Category: Bike News

View post on imgur.com

We’ve written about the Winnebago Street reconstruction several times. But now it’s decision time: The Common Council will decide the future of the street at their meeting next Tuesday (5/1). Without a strong showing of support from the public, the Council will most likely go with Option 1. Alder Rummel supports Option 1, as does the Board of Public Works. Some of the neighbors affected by the conversion of on-street parking into space for trees and bikes will likely speak at the meeting, supporting option 1.

So please voice your support for Option 2 by speaking at the meeting or writing to your district’s Alder.

As a reminder, these are some of the arguments in favor of Option 2:

• space for bigger, canopy-type street trees
• better access for walking from southeast side of street, especially with the elimination of the current grade separation
• better, shorter crossings for people on foot
• buffered lanes for bikes instead of a door-zone bike lane on a bus route with narrow lanes
• ADA accessible bus stop at Fourth St
• narrower lanes for motor vehicles to encourage lower traffic speed

View post on imgur.com

Rendering of Option 2 (Image: City of Madison Engineering)

Grant wrote a comprehensive overview of the project and its implications for people walking and biking on Winnebago here. The Isthmus also covered the debate in a recent article.

Some quick tips for writing an effective comment:

• Primarily address your district’s alder, but also include allalders@cityofmadison.com as a recipient
• Start the letter by saying why you care about this issue. Do you live in the neighborhood? Do you frequent businesses on Winnebago? Does your kid go to East High? Does your commute take you in Winnebago (or would it, if conditions were better)? Do you support the city’s sustainability goals? Do you like big trees on all Madison streets? Have you had a good/bad experience riding or walking on Winnebago? Etc.
• Short letters are fine, as are long ones
• Make it clear that you support Option 2
• Ideally send your letter by Monday evening

Feel free to share your comments in the comment section below or on Facebook so that others can see them as well.

Hard to believe that this was less than a week ago (Photo: Gordon Sussman)

On Sunday, the Tour de la Familia Latina/Tour of the Latin Family, had a great ride, with more than 50 folks riding bikes in Madison while biking up trash they found in recognition of Earth Day.

This week, after what felt like fourth winter, it seems that spring is finally here. If it felt warm on Sunday, it was – we finally broke 60 degrees and lots of folks were out on bikes taking advantage. Weather should be in the 50’s and 60’s so we should see lots more folks getting out and enjoying riding.

Awesome weather aside, there are a few meetings, including one very important meeting of the Joint Pedestrian Bicycle Motor-Vehicle Commission and Long Range Transportation Planning Commission on Tuesday. The planned diverter at Blair and E. Mifflin is on the agenda for approval at this meeting. There are also a slew of fun events on Saturday celebrating biking through bike demos, socializing with bikes and beer, and music with a bicycle themed performance of UW Madison Madrigal Singers and Chorale.

On Monday, April 23 Bike Fitchburg holds its monthly meeting at Fitchburg Public Library, 5530 Lacy Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53711, USA, 6:30pm –⁠ 8:30pm. Anyone with input on improving cycling in Fitchburg should attend.

On Tuesday, April 24 A Joint Meeting of Pedestrian Bicycle Motor-Vehicle Commission and Long Range Transportation Plan Commission will decide on making the diverter at Blair St and East Mifflin permanent. This diverter is the first real change to the design of the E. Mifflin Bike Boulevard and will improve the safety of the roadway for all users. As Jonny Hunter, member of the Marquette Neighborhood Association’s traffic committee, noted, “[Developer] TWall has been putting up significant opposition to this and has hired a lobbyist to fight the diversion.” It will be key to have folks show up in support of the traffic calming project. Also on the agenda: The consultants for the John Nolen/Blair project are presenting their final report.

The meeting begins at 5:00 pm and is in the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Room 201, Madison, WI 53703. The full agenda is available here.

After having to reschedule because of the snow, on Wednesday, April 25 the Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee meets from 6pm–⁠8pm at Bendyworks, 106 E Doty St #200.

On the weekend, you have several options for fun bike events. On Saturday, April 28 you can test ride mountain bikes at Quarry Ridge. For more information check out the event’s Facebook page here.

From 11:00am to 3pm check out Bike Day at Working Draft Beer Company at 1129 E Wilson St, as it celebrates bikes, beers, and better weather! Neff Cycle Service will be hanging out in the parking lot from 11am-3pm offering FREE bicycle safety checks and helping tune up bikes for Spring. Working Draft will have a full lineup of beers. I mean all the beers (hoppy, malty, lagers, ales, GF – you name it). Come get beered, socialize, and get the bike ready for the season! More info here and here.

