Northeast and West Plans in Final Stages
Progress on the Wilson St cycletrack near the convention center 8/21/2024. Photo: Chris Collins
It’s not too late for your input on Northeast/West plans
The Northeast and West Area Plans will be considered for approval in the next two weeks. These plans will be reviewed by the Plan Commission (August 26). The Plan Commission recommendations will then be considered by the Common Council when they approve the final version on September 10.
Recent changes to the Northeast Area Plan include:
- Recommendations to add additional bike connections including an off-street path on the east side of Highway 51 between East Washington Avenue and the planned Hiestand Path south of Highway 30
- A grade separated crossing for pedestrians and cyclists on the south side of the Highway 30/Stoughton Road interchange.
Recent changes to the West Area Plan include keeping the east-west connection through the Sauk Greenway. However, there are changes to the specific language that include the requirement that all options for location of the crossing are evaluated for making the east-west connection across the greenway rather than specifying the site of the crossing. The north/south path through Sauk Creek is still not in the plan but protected bike lanes on Westfield and High Point roads should make travel safer.
See the Madison Bikes August 5th Update for more details on the current status of the plans. Also see Ben Varick’s excellent discussion of these plans as they relate to students and their families from a recent Bike Fed communication.
Despite some shortcomings, there is a lot of good in these plans. Overall, they will make bicycling and walking safer, and hopefully reduce carbon footprints by encouraging active transportation. Decision makers need to hear the good along with the bad from bicyclists. The plans are going before the Planning Commission on August 26th. Click here to submit comments to this committee. The Common Council meets on September 10th. Support the West and Northeast Area Plans by writing to your Alder or the all of the members of the Common Council.
A word from the mayor
Implementing Vision Zero is a major initiative for Madison and will make transportation safer and improve quality of life here. However, it is not without financial costs. Check out this interview with the mayor about the rationale for Vision Zero and the role of federal funding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEzCFG2983g
September means caution
Be safe out there. There are more bike crashes in Madison in September than in any other month.
That’s all for this week. Enjoy the early fall weather.
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.