM and McCoy Rd, which is adjacent to the Capital City State Trail. You can read the full agenda 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.

This Week

On Monday at 6:30pm the city will be hosting a Vilas Park Master Plan Public Meeting (virtual, registration is required). This promises to be a real humdinger of an event, so get involved in the process to evolve one of the crown jewels of the Madison park system! Several cycling-related issues are front-and-center including whether or not Vilas Park Dr should go car-free.

On Wednesday the city’s Transportation Commission will be meeting virtually. Check out the agenda, which looks to be stacked with a little something for everyone.

The Bombay Bicycle Club has restarted a limited selection of weekend group rides for current members only, with 12 ft spacing during the rides along with other common-sense restrictions. Check your inbox for your emails from them for the details. Not quite ready for a ride with a group? Remember that BBC has a great collection of area rides with full routes and cue sheets available for your perusal and you can ride these at your leisure (although there’s nothing leisurely about many of those routes!).

Capital Off Road Pathfinders (CORP) is organizing the CORP 100: a self-supported, fund-raising ride challenge that runs through the end of August. “Choose from routes of 100 km or 100 miles to experience as much Madison-area trail as possible. From urban jump lines & pump tracks, to old school tech-gnar, this ride connects nine different trail networks with a mix of urban bike paths, gravel and scenic driftless roads.” For all the details, check out their event page.

Finally, it’s worth echoing the advice and sentiment on the ongoing protests from this week’s Bike Madison email:

Please expect and respect disruptions to bicycle routes as people gather to exercise their first amendment rights here in Madison. If your route is blocked, please wait respectfully or take a different route to your destination.

Last Week

There was a discussion on the Facebook community about how the iconic Merrimac Ferry was closed to cyclists and pedestrians due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. As Robbie observed, this was problematic as it is part of the public state highway system and there were no similar restrictions on motorcycles or convertibles. The good news is that after a brief email campaign and investigation, the ferry has been reopened to everyone! Nice work!

BCycle opened up a new station on the near east side last week. This week also marks the one year anniversary of the Madison BCycle fleet going all-electric! Might be a good time to revisit one of our most popular blog posts ever, detailing first impressions of those bikes. How have those bikes been working for you? 

The Bike Fed posted an in-depth article about how the “Safe Routes Partnership no longer emphasizes enforcement and instead challenges us to improve our forms of engagement.” Definitely worth the read.

Next Week

Put it on your calendar! On Monday, June 29 the city will host #5 in the series of meetings about the Wilson Street Corridor Study (virtual, registration required). According to the page, “Addendum 2” to the interim recommendation is due to be published on Tuesday, June 23 (that’s this week!); many of us will be taking a close look and discussing it in advance of next week’s meeting. One likely spot for that conversation will be our Facebook group. You might also be interested in revisiting some of our previous coverage of the Wilson Street project here and 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.

The weather this weekend was perfect for bike ride. I hope everyone was able to take advantage and get outside. The wonderful temperature and lush green foliage are the ultimate spring combination. Also, in case you missed it, Madison Ranked #2 best US biking city by People for Bikes. Go Madison!

Looking for a way to make Madison more bike friendly?

This is a short list of things you can do this week to encourage biking and bike infrastructure in Madison.

1. Fill Out a Survey (8-12 min)

Madison Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) invites you to participate in an important regional survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on work-from-home trends and attitudes in the greater Madison region. Your participation is critical to understanding the unique impacts of COVID-19 on work and commuting trends in our region.

2. Register for the Vilas Park Master Plan Public Input Meeting

Registration is required to attend this public input meeting next week Monday June 22 at 6:30. This is an opportunity to provide feedback on the redesign of this wonderful Madison park. I am fond of Concept B that replaces the thru road with a multiuse path. This meeting is via Zoom and requires registration. More Information

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.

People for Bikes, a bike-industry sponsored advocacy group, just released their annual Places for Bikes City Rating results. And Madison made second place, up from ninth in 2019! Any rating system is going to have strengths and weaknesses, but I like the the Places for Bikes data-driven approach. Let’s explore in more detail what the subcategories measure and how well Madison scores in each of them. The maximum score for each category is 5.

Safety

This category combines data about all traffic crashes, crashes involving injuring or killing people on bikes, as well as community perceptions of safety. Why include perceptions rather than just hard numbers on crashes? Because no matter how objectively safe a given piece of infrastructure is, if it feels unsafe, people won’t bike there. And crash data also won’t tell you anything about places that are so unsafe that people biking will just avoid them completely. Madison does very well when it comes to bike injuries and crashes, scoring 4.0 points, with overall crashes and perceptions of safety being somewhat lower (3.0 and 3.1). According to official crash data, in 2019 there were 13 serious injuries and 2 fatalities involving someone on a bike in all of Dane County (and no fatalities in the City of Madison). Of course we need to continue to work on eliminating all serious injuries and fatalities, but it’s also important to remind ourselves that overall biking is a pretty safe activity in Madison.

Ridership

The ridership score is calculated from three different measure of how many people actually bike how often in a community. The American Community Survey by the US Census provides numbers on how many people regularly bike to work. As commute trips only account for a small share of people’s overall trips, data from two other, smaller surveys provide additional information on ridership, including recreational riding. Our overall score in this category is 3.0, placing us in 11th place nationwide.

