We had your first real blast of bitterly-cold weather, which prompted questions on our Facebook Community group about how to cope with winter weather. We seem to get the same questions every year: gloves/mittens/cold hands, foggy glasses, studded tires, etc. But that’s OK, because the community discussion group is here for you. Ask all your winter biking questions, and someone — or many people — will have an opinion on the best way to keep biking all year.
The East High School bike repair club got some wonderful media coverage this past week. The club helps members keep their bikes in good shape and teaches skills, cooperation, budget management, as well as helps fellow students with their bikes.
You may see some familiar names in the article, including Bike Fed High School Education Manager, Ben Varick, and former Madison Bikes board member, Emily Sonnneman.
The week ahead
This week has some opportunities for input — to Madison Bikes, Traffic Engineering, and Wisconsin DOT. Plus some positive moves by the city, which is a great chance to tell your representatives that you approve. As always, your voice makes the city and region better. It’s important to speak up.
Monday: Community meeting/brainstorming session
Join us on Monday for our December Community Meeting at the Central Library on West Mifflin St, Room 301. This month we will have a brainstorming session for what you would like to see at community meetings in 2025. Last year we had a ton of great suggestions, ranging from, “Legal dos and don’t if you get into a crash,” to “Combining biking and paddling.”
This is your chance to make suggestions for future topics and activities, and maybe even have a chance to help make it happen. A talk, a ride, a movie, or any other event — it’s up to you.
Even if you don’t have any ideas, come by to meet others from the community. Maybe a great topic will pop into your head when you hear from others.
Tuesday: District 5 traffic safety meeting on Zoom
The Regent Neighborhood Association on the near west side is partnering with city Traffic Engineering to host a Q&A event about traffic safety. You can join via Zoom at 5:30 pm. Although this is geared to alder District 5, it is a chance to bring up for any concerns you might have for bicyclists and trouble spots. Traffic Engineering staff will take back your suggestions and identify future opportunities.
Tuesday: BCycle closes
BCycle normally closes on Dec 15, but because falls on a weekend, the bikes will stay out until Dec 17 to allow staff to finish removing them from the kiosks and docks. So you have a couple more days to use the BCycle before they are gone until March 15. With the acquisition of BCycle by Bicycle Transit Systems, the winter break will probably also be used to rebrand the system.
Tuesday: Autumn Ridge ribbon cutting – 2nd try
Due to the bitter cold last Thursday, the ribbon cutting for the Autumn Ridge path and overpass was delayed until this Tuesday, Dec 17, at 8:30 am. If you would like to attend, head over to 4346 Commercial Avenue. More about the path and the ribbon cutting event can be found on the project web page.
You can check out what the new path looks like via this great video Nick Davies made of his ride.
Friday deadline: Stoughton Rd input to WisDOT
We posted about this in our Facebook Community group, but here’s another reminder. The deadline to provide input on the redesign and rebuilding of the southern portion of Stoughton Rd/Hwy 51 is this Friday, Dec 20. A recording of the last public meeting on November 19, plus all the information about the project is available on the WisDOT project page.
WisDOT has divided rebuilding Stoughton Rd into two separate projects, and this survey covers the area from just south of Hwy 30 to just south of the Beltline. This portion has neighborhoods on both sides and a frontage road on both sides that provide access to the businesses and other land uses. It’s horrible to cross without a car, and the frontage roads aren’t much fun by foot or bicycle either. LaFollette High students need to cross the road if they live on the east side of Stoughton Rd. /shudder/
We have a chance to rebuild the road as an urban boulevard, and city staff are supportive of this alternative, but your input is very important. City staff is practically begging people to fill out the survey in favor of alternative 4 or 5, but many of the neighbors and businesses are supporting keeping the road as a high-speed highway with frontage roads. If you would like to see the full city presentation on this project from the Transportation Commission last week, including the current feedback results, I’ve bookmarked where to start in the meeting recording.
Neighbors may be afraid of traffic in their neighborhood if additional crossings and connections are built, as suggested for the slower-speed alternatives. And they may just like being able to jump on a fast north-south connection. But if we want connections across this road and a chance to make it more pedestrian and bicyclist friendly, we need to make our voice heard.
If the majority of public input supports a big, fast, limited-crossing option, it will be hard for the city to argue that WisDOT should reduce the cross section, lower the speed limit, and add additional street connections. Please fill out the survey before next Friday.
Also: City kicking off 20 is Plenty
The city plans to lower the speed limit on residential streets – generally streets with no center line – to 20 mph. Right now, the default speed limit is 25 mph, and while 5 mph may not seem like much, it can make a huge difference in how a street “feels” to those walking, biking, or playing in the neighborhood.
Although most people are in favor of safer, slower streets in their own neighborhood, there has been a lot of negative feedback on social media and in the press. This would be a great opportunity to send a note of support to your alder. Letting them know you like a policy or change is just as important as contacting them when there is a problem.
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.
