Madison Bike’s International Winter Bike Day event was a resounding success, drawing around 50 enthusiastic participants despite the chilly weather! We are proud of our community of bike riders who ride in any weather, and the city staff that make it possible.
Transportation Commission’s Transit History Presentation
Illinois Central Lines (1887)
City staff will give a presentation titled, “The History and Future of Madison Transportation” at the Transportation Commission on Wednesday, February, 19, 2025 at 5:00 PM. The presentation will cover the early days of mule-drawn buses, the rise and fall of electric streetcars, and the introduction of bus services that have connected Madison’s neighborhoods over the decades.
Hugh Jass Fat Bike Race
Saturday, February 22, 2025 is the date of the Hugh Jass Bike Race in Middleton, WI, starting at 9 am. Find more information here. What to expect: Get ready for the series finale at Blackhawk!! Machine built singletrack, jump lines, groomed CX ski trails, climbs on the side of a ski hill? You won’t want to miss this one! NOTE: ONLY Fat Bikes (3.7in tire or larger) can ride this one.
Address: 10118 Blackhawk Rd, Middleton, WI 53562
2025 Spring Primary
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Last, but certainly not least, there’s a spring primary election in Wisconsin on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Check your registration here and make sure to have your voice heard at the ballot box!
Last week was a busy week for bicycling in Madison!
On Sunday, we had our last bicycle book club installment for “Killed by a Traffic Engineer.” If you missed it, you can read or listen to this story from WORT-FM to find out more information.
Book club attendees ready for the week’s presentation (h/t Harald Kleims)
There was a lot of action around the repaving/reworking of a lengthy stretch of Midvale Boulevard. Most of this was driven by the raucous public meeting from the week before. With all of the feedback and attention, the city has decided to postpone the work to spring 2026. For a nice overview and some extra context, check out this great Cap Times article.
Sun Prairie was awarded a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists. You can read the press release from Sun Prairie Moves for the details. Going from Honorable Mention in 2015 to Silver in 2025 is a great accomplishment! Congratulations to everyone involved!
In the Madison Bikes Slack, board member Craig Weinhold noted that last Tuesday the City of Madison held their first all-transportation department meeting in six years. I wonder what could have triggered that? You can watch the entire session on YouTube and maybe find out!
Design drawings sidewalk and bike path improvements at North Shore Drive and JND (City of Madison)
On Friday, celebrate International Winter Bike Day with us!
From 7-9 am: We will be at the Monona Terrace on the Cap City Trail serving up free coffee (courtesy of Cafe Domestique) and doughnuts!
From 4-6 pm: Happy hour at Working Draft (1129 E Wilson St.). Come grab a drink and hang out! Don’t forget your bicycle benefits sticker for 10% off.
For more details I guess you can look at the Facebook event, but only if you’re still clinging to a FB account. Otherwise, tough luck I guess? I’m not bitter, really!
The City has started work to redesign and rethink Mifflin Plaza. This is the underutilized area at the top of State Street, sometimes used for festivals/concerts. It also serves as an important ped, bike and bus thoroughfare. Some of the options include exploring a pedestrian mall, which would be a big shift. The schedule shows arriving at a final design plan by September. That means that now’s a good opportunity to read up on the design considerations and complete the survey.
Pretty much unrelated to anything, but I watched the 2005 film A Bittersweet Life by Kim Jee-woon and found this surprising moment. Transportation policy strife transcends borders and time!
Actual subtitles from A Bittersweet Life (2005) directed by Kim Jee-woon.
Coming Up
I’m already looking forward to Thursday, February 20 and a virtual lunch session led by Dr. Yang Tao, Director of Traffic Engineering, “Prioritizing Traffic Safety for All Road Users: D7 Virtual Lunch and Learn with Traffic Engineering.”
Alder Nasra Wehelie [D7] is excited to continue her Lunch and Learn session for this month, featuring Traffic Engineering on Thursday, February 20, from 12 to 1 p.m. Whether you drive, bike, or walk, this virtual Lunch and Learn will offer residents a unique opportunity to gain insights into traffic safety and infrastructure planning.
If you believe Jimmy the Groundhog in Sun Prairie, we’ll have an early spring. But Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania says six more weeks of winter. Depending on how you feel about cold weather and local vs national prognosticators, you can believe whichever rodent you like. Either way, it’s been an unusually dry winter, so our normal concerns about snow plowing have been mostly moot.
With a gray start to the week, it’s going to be pretty quiet as far as meetings.
The week ahead
Wednesday: Transportation Commission
You can take a look at the agenda and how to watch or participate, but the only interesting item is the quarterly traffic safety reports by the police department. There are lots of charts and numbers about how many tickets and traffic stops they’ve made in various categories. You’ll also see slides about grants, special initiatives such as safety patrols around schools, targeted enforcement, and comparisons to past quarters and years. Each quarter, the MPD also presents a detailed analysis of any traffic fatalities.
If you are a data nerd, there’s lots to work with, although sometimes the categories aren’t always useful. Why are pedestrian and bike safety tickets under “hazardous offenses”? I’ve asked that before, and I don’t even remember the full explanation, but it seems any ticket involving vulnerable users is considered a “hazardous” driving offense. These are almost entirely tickets issued to drivers for not yielding to pedestrians or bicyclists, or some other driving violation, not tickets issued to bicyclists.
Sunday: Third meeting of the book club
The third session of the book club reading “Killed by a Traffic Engineer” meets on Sunday, Feb 9, from 4-6 pm at Machinery Row.
The first session, on Jan 26, focused on community building and allowed participants to discuss initial impressions of the book and some areas of the city that need attention. The second session, on Feb 2, featured presentations from city Transportation, Traffic Engineering, and Engineering staff on city initiatives and how decisions are made on what our streets look like.
The third session, Feb 9, will focus on advocacy and what we as community members can do to help build an all ages and abilities biking city.
Speak up for what you want
During Sunday’s session with city staff, they discussed how during public meetings about road reconstructions, there are many competing interests. Sometimes even the bicyclists testifying don’t agree! There is considerable pushback to change: narrowing lanes, removing parking in favor of bike facilities, and slowing speeds. All of these changes would make walking and biking safer and more pleasant, but neighbors show up en masse to object. As bicyclists (and pedestrians and transit users), we have to be there to show support for the changes the staff has proposed. We have good city staff, but we must provide the public push to show that there is demand for these changes.
Staff mentioned two projects specifically, both of which have been mentioned in Monday updates previously and are being discussed now:
South Stoughton Rd. This is a Wisconsin DOT project, but city staff have weighed in on the side of a slower, narrower boulevard with more crossings. But many people showed up at the public meetings and completed surveys in favor of keeping the road faster and with limited access. You can comment and see information on the project – including slides and alternatives presented at the meetings – on the WisDOT project page.
Midvale Boulevard: Neighbors insist they want parking to remain on the street, but this would make it difficult to add bike lanes between Mineral Point Rd and University Ave. You can watch a recording of the public meeting that happened on Jan 30, see the schedule for a decision on this project, and provide your input via the city project page. There was also an article about the project in the Wisconsin State Journal. Midvale Blvd will be before the Transportation Commission on Feb 19.
In proud-of-Madison-bicyclists news
Lyllie Sonnemann, daughter of former Madison Bikes board member, Emily Sonnemann, has been invited to compete in the World Cyclocross Championships in Leiven, France. Wisconsin has a proud tradition of world cyclocross competitors, with Madisonian Caleb Schwartz competing in the world championships in 2020-2021 and Racine native Kaitlin Keough competing in 2019.
