Madison Bikes

Hi Madison Bikes Community, I’m Steph! I am a new member of the Madison Bikes Board, an avid cyclist and coffee drinker. I will be contributing to the Madison Bikes blog on a weekly basis to provide a voice of bike-related encouragement, insight, and amusement. While I am not a bike expert by any means, I am obsessed with all things bike-related and look forward to sharing my thoughts on a new topic with you each week!

If you are reading this, it means you have survived another Wisconsin winter. Congratulations, you did it! The grey snow mounds have receded, abandoned gloves are re-emerging alongside sidewalks, and the long hygge is over.

If you have followed my other blog, you will have read about some of the joys and struggles that come from winter biking. I honesty feel like I became a better biker by learning how to safely commute to work by bike in the winter. Last week, I took my bike into Revolution Cycles for a complete tune-up of my commuter bike. Even with the City of Madison doing a nice job with plowing and sanding bike paths on the near east side, my bike did not endure the winter with grace. One quick lookover by Rev Cycle’s Matt DeBlass confirmed that most of the components on my bike were shot and needed to be completely replaced.

After my bike underwent an extreme makeover, I also swapped out my studded tires and have felt as if I am flying down Madison’s bike lanes. It has been great to see other Madisonians out on their bikes too! I know that commuting to work through the isthmus can be a pain, but bike-commuting in this weather can be a delight. In fact, according to CityLab, biking to work has been shown to lead to more happiness than driving or using the bus.

For those just getting back on their bikes, some may be discouraged by the amount of sediment found on bike path and lanes. I have heard from seasoned riders that this sediment has made them feel uneasy. It’s true that there are parts of my commute to work that remind my of riding along Lakeshore path on UW Madison’s campus. I believe that street cleaning will be performed in the next few days or weeks, so I hope bikers don’t get too discouraged!

Bike Lane on Gorham St.

Of course, if you feel like there is a segment of bike path or street that needs attention, do not hesitate to use the City of Madison’s “Report a Problem” site.

Here’s to hoping that you all can get out and RIDE!

P.S.: If you haven’t gotten enough bike content yet or you’re bored at work, Reddit has a Daily Cyclist Thread that is just wonderful.

Photo credit: Linda Larsen

If you were out over the weekend, you saw lots more bicyclists out and about. Not everyone ventures out by bike in the winter, but it seems that everyone is eager to get back on as the weather warms and the snow melts. And that also means that there will probably be more events on our calendar as we get into later spring and the summer. Remember, you can find all the events and meetings that we know about by checking out our Community Calendar. You can also drop us a line if you have something to add.

What happened last week?

Freewheel is starting a fundraising drive for their new bike center

On Saturday, Freewheel Bike Collective hosted a community meeting. Freewheel has been around in Madison for over 15 years, giving away free bikes to the community and teaching people how to build and repair bikes. Now a big expansion is on the horizon. As we have reported earlier, Freewheel was chosen by the city as the operator for the Judge Doyle Bicycle Center. The center, slated to open late this year, will provide secure bike parking, showers, a bike wash station, and space to repair bikes and teach bike repair classes. To make this expansion happen and raise money, Freewheel has started a big membership drive. You can check out the different membership options here. Stay tuned for a separate blog post about Freewheel and the Bicycle Center in the next few weeks.

Madison Bikes board and volunteers help out FB4K

Hard to believe, but not all the board members are good mechanics. Some of us just love bikes and want to help others get a bike and enoy the freedom we feel when we ride. So while some more experienced board and volunteers helped fix up bikes at Free Bikes for Kidz, the rest of us either cleaned the bikes or put training wheels on the smaller ones. We had a great time, and FB4K is a fantastic program. They always need help, so if you’d like to help, contact them. No experience needed!

Bike counter on John Nolen Path is working again!

Despite not displaying the numbers for passing bicyclists, the bike counter has been working all along. But some people worried that their cold-weather rides weren’t being recorded. Now you can once again see each and every rider be counted on the path. And if you are interested in seeing weather, day of week, or monthly trends, you can also see the statistics for the counters at both the John Nolen Dr Path and the Southwest Path — as well as some pedestrian counters on State St that you probably didn’t know existed — on this page.

What’s up this week?

Monday

The Madison Bikes board will meet at the Central Library at 6:00 pm. Everyone is always welcome. We’ll be talking about plans for Bike Week in early June as well as updates from all our committees.

