Madison Bikes

To start this week’s post off, I’d like to highlight an important public meeting happening tonight at 5:00 PM in room 201 in the City County Building at 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The City of Madison’s Transportation Policy and Planning Board (TPPB) is going to take up the discussion on winter bike-way maintenance. Although the city is generally good about clearing paths on weekday mornings after snow storms, there is a lot of room for improvement regarding winter bike-way maintenance, especially with respect to on-street bike lanes, and evening and weekend path clearing.

Previously, a subcommittee of the Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Motor Vehicle Commission (PBMVC) drafted a list of Bicycle Facility Maintenance recommendations that included many related to winter maintenance. Read the legistar file here for more information about the subcommittee and its recommendations. Many of the recommendations were based on responses collected to a winter bike survey that identified major issues including with on-street bike lanes and the windrows at path/street crossings.

This meeting presents another opportunity for the public to comment on winter bike-way maintenance. Since this is the first time the new TPPB is going to hear about this item, it is important to show up and let them know about any issues you regularly encounter while riding throughout the winter, and to support the recommendations of the Bicycle Facility Maintenance Workgroup. Again, this meeting is happening tonight at 5:00 PM in room 201 of the City County Building. Read the full agenda here.

Last Week:

On Thursday, the second Public Involvement Meeting (PIM) for the Wilson St. Corridor Study happened, and at the meeting several alternatives were presented for three sections of the corridor: From Broom St. to Henry St., from Henry St. to Butler St., and from Butler St. to Blair St. Read about the study and the proposed alternatives here.

For those of us who don’t follow the Madison Bikes Facebook page, there was a good discussion of recommendations for warm winter gloves. Winter biking can be fun and rewarding, and staying warm and comfortable is an important part of making that happen.

Also last week, the city opened up a survey to help with the development of an East-West Bus Rapid Transit corridor. The survey is open to everyone, including those who only ride the bus once in a blue moon or never at all.

This Week:

Today, Monday, December 10, there is the meeting of the TPPB mentioned at the top of this post. Other than the discussion about winter bike-way maintenance, the board will be looking at the Wilson St. and Bassett St. corridor studies. Although they are being considered as one agenda item, they are in fact separate studies being done in conjunction with separate projects. There will also be a discussion of transit priorities. Here, again, is the agenda for this meeting. The meeting starts at 5:00 PM in room 201 of the City County Building at 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Madison.

Tonight is also a MEAThead ride. This ride starts every Monday at 7:00 PM November through March regardless of the weather. Tonight’s ride is the FreshMEAT ride, so if you’re new to MEAThead rides or just want to boost your winter riding skills, the ride starts at Ford’s Gym, 2114 Winnebago St in Madison. Read more about the group on their Facebook page.

Tuesday, December 11, Madison will be having its second Public Information Meeting (PIM) regarding the Bassett St. corridor study. This PIM will feature discussion and alternatives of the Bassett St. corridor from University Ave. to the railroad crossing, and will include the 400 block of W. Wilson St. due to the fact that it is currently used for the Broom-Bassett one way couplet. Read more about this project on the City’s website.

Wednesday, December 12, Madison’s Transportation Commission (TC) will have a meeting at 4:30 PM in room 201 of the City County Building. Read the full agenda here. At this meeting, the commission will discuss changes to Metro service on Routes 37 and 38. They will also discuss the quarterly traffic report by Madison Police. There will also be a discussion about Pleasant View Rd. between Mineral Point Rd. and US-14/University Ave.

Also Wednesday, at 6:00 PM in room 302 of Madison Central Library at 201 W. Mifflin St., the city will have its Kickoff Open House on the Madison East-West Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Planning Study. This will be a great opportunity to connect with City leaders and talk about the BRT planning study. Read more about this Kickoff Open House at the event website.

Thursday, December 13, is Madison’s Greener Smarter Future, a presentation and discussion led by Mayor Paul Soglin, Transportation Director Tom Lynch, and Traffic Engineer Yang Tao. They will be discussing the future of Madison’s transportation network and how we can achieve a greener, smarter transportation network. Read more about the event here. The meeting will take place starting at 6:30 PM in room 260 of the newly renovated Madison Municipal Building at 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Saturday, December 15, either race your fat bike in Verona for the season opener of the Big Cheese race series. Or join BiciClub Latino de Madison for the Tour de la Familia Latina. The ride starts at 1:00 PM. As of this posting, no further event information is available, so keep an eye out for that, but the ride usually starts at Olin Park near the west shore of Lake Monona.