Acceleration

This is a measure on how quickly biking is improving in a city. Based on data submitted by the city itself, for example on the growth in miles of bike lanes, racks, bike parks, or attendees at events like Madison Bike Week, and by respondents to the Community Survey, a score is calculated. Madison gets a 3.2 based on the city data and 3.5 based on community perceptions.

Network

The “Bicycle Network Analysis” (BNA) is one key piece of the work that Places for Bikes has been doing: For each city, they take every street and assign it a bicycle traffic level of stress score based on the characteristics of a street, for example whether it is a residential street or an arterial, what the speed limit is, and whether it has bike facilities or not. All the streets and paths rated as low-stress then make up a city’s low-stress network, and in a second step, the analysis looks at how well that network connects people with where they need to bike to, for example libraries, shops, or centers of employment. Madison’s BNA score is 49.8, with the top US city having a score of 88. Somewhat surprisingly, one of the cities that scores higher than us is Sun Prairie…

A smaller proportion of the overall network score is based on survey results about people’s perception of the bike network quality. Taken together, Madison gets a network score of 3.1.

Reach

Madison’s lowest is in the Reach category. Reach is a measure of “how well the the bike network serves everyone equally.” It is measured in two ways: One looks at the gender split in bike commuting, as measured by the American Community Survey. If as many or more women than men bike, this is seen as an indicator of a high-quality, comfortable biking city. Madison gets 3.0 points in this category, as about 6% of men and 3.5% of women regularly bike to work.

The other Reach measure looks at Census blocks that have a higher concentration of traditionally underserved populations, for example a large proportion of people of color or low-income residents. The quality of the low-stress bike network in those areas is then compared with the rest of the city’s network. This is the category where Madison does worst, with only 2.2 points. If you look at the BNA map, you see that there are still many areas of the city that have low scores. And some of those areas are those where underserved populations live, for example on the North Side around Northport Drive, or along Park St. More work is to be done to provide safe and comfortable bike access equitably.

So is Madison truly the second best biking city?

I’m sure one could make good arguments for and against any specific score and sub-score. But what is indisputable is that Madison is indeed one of the best biking cities in the US. Let’s celebrate that, and then get back to the hard work of making it better faster and for more people. There is a lot of room for growth in each of the categories.

This image just feels like the last ten days

The protests and other upheavals of the last ten days may seem to have little to do with bicycling, or transportation in general, but as Harald pointed out last week, racial politics and equity is core to our organization as we try to build a city where everyone can bike everywhere. It’s not just about infrastructure; it’s also about personal comfort and safety for those who may be at risk regardless of what mode of travel they are using. But better infrastructure and urban design can create spaces where traffic enforcement is less needed. When slow speeds and sharing of the public spaces—including our transportation spaces—is more natural and easy, we need fewer police to tell people to yield or slow down. This means fewer interactions between road users and the police.

In my day job working on transportation issues, my project at the UW partners with Smart Growth America, an organization that works with communities across the country to build communities where everyone can “enjoy living in a place that is healthy, prosperous, and resilient.” They care about the same issues as we do at Madison Bikes, and the president put out a statement you might want to check out.

What’s happening this week?

Back here in Madison, the week ahead is pretty quiet in regards to city meetings that might impact bicycling or transportation in general.

A Transportation Commission meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, but it has been cancelled. The next scheduled meeting is 6/24.

If you are out on a longer ride, Bombay Bicycle Club has been crowd sourcing locations for water and bathroom stops. It’s been hard to find a place to either get hydration or take a “bio break” now that lots of places are closed or only available for take-out. Check out the map and add information, if you have it.

The Dane County Bike Map has been updated and is now available (or will be soon) in bike shops and other outlets. You can view it on the Madison Area MPO’s website or look for a copy in stores (and libraries, visitor’s centers, etc. when they open again.)

As per usual, there were some interesting conversations over on our Facebook Community. Also, there’s still time to read the current book club selection, How Cycling Can Save the World by Peter Walker as part of our virtual book club. The discussion will be this Friday from 7pm to 9pm with more details to come on exactly how to participate.

In case you didn’t catch the article in the paper or posted on Facebook, Free Bikes 4 Kids has shifted its focus this year to providing bikes to frontline workers. They are still getting bikes into the hands or kids as well, but couldn’t do the big mass give away because of the pandemic and the need to social distance. They are working with community groups to distribute the kids bikes. I think it’s great that they are trying to get bikes into the hands of those who need transportation or just a way to blow off steam.

Our Facebook group has seen a lot of new people asking questions about how and where to ride. We are very excited to see new people asking for advice. I hope everyone who reads this can be a mentor to someone just getting back on their bike or trying to bike more and to more places, whether they want to ride for transportation, fun, exercise, stress relief, recreation, tourism, or sport. I also love this video that assures new riders that there is no “right” way to ride and tells experienced bicyclists to “not screw this up” by making newbies feel they aren’t good enough. Bike sales are up all over the country, and having more people pedaling is great news.

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.