Just upstairs from our board meeting at the Central will be a mayoral debate starting at 7:00 pm. Satya Rhodes-Conway will face Paul Soglin on April 2 to determine who will be our mayor for the next four years. Your vote is very important, so please make sure to make your voice heard. You can vote absentee—aka early vote—at any public library starting March 18. City offices and locations on the UW campus, Madison College, and Edgewood are also available. You can find all the locations and hours here.

Tuesday

Women’s “Get to know your bike clinic” will be held at the Trek store on the east side— 1706 Eagan Rd–from 6:00-7:00 pm. Join Trek Bicycle Madison East for a clinic led by our women’s advocate, Kelsey Walsh. We will discuss the anatomy of your bike and how to keep it well, clean and happy. Please bring your questions and your willingness to learn. This is FREE and open to the public. All attendees will receive 10% off maintenance supplies!

Wednesday

The Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee will meet at 6:00 pm at Bendyworks, 106 E Doty St #200. This is the committee that helps push for better conditions in the city. So if you want to help our, we’d love to have you.

Saturday

Neff Cycle Service is having a grand reopening after moving locations. (But not too far, just to a different space in the same building.) Enjoy food, drink, door prizes and lots of cool bikes and people! If the weather permits we will have a group ride in the morning before opening up the shop. 1:00-5:00 pm at 1490 Martin St, Madison.

Capital Goldsprints Series #1 GoldSprint Series returns for a THIRD season of BIKES, BEER, MUSIC and FUN! Hosted at Motorless Motion Bikes by MoMo Riders Club. Spin your fastest for great prizes or glory against your friends or fiercest rivals. This is a come-as-you-are event and all equipment is provided. No experience necessary, just come prepared to have fun. 7:00pm –⁠ 11:55pm at Motorless Motion Bicycles, 640 W Washington Ave.

What have we been talking about?

Over on the recently-renamed Madison Bikes Community Facebook group, here are a few posts from the last week that generated some discussion:

What paths are still icy? Or are they flooded now?

A student is compiling a list of all the bike-only traffic signals in the city.

Streetsblog had a little film about the craziest excuses against bike lanes, and local commenters added their own stories.

And people are talking about the mayoral election.

Photo credit: Michael Lemberger

What’s happening in Madison this week? Hopefully nicer weather for biking, but it may be more like what you see in the picture above…

Tonight, on Monday, the Madison Bikes Events Committee has their monthly meeting. We will go over our plans for this year and see how we can best use our events to further the Madison Bikes mission. If you want to get involved or have ideas, you’re very welcome to attend. 6pm at Rockhound Brewing on Park St.

The Transportation Commission is meeting on Wednesday. Looking at the agenda, there aren’t any bike-related issues mentioned. The meeting is at the Madison Municipal Building, Room 207, starting at 5pm.

On Saturday, Freewheel Bike Collective is hosting a community meeting. After being selected to be the operators of the new Judge Doyle Square Bike Center, changes are coming to Freewheel, including a new membership model. “Come and join an informal presentation about what’s changing and what’s staying the same at Freewheel Bicycle Co, with food and drink provided.” 1-4pm at Freewheel, 1804 S Park St, Ste 5.

On Sunday, you can join a fundraising bike ride for Free Bikes for Kidz Madison (FB4K). FB4K Executive Director Andy Quandt and Board Chair Peter Gray are celebrating their birthdays by going on a bike ride of various lengths. You can join them and/or support FB4K with a donation. More info on the Facebook event page.

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.

View from the Lower Yahara River Trail along Lake Waubesa last Thursday.

As of March 1st, we have entered a period known as “Meteorological spring”. It’s the period of the year that starts on March 1st, and ends on May 31st. Most of us are more familiar with the celestial definition of spring which starts on the vernal equinox (March 20th this year) and ends on the June solstice in the northern hemisphere. So even though the weather this week will still feel like winter, warmer weather is officially around the corner.

This Week

Monday, March 4,

The MEAThead Ride will be meeting at Ford’s Gym on Winnebago St. at its usual time of 7 PM.With Daylight Savings Time around the corner, this is actually the last official ride of the season.

At 5 PM, Madison’s Transportation Policy and Planning Board will meet to approve an amendment to the city’s Street Use Permits law, to discuss the Bassett Street Corridor Plan, and more. Read the full agenda here.

Tuesday, March 5

Madison Bikes Communications Committee meets at 6 PM instead of the usual 5:30, and will be meeting in the Sunset Lounge of the Memorial Union. The Communications Committee oversees Madison Bikes public communications, including the Facebook Discussion page, the weekly update blogs, and other communication efforts. The agenda can be found here.