Madison Bikes thanks you so much for your support over the past year! As 2018 comes to a close, we’re kicking off the Madison Bikes 2019 membership drive.

If you want to sign up for a new membership or a renew an existing membership, simply complete this form.

If you’ve already got your membership for 2019 in place, for example, maybe you got your membership as part of your ticket to the annual party this past September, consider making an extra donation to support Madison Bikes.

We are currently setting our 2019 budget. We run a lean operation, but just to keep the lights on costs us approximately $1000 for the year. Your membership dues and donations support this along with all the fun stuff like Winter Bike Week, Wisconsin Bike Week activities, our Ride the Drive presence, annual members party, and the Winter Bike Fashion Show. Madison Bikes is an inclusive organization and does not limit participation to dues-paying members. Our Board and committee members are all-volunteer; together they donate over a thousand working hours throughout the year. 

Thank you for your gift and being part of the Madison Bikes mission.

This post comes just before the second Public Information Meeting about the 300 block of W. Wilson St. At this meeting there will be a presentation of alternatives for the 300 block reconstruction project that is due to be completed in the summer of 2019. This public meeting will be on Thursday, December 6, 7 pm in Room 260 of the Madison Municipal Building. After this meeting, City Engineering will present the proposed alternatives to the Transportation Commission along with whatever modifications they made to the alternatives based on public input acquired during and after the meeting. After the project clears the Transportation Commission, it will likely go to the Board of Public Works, and finally to the Common Council for approval.

If you live, work, or bike in or around West Wilson Street and want to see conditions for people on bikes improve, consider attending the meeting on Thursday night.

Figure 1: Bike routing and connectivity issues between the Capital City Trail and downtown.

Although this post will be primarily about the 300 block of West Wilson Street, this will tie in with a series of posts about the importance of the West Wilson Street corridor, the Bassett-Broom one-way couplet that uses the 400 block of West Wilson, and how we can improve the connection between Law Park and the downtown area. The next post will focus on the reconstruction project of N. Bassett St. between Dayton St. and W. Washington Ave. There will be a public meeting on Tuesday, December 11 where alternatives to that project will be presented.

Ever since the early history of Madison, the Monona lake shore has always been well separated from the isthmus. The railroad was the first barrier erected that separates the lake from downtown. In the 1960s, the John Nolen Drive causeway was constructed and another pedestrian barrier was created between downtown and the lake. It is somewhat ironic that the causeway got named after the famous city planner who harshly criticized the railroad that it follows as being “inconvenient and ugly”, saying about the rail line, “their tracks occupy what was a particularly beautiful stretch of lake front, crossing an arm of the lake in South Madison.”[1]

The Capital City Bike Path, also known as the Isthmus Bike Path, greatly improved the pedestrian access to the lake shore, but there were still significant connection issues limiting access, primarily caused by the presence of U.S. highway 151 cutting its way through the isthmus. In fact, U.S. 151 must be crossed if one wishes to access the Monona lake shore from the southwest of Blair Street.

Presently there are four pedestrian ways across this major barrier: A crossing at North Shore Drive, a crossing at Broom Street, the Monona Terrace bike elevator, and crossing at the John Nolen/Williamson/Wilson/Blair intersection more commonly known as “the hairball”. For someone desiring to bike downtown to the Capitol coming from the south, the Broom to Wilson Street connection is the most desirable option, however inconvenient due to the nature of the on-street connections. This connectivity issue from the south to the downtown area was highlighted in the November 8th Public Information Meeting for the 300 Block W. Wilson St. project, as seen in Figure 1, above.

From the project’s web page, the City plans on resurfacing and replacing utilities on the 300 block of W. Wilson St. in the summer of 2019. This project presents a great opportunity to improve biking along the isthmus and to improve bike access to the downtown core. The current conditions of the 300 block of W. Wilson are a 40 ft. curb-to-curb width occupied by two inbound lanes and one outbound lane (Figure 2). Currently the only bike accommodations on this block are faded sharrows painted on the outbound lane.

Figure 2: Current condition of the 300 block of W. Wilson St. A person can be seen riding in the outbound direction.

From the same corridor study mentioned above, the City found that the traffic volumes for Wilson St. “have been relatively consistent for over 40 years”(Wilson St. PIM presentation, p. 6). During the course of the study, the city found an average daily traffic (ADT) volume of 3660 vehicles per day (VPD) inbound from Broom St. and an ADT of 4650 VPD outbound, with a majority of that traffic going to or coming from the John Nolen Drive causeway (Figure 3). The story is similar at the Hamilton/Henry/Wilson intersection with a clear majority of inbound traffic using Hamilton St. (3750 VPD) and a clear majority of outbound traffic using W. Wilson St. (4400 VPD).