At 7:00pm join the UW Madison Madrigal Singers, Chorale & Jazz Quintet for the concert: “Free Wheeling: A Tribute to the Bicycle” The performance is at Mills Concert Hall, 455 N. Park St. The UW Madrigal Singers and Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Bruce Gladstone, will join forces to present “Free Wheeling: A Tribute to the Bicycle”, Saturday April 28 at 7pm in Mills Concert Hall. The concert opens with no less than five world premieres, written specifically for this concert. There are two works from John Stevens, veteran composer and UW-Madison emeritus professor. “Toasting Song” is a rollicking number about the pleasures of both cycling and wine. “A Bicycler’s Song” takes a poem in praise of bicycles and cycling. Free and open to the public. Event Description here.

Photo courtesy of Matt DeBlass

Just when the less hardy bicyclists were thinking they could finally ride in comfort, Sprinter (as my friend in Minnesota calls the endless combination of spring and winter) hit us with a last, ugly hit of horrible weather. As I write this on Sunday night, the main roads are wet and slushy, with questionable riding in the bike lanes or outer edges. Local streets were never plowed, so they are just piles of semi-frozen mess. Yuck. (I haven’t checked any of the bike paths, so maybe someone can post the conditions as they come in on Monday morning.)

Last week, when things were looking better, Matt DeBlass from Revolution Cycles took the above photo of the path being swept behind their shop.

Besides a short burst of pleasant weather to give us hope, there was one big meeting last week. A public meeting was held to discuss how Atwood Ave from Fair Oaks to Cottage Grove Road will be reconstructed. There’s a big gap in the bicycle network there, if you don’t want to detour over to the Cap City Trail. We mentioned this as an upcoming meeting last week. We’ll try to get an update out on how the discussion went.

Coming up this week

The Winnebago rebuild project that we’ve been talking about will be before the Board of Public Works on Wednesday (see time and location below). A group supporting canopy trees in Madison has sent out an alert for this meeting. Option #2 would allow more space for trees as well as more space for bikes.

Also this week:

Monday is the Madison Bikes board meeting at 6:00 pm at the Central Library. As with all Madison Bikes committees, the board meetings are open to everyone. So if you want to know more about us or see how we work, feel free to drop by.

Wednesday is the Board of Public Works, 5:30 pm in Room 108 of the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Blvd. All city files on the project can be found here. They will be considering options for rebuilding Winnebago. The BPW is the “lead” committee for this item, meaning they will be making a recommendation to the Council. How the BPW votes would be the default option if the Council decides not to discuss it further. (This is called being on the consent agenda, because the Council only discusses a handful of items at each meeting. All the other recommendations by cit committees are accepted and passed by the Council in one big vote. That’s why city committee meetings and their recommendations are VERY important.

If you read this far, you’ve now had a lesson on how things work at the city.

Also Wednesday is the Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee, meeting at 6:00 pm at Bendy Works, 106 E Doty St, 2nd floor. All are welcome.

Saturday is the next Tour de la Familia Latina/Tour of the Latin Family, a casual and friendly ride at the pace where kids and inexperienced bicyclists can enjoy the day and the sights of Madison. All are welcome. Ride leaves from Olin Park at 1:00 pm. They’ve been riding all winter!

That’s about it for this week on the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event you would like included, send it our way.

In Case You Missed It

There are always great contributions, opinions, comments, and updates from our members and on the Madison Bikes Facebook group, so if you aren’t checking that out, here’s what you might have missed:

Kierstin Kloeckner urges people to write to Capital Brewery and the Middleton City Council in support of extending bike lanes on High Point Rd from Greenway to Terrace Ave (those are the two local roads that go under the Betline

News comes that the Capital City Trail south of the Beltline — through the E-way — will get the first renovations since it opened in 2001. Look how long bike trails last! But some parts of the Cap City Trail are getting sort of rough, so despite the detours we’ll have to endure, this is a good thing.

And a great article about how a Northern Virginia parking garage is used as a bike park after hours. Glad someone is using at empty structure at night!

Plus discussions about Atwood, the best bike racks for apartments, and lots of other fun and info.

Last week

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Cargo Bike Shop (@thecargobikeshop)

The Wisconsin Bike Fed is changing its organizational structure to become more effective in their advocacy. Last Wednesday, the Bike Fed’s executive director Dave Schlabowske met with Dane County bike advocates and presented his plans and ideas. Stay tuned for further announcement online or at the Wisconsin Bike Summit.

Bombay Bicycle Club had their annual spring membership meeting on Sunday, and their 2018 ride calendar will be available shortly. We’ll work with them to also get those rides on our Community Bike Calendar.