The Madison Common Council will also be meeting at 6:30 in the Common Council Chambers at the City County Building. One of the agenda items will be approving the geometry for the Gammon Road project which will include an extension of the West Towne Path, currently ending at the Struck Street underpass west to just past Gammon Road, including a new underpass of Gammon. You can read the full agenda here.

Wednesday, February 6

The Madison Area Transportation Planning Board (MATPB) will be meeting at 6:30 PM in Rooms A-B of the Madison Water Utility building at 119 E. Olin Ave. Read the full agenda here.

Thursday, February 7

The County Board is meeting at 7 PM in the Council Chambers at the City County Building. Among other agenda items, the Board will be approving a land purchase that will help get the Lower Yahara River Trail built along the north end of Lake Kegonsa. Read the full agenda here.

Friday to Saturday

If you’re in the market for a new bike, you can head to the annual Bike-O-Rama show at the Alliant Center, starting at noon on Friday and going until Sunday afternoon.

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.

This Week

Monday

Development committee is back! Join us tonight at 6 pm at Barriques on West Wash (127 W Washington Ave). After a hiatus, this committee returns. We will be reviewing previously set goals, as well as discussing what we hope to accomplish in 2019. Volunteers are encouraged to attend to help get this committee going again.

Bike Fitchburg’s Monthly meeting will take place at Fitchburg Public Library starting at 6:30 pm.

MeatHEAD Ride, this ride starts every Monday at 7:00 PM November through March regardless of the weather. The ride starts at Ford’s Gym, 2114 Winnebago St in Madison. Read more about the group on their Facebook page.

Wednesday

The Transportation Commission will meet at 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd Room 206, Madison Municipal Building. On the agenda is the new diagonal crossing at Blount and Willy as part of their signal priority list. This intersection has the potential to be a great alternative to the hairball intersection.

Remember, if you have an event for our Madison Bikes Community Calendar, send it to us so others can find it. And all the details about all the events are up on, or linked from that same calendar, so make sure to visit often.

We’re already well under way into another year for Madison Bikes, and 2019 comes with a number of new faces on our board or directors! In addition, we have a new president and vice-president. But let me start by introducing our new board members: Jake Foley, Elysha Jones, Steph Shelton, Peter Taglia, and Jim Wilson.

Jake Foley

Jake Foley moved to Madison with his family in 2015, and lives on the North side with his wife, daughter and soon to be new baby. Relocating to Madison to design bikes for Trek Bicycle, Jake has enjoyed planting roots in the community. Using his background in art and design Jake is thrilled to be involved with Madison Bikes, where he hopes to contribute in efforts to improve the infrastructure of our great city. Having traveled all over the world for Trek, Jake is inspired and excited to bring some influences to Madison to help make it the number one cycling city in the world. In his spare time he enjoys commuting by bike, trail running, playing basketball, racing cyclocross, mountain biking, paddle boarding, and water skiing.

Elysha Jones

Elysha Jones grew up in St. Louis, MO. The bicycle infrastructure there was lacking, especially if you wanted to bicycle with children, so her and her family looked for a more bike friendly city. Madison fit the bill beautifully and they have called it home now for the last 7 years. Elysha is a stay at home mom who does most of her errands by bike, that includes picking her two daughters, aged 5 and 9 up from school along with another neighbor girl who hitches a ride everyday in Elysha‘s bakfiet. She is a year round cyclist and strives to be as “car lite” as she can be.

Steph Shelton

Steph was born and raised in Racine, WI. After living in other states and serving in the Peace Corps, she returned to Wisconsin and has been living in Madison for five years. As a year-round bike commuter and a dedicated cyclocross biker, Steph believes that safe biking can and should be accessible for all Madison residents. As such, she hopes to make an impact on making year-round biking a choice for all. Steph currently holds an MS degree in Population Health and works as a Cancer Data Specialist at the UW Carbone Cancer Center.

Peter Taglia

Are you tired of the snow yet? I sure am, but nonetheless I made the best of it today: Snowshoes on the back of my fat bike, I rode the Southwest Path and Military Ridge to the Quarry Ridge trails. It was a bit of a slog on the way, but the snowshoeing was great. And on the way back I was very happy to see that the city had already brushed clear much of the SW Path! In the past, snow clearing on the weekend has always been an issue, but it seems like things are getting better. Thanks to the city staff who were out there on the trail today!