Figure 3: Traffic Movement Volumes at the Broom St. intersection with W. Wilson St.

These usage trends would seem to indicate that we should rethink how W. Wilson works, at least on the 300 block. Using the available 40 ft. curb-to-curb width currently in existence, the 300 block of W. Wilson St. could be converted to a two lane street with 6 ft. bike lanes and 2 ft. buffers on both sides (Figure 4). This would substantially improve the bikeability of this corridor as apart from fully separated bike lanes similar to what N. Bassett St. got last year, buffered bike lanes provide a substantial improvement to the comfort and feeling of safety riders experience while using the facility. We have yet to see what alternatives will be proposed at the meeting, but we hope there will be at least one option that includes high quality bike lanes and an improvement to the Broom/Wilson intersection.

Figure 4: What safe and comfortable bike facilities could look like for the 300 block of W. Wilson St. as mocked up in Streetmix.

Further improvements to the connection between the Capitol square and the Capital City Trail to the south should reconsider how W. Wilson St. is used Hamilton and Blair. For one, the Judge Doyle Square project, which includes a Bicycle Resource Center, will be best accessed via this corridor. There is also a planned pedestrian/bicycle bridge over John Nolen Drive east of the Monona Terrace which will intersect with W. Wilson St. just west of the King/Weber/Wilson intersection (Figure 5), which is currently a one-way only for all vehicle traffic. Finally, since topography is a legitimate concern for people riding bikes, it is important to note that the grade of W. Wilson St. from the south is far more favorable than Hamilton St., as seen in Figure 6. This would seem to suggest that allowing eastbound bicycle access on Wilson St. between King St. and Hamilton St. would benefit people wishing to access downtown by bike greatly.

Figure 5: The easement for the future pedestrian/bicycle bridge over John Nolen can be seen just to the right of the new building at 151 E. Wilson St.

In the future, the city is considering constructing a bike path connection on the north side of the railroad between Broom St. and Hamilton St., however this does not address the need for a bike facility on W. Wilson St. itself. For one, it neglects people wanting to bike who are inbound on W. Wilson St. from west of Broom St. It also neglects to consider bicyclists who reside on the 300 block, and any visitors they may have. Finally, since this is still in the conceptual stage, it would not provide any improvements to downtown access for many years, while improvements to W. Wilson could happen much sooner.

Figure 6: Comparison of average grade of S. Hamilton St. between Wilson St. and Main St. with the average grade of W. Wilson St. between S. Hamilton and Martin Luther King Blvd.

Bibliography

1: Nolen, John, 1869-1937, Madison : a model city, 1911

The update last week may have been a bit premature to announce the snow, but now it is here. That is no reason not to get involved this week, just add a few more layers, like you learned at the Winter Bike Fashion Show. There are a lot of ways to get involved: 2 opportunities for advocacy, 2 committee meetings in one, 2 social rides, 2 other social events, and a Cyclocross race.

Monday

Meathead ride departs from Ford’s Gym (2114 Winnebago St) tonight at 7pm.

Tuesday

It’s a committee meeting extravaganza! Events and Communications committees will be joining forces to plan out the events for 2019, and get the ball rolling on some of our winter events. Everyone is welcome. Meeting will be at Rockhound Brewery (444 S Park St) and starts at 5:30 pm.

Wednesday

The Madison Area Transportation Planning Board (the MPO) will be receiving a presentation on the Fish Hatchery Rd project in Fitchburg. The MPO does have some say over the plans, and they have adopted a Complete Streets policy, so maybe we can get them to make the design better for those traveling along and across the road by foot or bicycle. The meeting will be at the Water Utility Bldg, 119 E Olin Ave, at 6:30 pm.

Thursday

Wilson Street Public Information Meeting
Madison Municipal Building Board Room 7 – 9 pm

This will be the 2nd meeting where alternatives will be presented for feedback. This is a really important meeting for people that care about bike accommodations to attend. The first meeting (focused on goals and objectives of the project) was attended primarily by neighbors that are focused on speeding cars, parking, and street trees; there was not good representation of the many people that would value a comfortable bike connection. Please attend this meeting if you are able.