This week

View post on imgur.com

Current plans for Atwood Ave reconstruction

The big advocacy event this week is a public involvement meeting on Atwood Avenue. The street is going to be reconstructed between Fair Oaks and Cottage Grove Road, and one goal of the project is to improve conditions for people walking on biking in the corridor. Right now, Atwood forms a barrier between the residential areas and the park and lakefront. Crossing the road is difficult, and vehicle speeds are high. Bike access is limited to a narrow sidewalk shared with people on foot. The city has proposed a number of improvements that would address some of these issues. But some important questions remain — for example, do we really need two lanes in both directions on Atwood? Will the new road design lead to slower vehicle speeds and allow safe
crossing? Why does the city want to allocate more space for car parking? So please attend the meeting and help the city get this
project right. Monday, 6:30-8 pm at Olbrich Botanical Garden. You can also send questions and comments to the project staff:
cpetykowski@cityofmadison.com and bwilkinson@msa-ps.com

View post on imgur.com

Current state of Atwood (Image: Google Maps)

Sun Prairie Moves, the local bike advocacy group in Sun Prairie, also meets on Wednesday. On the agenda: Updates on planned events, on a planned network of off-street paths, and on a new official bike map in Sun Prairie. Wednesday, 6:30pm at Colonial Club Sun Prairie.

An area that also could use improvements for those who don’t get around by car is the “Milwaukee Street Special Area“. The planning efforts for the area are still in the early stages. Learn more at the first open house at Whitehorse Middle School on Thursday, 6:30-8pm.

On Saturday, you can again join the folks at Cafe Domestique for their rain-or-shine Spring Rides. Meet at Cafe Domestique at 8:30am. A more mellow ride option starts at noon at Freewheel Community Bike Shop: This kid- and family-friendly ride will go to Elver Park and include a potluck picnic. And if you’d rather stay inside on Saturday, consider attending Terrace Town at Monona Terrace: Dane County elementary school kids have build a small-scale city with a focus on sustainability out of recycled materials, and now they’re eager to present their work to the public. 10-4 at Monona Terrace.

And on Sunday, bike out to Warner Park for the Annual Bird and Nature Festival. Or finally get that tax return done…

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

Last Week

On Tuesday, Jim Wolfe from Engineering presented two options under consideration for this summer’s Winnebago Street reconstruction to the Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission. If you haven’t been following along, you can get more background on the project on the city’sproject page or by reading this Madison Bikes article from February. For those that couldn’t be there in person or catch the live stream, you can watch a recording of the discussion here thanks to City Channel.

View post on imgur.com

Option 2 for the Winnebago Street reconstruction

Public comment at the meeting was split between those that worried about the impact of lost parking on adjacent residents and businesses (supporting Option #1) and those that supported Option #2 for its positive impact on our urban canopy and the improved bike access for people of all ages and abilities. Commission members received 27 emails in support of Option #2 and 0 emails in support of Option #1 in advance of the meeting.

After close to an hour and a half of comment and discussion, the commission voted 5-1 in favor of Option #2. The project is expected to be in front of the Board of Public Works on April 18th and a final decision will be made by the Common Council on May 1st. Watch for additional action alerts for both of these meetings and please consider adding your voice to this important discussion.

This Week

Tuesday: Remember to ride your bike to your polling place and vote in the spring elections! The Madison Bikes Communications Committee will also meet up at the Memorial Union at 6pm. Check out the About Us section of our webpage for more info on any of the Madison Bikes Committees.

Thursday: The Wisconsin Film Festival kicks off on Thursday and runs through April 12th. Two movies that feature biking this year include Makala and Not Without Us. You can read a brief summary and watch the trailers after the fold. Just remember to save yourself the headache of car parking and ride your bike!

Saturday: Cafe Domestique Spring Rides continues on Saturday with this rain or shine series. Coffee at 8:30 and roll out at 9:00a. And if you’d rather ride inside, come to the season finale of the Capital Goldsprint Series at Octopi Brewing at 7pm.

Sunday: And on Sunday, Bombay Bicycle Club hosts its annual Spring Member Meeting. RSVP required by Monday, April 2nd.

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

Makala: In Emmanuel Gras’s stunning new documentary, charcoal-maker Kabwi-ta Kasongo and his wife Lydie live in a southern Congolese town, and they need money for their child’s medicine. Immersive cinematography tracks Kabwita’s arduous journey as he creates charcoal, travels to the market, and attempts to sell it so he can afford his family’s needs. Gras balances an eye for expansive landscapes, with distant views of flickering fire in deep darkness, and granular details, like the texture of cooling charcoal or the contours of chopped wood. In sustained observational sequences, the film follows Kabwita’s back-breaking processes, including cutting down enormous trees and traveling with an impossibly overloaded bicycle through difficult terrain.