Before we get started with the events for the week, a quick reminder that we have a survey about Winter Bike Week out there. If you haven’t taken it already, we’d appreciate your response. Your feedback will help us plan for future events and make improvements. Survey link.

This week

Monday starts with a public input meeting on the Wilson St corridor study. This meeting was originally scheduled during the worst of the polar vortex and had to be rescheduled. Making Wilson Street a bike-friendly place, with protected infrastructure that works for people of all ages and abilities, has been a key advocacy priority for Madison Bikes. Please consider coming to the meeting to see what the city has on offer. Madison Municipal Building, Room 215, 7pm.

On Tuesday, it’s election day. Primaries are taking place for Madison mayor and for several common council and school board seats. If you want to know what the mayoral candidates have to say about biking and transportation, read their answers to our candidate questionnaire. Information on how and where to vote is on the City Clerk’s website: https://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/elections-voting

On Wednesday evening, the Madison Bikes advocacy committee is scheduled to meet. We’re having to meet at a different location this month, and so if you’re interested in attending, please send an email to harald@madisonbikes.org.

On Thursday, Middleton’s Pedestrian, Bike, and Transit Committee is meeting. The most exciting on the agenda is an update on the Northeast Mendota Trail, slated to provide a safe alternative to Century Ave. An engineering firm has created preliminary plans, and Middleton City Planner Mark Opitz will provide updates on this. Middleton Council Chambers, 6:30pm.

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.

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Italicize the day of the week and bold the important words so that people can skim the post: On Monday, the Separated Bike Lane Commission discusses banning cars from University Ave on odd-numbered days of the month.

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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.

Phew, what a week! Winter Bike Week this year had a total of 29 different events — and what felt like 29 different kinds of challenging winter weather. Thanks to everyone who participated anyway, and of course a big thanks to all Madison Bikes board members and volunteers, and to our partners in making this happen. We’d appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes and complete our Winter Bike Week survey.

This week

With Winter Bike Week over, the Madison Bikes events committee is meeting on Monday to plan our the rest of the year. If you’re interested in being involved, join us at Rockhound Brewing Company on Park Street at 6pm.

The primary elections for mayor and common council in Madison are on February 19, and early voting has started already. Young, Gifted and Black are hosting the “People’s Mayoral Forum: Getting Past the Politics” at the Central Library at 6:30pm on Monday. As a reminder, you can also learn more about the candidates’ positions on transportation and biking through the Madison Bikes candidate questionnaire.

And of course winter and Monday means that the MEATHead ride is happening. Meet at 7pm at Ford’s Gym for a social loop around Lake Monona.

On Wednesday, the city’s Transportation Commission will meet. The most exciting item on the agenda: The approval of plans for Bassett Street between Dayton St and West Washington Ave. Bassett Street is one of the few locations where we have built a physically protected bike lane in the past few years. However, it only extends for a very short stretch for now. As far as we know, the proposal in front of the commission now extends the protected lane for another two blocks. The meeting is at the Madison Municipal Building and starts at 5pm.

On Saturday, you’ll have the opportunity to test ride some Surly mountain bikes at “The Farm,” a trail system west of town. And in the evening you have the chance to attend another mayoral candidate forum, at the First Unitarian Society starting at 6pm

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 our work, consider donating to Madison Bikes.

Early voting for the primary elections for Madison mayor has already started. To help voters inform their decisions, we have sent all candidates four questions related to biking and transportation:

1. Concerns about car parking have been a major obstacle when it comes to a shift in our transportation system. Removing on-street parking is often necessary to build dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes, or safer pedestrian crossings. As mayor, what would your policy be toward trading on-street parking for safer and better active transportation options?
2. As many other cities, Madison has many inequities when it comes to transportation. Poorer neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a higher proportion of people of color often lack access to good transit, safe walking and biking, or to green space. On the other hand, these are often the neighborhoods were people are least able to afford a car. How are you going to address these inequities in transportation access?
3. Forty years ago, over sixty percent of school children in the US walked or rode a bicycle to school. Today, that figure is less than ten percent. This decline in bicycling and walking and physical activity in general) has been mirrored by dramatic increases in negative health impacts for kids. What would you do to reverse this trend?
4. The percentage of people biking in Madison has been stagnating at around five percent for the past ten years. Where would you like that number to be in 2025 and how are you going to get us there? How many miles of protected bike lanes will the city have built by the end of your first term?

Read the candidates’ answers on our website: https://www.madisonbikes.org/candidate_questionnaires

Madison Bikes is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and does not endorse or oppose any candidate for political office.