We worked really hard to try to get eastbound lanes on E Wilson to facilitate access in this corridor. The Board of Public Works and the Council passed plans for the reconstruction of E Wilson without those lanes, but the resolution it include a guarantee that there would be safe and comfortable accommodations for all modes in entire corridor by the time the Judge Doyle Square was opened, including the Bike Center. So speak up at this meeting about the need for have two-way bike traffic.

This is from a budget amendment (the city is going through its budget process right now), so this a quick heads up. Here’s the language from the budget:

Wilson Street, from Broom Street to Henry Street, is scheduled for reconstruction in 2019. The City of Madison will use this opportunity to study the full Wilson Street corridor from Broom Street to Blair Street and how it functions for all modes of transportation. The first public involvement meeting on Thursday November 8 will present existing conditions as well as goals and objectives for the corridor. The second public involvement meeting, scheduled for Thursday December 6 will review alternatives for the corridor.

Friday

Sunny Social: A Conversation on Clean Energy will return Friday, December 7th at 6:00 pm at the EVP Coffee West in Madison hosted by Wisconsin Beyond Coal. They will be enjoying appetizers, meeting each other and talking about Madison’s electric sector and ways we can better advocate for clean energy!

The event a few months ago on the East Side was so popular, folks on the West Side were requesting a repeat! Kids and families are a huge part of the team, and so they are welcome at this event. There will be activities for people of all ages to enjoy! RSVP at https://bit.ly/2DFK2as

Revolution is having their 4th Annual Chili Cook Off and will be featuring some of their favorite winter products. Bikes, gear and chili! This will be part of the Atwood Winnebago Winter Festival.

The Winter Festival is a tremendous night where the Atwood Winnebago neighborhood comes alive with holiday cheer. Shop & dine local and help support two tremendous organizations: Underdog Pet Rescue of Wisconsin, Inc. and Operation Fresh Start.
See Facebook event for more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/336352173824000/

Saturday

Santa Cycle Rampage Madison Get your Santa suit (or any holiday suit) ready and join in for the Santa Cycle Rampage Madison community event at 9 am. Check out the link for more information.

2018 USA Cycling Midwest Cyclocross Championships (13 State Regional Championship)
Pre-Reg. and discount closes at midnight Wednesday December 8th. Race Reg. Beer, Awards, Warm Up, will be located at The Nitty Gritty, only 100 yards from Start/Finish. Kids race happening at: Noon! All kids receive an award! Dress for the weatherAll registered racers will be included in a raffle for prizes from our various sponsors!!!

What? No snow?

(Your intrepid weekly-update reporter is in California this week, so I have only remote reports about the weather, so forgive me if I get that wrong.)

With the first major storm of the year becoming somewhat of a bust, and our Winter Bike Fashion Show behind us, we are fully into winter bicycling season. For some, that may mean putting your bike in the basement or on a trainer in the living room to pedal during a Netflix binge. But we hope you will get out there and embrace the season. There are lots of knowledgeable people on our Facebook page to help you stay warm, dry, and safe during the cold, dark months ahead.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of important meetings coming up. While it may not be peak biking season, it is the season to plan what will be built next year (or beyond.)

So let’s take a look at the calendar for the coming week.

The week ahead

Monday

Bike Fitchburg is having a community open house. Opens at 5:30 pm, program starts at 6:30. Refreshments provided. This meeting is intended to help familiarize municipal planners and elected officials on the Bike Friendly Community application and our work in supporting communities to submit an application in 2019. Fitchburg Public Library, 5530 Lacy Road.

Bassett Street Corridor Study Public Involvement Meeting. 7:00-8:30 pm at the Madison Senior Center, 330 W Mifflin St. The city will be rebuilding Bassett St because of some water main problems. But they want to take a look at making some improvements, especially where it intersects with the 400 block of W Wilson St. As the only street connecting Johnson and University directly to John Nolen Dr –⁠ and the Lake Monona Path –⁠ negotiating the last block of Bassett, the sweep onto Wilson, and the crossing of John Nolen Dr can be a nerve-wrecking experience.

This meeting is to discuss goals and objectives of the project. Following very quickly will be a meeting on the alternatives, which will be December 11, also at the Madison Senior Center.

Finally for Monday, we have some fun. The MEAThead ride has started up again. A no-drop loop of Lake Monona that leaves from Ford’s Gym every Monday at 7:00 pm from November through March regardless of weather conditions. That’s the way to stay active!

Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is the day non-profits remind you to send them some money in the midst of all the holiday spending. While Madison Bikes hasn’t made a big Giving Tuesday push, we’d be thrilled if you chose to send us a few bucks. We are an all volunteer organization, but there are still bills to pay, like to keep this website going. We are also trying to do some professional development for our board, so they know best practices for 21st century biking infrastructure. We join national organizations to see what others are doing and bring ideas home. You can donate to Madison Bikes this year and support our work.

Wednesday

The Transportation Commission is meeting on Wednesday at 5:00 pm in Room 354 of the City-County Bldg, and there is one item of interest to bicyclists, although it’s not very good news. Because of the state law that prohibits using eminent domain to acquire land needed to build pedestrian and bicycle facilities (we still don’t know who inserted that language into the budget in 2017), there will be a discontinuous path running next to Pleasant View Rd. The TC will receive a presentation on the plans for the road and then approve the geometrics (including the partial path.) If you would like to see the slides, you can access them here. You can also attend the meeting or watch it streaming on your computer.

Coming up

Bus Rapid Transit may not directly be a bicycle issue but we all benefit from improved transit. How the road is allocated and integrating bicycling into the road along with BRT, as well as making sure the stations and vehicles are bike-friendly is important. Roll-on/roll-off bikes on buses, anyone? Level boarding could make that possible, and many cities allow it.

The first public meeting about BRT is December 12, 6:00 pm at the Central Library, and there is already a website to learn more about BRT and keep up.

The Madison Area Transportation Planning Board (the MPO) will be receiving a presentation on the Fish Hatchery Rd project in Fitchburg at their December 5 meeting. The MPO does have some say over the plans, and they have adopted a Complete Streets policy, so maybe we can get them to make the design better for those traveling along and across the road by foot or bicycle. The meeting will be at the Water Utility Bldg, 119 E Olin Ave, at 6:30 pm. More on that next week.

ICYMI – what we are talking about on Facebook

The bike racks at Whole Foods are sub-optimal

Robbie talks about how roads are intentionally built to facilitate speeding

Madison police officers don’t ticket dangerous traffic offenses committed right in front of them

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It’s a holiday week: On Thursday, many people will celebrate Thanksgiving, and on Friday it’s Ho-Chunk Day. So there aren’t many other events happening this week.

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Let’s start with a quick recap from Saturday’s Winter Bike Fashion Show. About 100 people came to the High Noon Saloon, which I think makes it the biggest show so far! Our MC, Luis “LuckyVoy” Martinez of local LatinX radio station Digital 206, presented our “models,” that is Madison area winter riders of all varieties. Models shared their wisdom of how to keep riding in the winter: To wear or not to wear goggles (and how to keep them from fogging up), how to turn a thrift store sweater into leg warmers, how a pair of 1950s army surplus wool pants are the best piece of gear, whether you can use studded tires even when there isn’t ice and snow, and many more. Meanwhile in front of the High Noon Saloon, Madison Metro had parked a full-size city bus so that people could practice putting their bike on the bus rack. At the end of the show, some lucky attendees won great door prizes, courtesy of Saris and Planet Bike. Stay tuned for more pictures and maybe some video footage from the event! Thanks to everyone who came to the event, and to the people who made the show happen! A special shout-out goes to Pepe, our events committee chair, who was unfortunately not able to be there on Saturday.

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This week

While not much is happening this week, Madison Bikes never rests: Our board meets this Monday, and we’re excited to get to meet the people who are running for our board of directors. We’ll host a speed-dating session with them to get to know them better and give them a chance to learn more about what it means to be on the board of an all-volunteer bike advocacy organization.

We’re not the only bike advocacy group meeting on Monday: Bike Fitchburg is having their monthly meeting tonight at the Fitchburg Public Library. I imagine there will be some celebrating, as just last week the Fitchburg council approved a budget amendment that allows the construction of shoulders on Whalen Road between Seminole and Mutchler. Bike Fitchburg put a lot of work into making that happen.

On Saturday, head to Waterloo for some cyclocross racing: The Battle of Waterloo is starting at 8 am.

And on Sunday, Bombay Bicycle Club is hosting their last ride of the season, the “Frezaroo 26.”

One thing to put on your calendar early: On Monday, November 26 (a week from now), there will be a first public input meeting about the Bassett Street corridor study. It’s always good to have some people from the bike community at these meetings. Seven pm at the Madison Senior Center (330 W Mifflin).

Don’t forget, you can find times, locations, and more details of these meetings and events on the Madison Bikes Community Calendar. If you’d like to submit an event, send it to Grant@MadisonBikes.org

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Last Week:

In case you missed it, there was an election on Tuesday. Thank you to everyone who participated in the democratic process. Every vote mattered!