Not Without Us: Sigrid Klausmann’s moving documentary follows sixteen children from fifteen countries across five continents. Each child is interviewed while under-taking their unique journeys to school, including trips by foot, bike, bus, boat, subway, donkey, skateboard, and skis. Interesting, and maybe unforeseen, is that however different their living environments, however different their personalities, the fears, hopes, and dreams of these children seem to be the same.

Spring is definitely on the way and the ramping of activities for this week’s update shows it.

• We have an important meeting on the planned reconstruction of Winnebago Street (discussed in more detail below).
• Madison BCycle is back after being away all winter. To celebrate and give everyone a taste of the subject, you can ride free the first week of April. There’s a promo code to use, so follow the link for more information.
• North Hancock St from E Johnson to the E Washington will be closed for three weeks for reconstruction, starting April 2. In addition, the intersection of E Mifflin and N Hancock will be close. Yes, that’s going to be a pain when you are using the bike boulevard! The city says you’ll be able to get through by bike, but you’ll have to get off and walk.
• A report on the results of the East Mifflin Diverter test is available. Although the city received some pushback, they are recommending that the diverter be made permeant.
• A stolen bike Boy, does it suck when someone takes off with your beloved ride. Let’s bring Kelsey Walsh’s bike home!!

The reconstruction of Winnebago Street is on the agenda of the Madison Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Motor Vehicle Commission (PBMVC) when they meet Tuesday evening. The meeting begins at 5:00 pm in Room 201 of the City-County Building. The PBMVC will consider two proposed designs for the reconstruction of Winnebago St between Second St. and Bashford Ave. The public can speak for three minutes on this item (or any item on the agenda.) You can also find the list of Commission members here, in case you want to email them.

Thanks to Grant for creating a comprehensive overview of the project and its implications for people walking and biking on Winnebago here. Plans proposed by the city seek to create a more neighborhood-scale street profile that would benefit residents and street users alike. Option 2 offers more positives for everyone using the street:

• Better access for walking from southeast side of street, especially with the elimination of the current grade separation,
• Better, shorter crossings for people on foot,
• Buffered lanes for bikes,
• ADA accessible bus stop at Fourth St,
• Narrower lanes for motor vehicles to encourage lower traffic speed,
• A wider terrace on southeast side of the street would provide space for bigger, canopy-type street trees.

If you can get to the PBMVC meeting on Tuesday to voice support for Option #2 that would be great. If you are unable to attend, consider sending an email in support of Option #2 to the members of the PBMVC, city engineering, and Alder Marsha Rummel before the Tuesday meeting. Here’s the list of all those emails, so you can cut and paste them, if you want.

• aaron.crandall@yahoo.com,
• eclewandow@aol.com,
• grantxyz@gmail.com,
• district2@cityofmadison.com,
• hiwayman@chorus.net,
• district9@cityofmadison.com,
• district18@cityofmadison.com,
• devos@ssc.wisc.edu,
• JWolfe@cityofmadison.com,
• CBachmann@cityofmadison.com,
• district6@cityofmadison.com

A detailed discussion of Madison Bikes review of the alternatives for Winnebago is available in a recent blog post.

Here are the week’s calendar, at a glance:

Monday, March 26

Bike Fitchburg monthly meeting, 6:30 –⁠ 8:30 pm at the Fitchburg Public Library, 5530 Lacy Rd.

Tuesday, March 27

Pedestrian, Bicycle, Motor Vehicle Commission meeting, 5:00 pm, Rm 201 of the City County Bldg, 210 Martin Luther King Blvd.

Wednesday, March 28

Middleton Pedestrian/Bicycle/Transit Committee, 6:30 pm at Middleton City Hall, 7426 Hubbard Ave.

Thursday, March 29

Olbrich Park Public Input Meeting, 6:00 –⁠ 8:00 pm at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The City of Madison Parks Division is hosting a public input meeting to discuss improvements at Olbrich Park focusing on the Garver Feed Mill – North Plat and the Olbrich Botanical Gardens operations area. At this meeting, City staff will review current site conditions and seek input from area residents and project stakeholders on the proposed improvements. If you have questions or comments but are unable to attend the meeting, please contact Mike Sturm at (608) 267-4921 or at msturm@cityofmadison.com.

Saturday, March 31

Spring Rides

Cafe Domestique, 1408 Williamson St, Madison. This ride rolls rain or shine. The folks at Café Domestique are riding! What better way to guarantee that you’re going to ride than have a group hold you accountable? Meet at Domestique at 8:30 for Coffee, 9am roll out. Moderate 15mph pace, almost all pavement unless the group is feeling adventurous. Plan for the weather to be lousy. Distance 30 – 50 miles.