Yesterday was also Veteran’s Day. To our veterans, thank you for your service and your sacrifice.

Over night on Thursday, Madison had its fist snowfall of 2018! It couldn’t have come at a better time since this Saturday, November 17^th, is the Madison Bikes Winter Fashion Show! This ALL AGES event will be at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wisconsin from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM. FREE! Learn about ways you can keep riding in the colder weather months, and come share your winter biking stories! Further reasons to attend: We’ll have a Metro bus for you to practice putting your bike on the bus, and we’ll have great door prizes courtesy of our supporters Saris and Planet Bike!

Sometime over the weekend the repairs to the sinkhole near Wingra Creek were completed and Olin-Turville Court has been reopened to traffic! To those of us who use this route to commute it was fortuitous that a convenient detour was available and many learned of a pedestrian bridge they had not known about previously!

In other good trail news: The Cap City Trail is officially open again.

And finally, the City of Madison posted a job opportunity for Pedestrian Bicycle Administrator. Read more about that full time position here and spread the word to potential applicants.

This Week:

Today, Monday, November 12, there is a meeting of the City of Madison’s Transportation Policy and Planning Board (TPPB). This board deals with policy surrounding the city’s transportation issues including biking. On this week’s agenda is an update to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan. Also on the agenda is an item pertinent to winter bike commuters, and that’s on Winter Bike and bike lane usage characteristics. Read the full agenda here.

Tuesday, November 13, is the Madison Bikes Communications Committee Meeting. This meeting will start at 5:30 PM at the Stiftskeller in the Memorial Union on Langdon Street.

Wednesday, November 14, is the Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee Meeting. This meeting will start at 6:00 PM at Bendyworks located at 106 E Doty St #200.

Friday, November 16, is the Capital Off Road Pathfinders (CORP) annual meeting. This meeting will take place at Motorless Motion on West Washington Avenue starting at 5:30 PM. There will be some routine business at the start of the meeting, but after that there will be news of all the work done over the past year and plans for 2019. Food and drink will be provided, and there will be an award given to Volunteer of the Year. Read about the event on Facebook here.

Saturday, November 17 is annual Madison Bikes Winter Bike Fashion Show, as mentioned earlier. This all-ages event will take place at the High Noon Saloon starting at 1 PM and going until 4. This is a free event and everyone is invited to come share their winter biking experiences and hopefully learn from others to improve their winter biking experience! Read more about this event here.

Before the Winter Bike Fashion Show, join BiciClub Latino de Madison for the Tour de la Familia Latina. ¡Le hacemos frente al frío! This ride will start at 11 AM and end at the High Noon Saloon to join the Winter Bike Fashion Show. Read more about this event here.

Also on Saturday is the Mayor’s Neighborhood Conference 2018. Bike Fed Program Director (and Madison Bikes board member) Baltazar will be teaming up with Madison Bike board member Harald to talk about biking and walking, and inequities in Madison. This is an annual conference that brings together community activists to form new connections and to learn about the great things happening throughout the city. Registration is $10 for the day and includes lunch, snacks, and a reception. Fee waivers are provided to City of Madison residents. Read about the event here on the city’s web page, or on their Facebook event page.

Sunday, November 18, is Cranksgiving, hosted by Revolution Cycles. This event, which originated in New York City in 1999 is part alley cat, part scavenger hunt, and part food drive. The event starts at 10 AM behind Revolution Cycles on Atwood Avenue. Plan to bring $15 to $30 for food, your bike, a bag, and a lock. Read all about the event here.

Please go vote on Tuesday, if you haven’t already.

You can find more information about polling places and what is on your ballot here.

This week

Monday

Events committee will be meeting to put the final touches on our Winter Bike Fashion Show 6 pm at Rockhound Brewery.

Tuesday

Go Vote!

Roll to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 6 with a free daily pass from Madison BCycle! Promo codes will be posted on all kiosks on Election Day as well as Madison BCycle social media accounts.

Communications committee meeting has been moved back to next week so that everyone is able to go vote.

Thursday

N. Fish Hatchery Rd. Reconstruction –⁠ Public Meeting
Leopold Elementary School 5:30 pm
Join the City of Fitchburg and project consultants for a presentation and discussion of the preliminary corridor design for the north Fish Hatchery Road reconstruction. The preliminary design will be informed by data and design analysis, and community input to-date. Feedback on the preliminary design will be used to inform the final design, which will be presented in spring 2019. The north Fish Hatchery Road reconstruction is anticipated to begin in late 2019, with the bulk of construction occuring during 2020.

Wilson Street Public Information Meeting
Madison Municipal Building Board Room 7 – 9 pm

We worked really hard to try to get eastbound lanes on E Wilson to facilitate access in this corridor. The Board of Public Works and the Council passed plans for the reconstruction of E Wilson without those lanes, but the resolution it include a guarantee that there would be safe and comfortable accommodations for all modes in entire corridor by the time the Judge Doyle Square was opened, including the Bike Center. So speak up at this meeting about the need for have two-way bike traffic.

This is from a budget amendment (the city is going through its budget process right now), so this a quick heads up. Here’s the language from the budget:

Wilson Street, from Broom Street to Henry Street, is scheduled for reconstruction in 2019. The City of Madison will use this opportunity to study the full Wilson Street corridor from Broom Street to Blair Street and how it functions for all modes of transportation. The first public involvement meeting on Thursday November 8 will present existing conditions as well as goals and objectives for the corridor. The second public involvement meeting, scheduled for Thursday December 6 will review alternatives for the corridor.

Saturday

2018 Sun Prairie Cup Cyclocross Race
This is your chance to hoist ‘The Cup’! The Brazen Dropouts are excited to host the 2018 Sun Prairie Cup Cyclocross Race! They’ll be bringing another fun, fast, and technical course (perhaps some new features?!). The Nitty Gritty will be on-site cooking up hot food, and there might just be some beer on the hill (for those of age). Additionally, a kids race will be held in the middle of the day.
http://www.brazendropouts.org/sun-prairie-cup/

November MadTown Unity Ride
10 am – 1 pm Meet at Villager Mall on Park Street

Upcoming

Nov 17, 1:00 pm at the High Noon — Our Winter Bike Fashion Show is fast approaching. We are looking for volunteers to help with various aspects of the event. And there is still time to apply to be a model for the show. Email Pepe@MadisonBikes.org is you would like to help out or be a model.

Don’t forget, you can find times, locations, and more details of these meetings and events on the Madison Bikes Community Calendar. If you’d like to submit an event, send it to Grant@MadisonBikes.org

Current intersection of Fish Hatchery and McKee Rd

Although road construction projects may seem to be wrapping up for the year, we now have to keep an eye out for what is going to be built next year. We can’t wait until the last minute to make sure there are safe and comfortable facilities for all users, so make sure to take a look at some of the upcoming meetings. Your voice at these early meetings are very important, but we’ll keep you posted on what’s up.

Although Election Day isn’t until November 6, you can vote NOW at any city library, the Clerk’s office, and both Memorial Union and Union South. Your vote is very important. We need people in office who will make sure that users of all modes of transportation are safe and have full access to everywhere they need to go. To find out hours for early voting, where you vote, or what’s on the ballot, check out the City Clerk’s website (assuming you live in Madison.)

Coming up with week

Monday the Transportation Policy and Planning Board meets at 5:00 pm in Room 201 of the City-County Building. Of interest is the Milwaukee Street Special Area Plan. The transportation overview can be found on page 4, with full transportation recommendations starting on page 18.

Tuesday Dane County will hold a public information meeting at 5:00 pm in the Westport Town Hall, 5387 Mary Lake Rd, Waunakee, on the Hwy M segment between Hwy Q and Blue Gill Dr –⁠ that’s almost to Hwy 113. This segment covers the top of Lake Mendota, so this will be an important project if you want to ride around the big lake. This is the first meeting on this project, so no decisions are being made at this time, but the announcement of the meeting includes the following: “Bike lanes, shared-use facilities and transit routes are also being considered throughout the length of this project.”

Also on Tuesday, the Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee will meet at 6:00 pm at Bendy Works, 106 E Doty St, 2^nd floor. If you want to help us on our strategies to improve the bike infrastructure in Madison, or if you have any other projects you want to work on, come join us.

Upcoming events and meetings:

A little farther out in time, but things you will want to mark on your calendar:

Nov 8, 5:30 pm at Leopold Elementary School, 2602 Post Rd, will be the second community meeting to get public input on the reconstruction of North Fish Hatchery Rd in Fitchburg. This is a chance to tell oth the city of Fitchburg and the County that we need safer facilities for bicyclists on this road. And it would be nice if it was possible to safely and comfortably cross the road by bike or foot, even if it’s just to grab the bus or get going the right way on your bike.