In Case You Missed It

Here are a few of the most popular posts on the Madison Bikes Facebook Group this past week:

After an autonomous vehicle killed a pedestrian in Arizona, a lot of people had an opinion about what that means for human-powered transportation.

A great story about how a stolen bike brought out the kindness and community in Brooklyn.

Researchers at UWM have a bike survey about where and when you ride and how safe you feel.

View post on imgur.com

We need your support:

This coming Tuesday evening, March 27 at 5:00pm in Room 201 of the City-County Building, the Madison Pedestrian, Bicycle and Motor Vehicle Commission (PBMVC) will be looking at two proposed designs for the reconstruction of Winnebago St between Second St. and Bashford Ave. Grant wrote a comprehensive overview of the project and its implications for people walking and biking on Winnebago here. Plans proposed by the city seek to create a more neighborhood-scale street profile that would benefit residents and street users alike. Option 2 in particular offers positives for everyone using the street:

• better access for walking from southeast side of street, especially with the elimination of the current grade separation
• better, shorter crossings for people on foot
• buffered lanes for bikes
• ADA accessible bus stop at Fourth St
• narrower lanes for motor vehicles to encourage lower traffic speed
• A wider terrace on southeast side of the street would provide space for bigger, canopy-type street trees.

View post on imgur.com

Rendering of Option 2 (Image: City of Madison Engineering)

Please consider coming to the PBMVC meeting on Tuesday and voicing your support for Option #2. For anyone unable to attend, please send an email of support for the all ages and abilities design alternative to the members of the PBMVC, city engineering, and Alder Marsha Rummel before the Tuesday meeting.

aaron.crandall@yahoo.com,

eclewandow@aol.com,

grantxyz@gmail.com,

district2@cityofmadison.com,

hiwayman@chorus.net,

district9@cityofmadison.com,

district18@cityofmadison.com,

devos@ssc.wisc.edu,

JWolfe@cityofmadison.com,

CBachmann@cityofmadison.com,

district6@cityofmadison.com

It’s almost spring, so I thought I’d include a nice photo of a bike relaxing by the lake. Here’s what’s happening.

Madison is hiring a Transportation Director, and it would be great if we had a really dynamic pool of candidates. This is a very important new position that will be able to shape all modes of transportation. So if you either know anyone who might be a good hire or have networks where a great person might see it, here’s the job announcement.

In the week to come:

Monday: The Madison Bikes board will meet at 6:00 pm at the Central Library. The board meeting and all committees are open to the public, so if you’d like to see what we are up to or have ideas for us, come on by.

Wednesday: The Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee will meet at 6:00 pm at the Bendy Works, 106 E Doty St, 2^nd floor. Again, this meeting is open, so if you want to help us out, come on by to chat.

The Madison Transportation Planning Board Citizen Advisory Committee is meeting in Room 103A of the City-County Bldg, and there are a couple of items on the agenda that might interest bicyclists. They will continue to discuss the Low-Stress Bicycle Network Analysis and also will review and look at recommendation on scoring and funding the Transportation Alternatives block grant. What that means is that they will consider how to pick bike-ped projects to be funded by federal transportation money. The full agenda and contact for the meeting can be found here.

Saturday: Café Domestique (1408 Williamson St) Spring Rides will start off on March 24 and run until April 14. The general idea is to get some base miles in. They will be riding even if the weather is lousy. This Saturday’s ride is going to average 15 mph and go 30-50 miles. Coffee at 8:30 am and roll out at 9:00 am. More info on their Facebook page.

Also of interest:

Survey: An MBA student from the University of Maryland is doing a survey on how people use their bikes and what type of bikes they own. They specifically sent it to us because they wanted responses from cities that are bike-friendly. It only takes a few minutes to complete, so if you’d like to help out, you can find it at the link above. And feel free to pass it on to your friends, family, and other bike groups.

Popular Facebook posts from the Madison Bikes group in the past week

You can find all the following in the news feed on the Madison Bikes Facebook group. There are new articles and links posted almost every day, so the group is a great way to keep up with the news and also learn something about what other communities are doing.

• A long, and somewhat contentious discussion of the acquittal of the motorist involved in the bicyclist fatality on Highway 14 in 2016
• Some great photos from Saturday’s Tour of the Latino Family
• And, unfortunately, a pedestrian was hit on S Park St and a bicyclist hit at E Johnson and North.
• And people had a lot to say about the collapse of the pedestrian bridge in Miami.