Also Nov 8 will be a meeting about plans for Wilson St from Blair to Broom. We worked really hard to try to get eastbound lanes on E Wilson to facilitate access in this corridor. The Board of Public Works and the Council passed plans for the reconstruction of E Wilson without those lanes, but the resolution it include a guarantee that there would be safe and comfortable accommodations for all modes in entire corridor by the time the Judge Doyle Square was opened, including the Bike Center. So speak up at this meeting about the need for have two-way bike traffic.

This is from a budget amendment (the city is going through its budget process right now), so this a quick heads up. Here’s the language from the budget:

Wilson Street, from Broom Street to Henry Street, is scheduled for reconstruction in 2019. The City of Madison will use this opportunity to study the full Wilson Street corridor from Broom Street to Blair Street and how it functions for all modes of transportation. The first public involvement meeting on Thursday November 8 will present existing conditions as well as goals and objectives for the corridor. The second public involvement meeting, scheduled for Thursday December 6 will review alternatives for the corridor.

Wilson Street Corridor Study Public Involvement Meetings:

• Thursday November 8, 7 pm, Madison Municipal Building, Room 260, 215 Martin Luther King Blvd. Madison, WI –⁠ Goals and Objectives
• Thursday December 6, 7 pm, Madison Municipal Building, Room 260, 215 Martin Luther King Blvd. Madison, WI –⁠ Alternatives

Nov 17, 1:00 pm at the High Noon — Our Winter Bike Fashion Show is fast approaching. We are looking for volunteers to help with various aspects of the event. And there is still time to apply to be a model for the show. Email Pepe@MadisonBikes.org is you would like to help out or be a model.

Don’t forget, you can find times, locations, and more details of these meetings and events on the Madison Bikes Community Calendar. If you’d like to submit an event, send it to Grant@MadisonBikes.org

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I just got back from Cambridge, MA. My significant other lives there for the year, and while I was visiting, I had the opportunity to attend a rally for safer bike infrastructure. Organized by local bike advocates Cambridge Bicycle Safety, the rally was part of a petition campaign to hold the Cambridge city council accountable to their promise of building a 20 mile network of protected bike lanes by 2023. In Madison, we don’t even have an official bike plan with measurable goals — and I think it’s showing. I’d be curious to hear what the Madison Bikes community thinks about campaigning on this issue.

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Anyways, I’m back in Madison now, and here’s what’s going on this week:

A quick reminder that you can still apply as a model for the Winter Bike Fashion Show (11/17). Deadline for applications is 11/2. So go ahead and apply, or encourage your friends to be part of this fun event!

The week starts out with Bike Fitchburg’s monthly meeting on Monday night. I suspect they’re going to talk about the Fish Hatchery Road reconstruction. The next public meeting for that project is scheduled for November 8. Based on what I have heard from the previous meeting, there is a real danger that the reconstruction is going to focus primarily on making driving easier, instead of designing a street more amenable to walking, biking, and public transit. So mark the date, or go to the Bike Fitchburg meeting tonight to learn more. 6:30-8:30pm at the Fitchburg Public Library.

On Tuesday morning, come to the Capitol Square for a press conference on the release of a report on transportation equity in Wisconsin. The Sierra Club and 1000 Friends of Wisconsin will present the report that “analyzes who is being served and who is left behind by our transportation priorities.”

On Wednesday, you’ll have to make decisions:

• You could go to the Transportation Commission meeting at 5pm (City-County Building 351). Two agenda items of interest: An updates on the Bicycle Center at Judge Doyle Square, and an update on the Wilson and Bassett Streets transportation studies. As a reminder, when the city council decided to not include bike infrastructure in the recent reconstruction of West Wilson, they promised to study the corridor and its role in the bike network more comprehensively.
• Alternatively, you could howl at the moon while riding your bike. Spoke Haven and Bombay Bicycle Club are hosting a Full Moon Ride around Lake Wingra. Meet at 6pm at Westmorland Park.
• And if you’d rather stay inside and hear about other people’s bike adventures, go to the Hawthorne Branch of the library to hear Kent Wegner talk about “Exploring the Former Ottoman Empire by Bike.” Starts at 6pm.

And on Sunday, you can watch or participate in cyclocross racing at Angell Park in Sun Prairie. The “Cross Fire” races start at 8am. Alternatively, you can support Madison’s local radio station WORT by participating in a Day of the Dead Bike ride that takes you from brewery to brewery. Starts at 11am at Parched Eagle Tap Room, and requires a $15 dollar wrist band.