This Week
On Monday at 6:30pm the city will be hosting a Vilas Park Master Plan Public Meeting (virtual, registration is required). This promises to be a real humdinger of an event, so get involved in the process to evolve one of the crown jewels of the Madison park system! Several cycling-related issues are front-and-center including whether or not Vilas Park Dr should go car-free.
On Wednesday the city’s Transportation Commission will be meeting virtually. Check out the agenda, which looks to be stacked with a little something for everyone.
The Bombay Bicycle Club has restarted a limited selection of weekend group rides for current members only, with 12 ft spacing during the rides along with other common-sense restrictions. Check your inbox for your emails from them for the details. Not quite ready for a ride with a group? Remember that BBC has a great collection of area rides with full routes and cue sheets available for your perusal and you can ride these at your leisure (although there’s nothing leisurely about many of those routes!).
Capital Off Road Pathfinders (CORP) is organizing the CORP 100: a self-supported, fund-raising ride challenge that runs through the end of August. “Choose from routes of 100 km or 100 miles to experience as much Madison-area trail as possible. From urban jump lines & pump tracks, to old school tech-gnar, this ride connects nine different trail networks with a mix of urban bike paths, gravel and scenic driftless roads.” For all the details, check out their event page.
Finally, it’s worth echoing the advice and sentiment on the ongoing protests from this week’s Bike Madison email:
Please expect and respect disruptions to bicycle routes as people gather to exercise their first amendment rights here in Madison. If your route is blocked, please wait respectfully or take a different route to your destination.
Last Week
There was a discussion on the Facebook community about how the iconic Merrimac Ferry was closed to cyclists and pedestrians due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. As Robbie observed, this was problematic as it is part of the public state highway system and there were no similar restrictions on motorcycles or convertibles. The good news is that after a brief email campaign and investigation, the ferry has been reopened to everyone! Nice work!
BCycle opened up a new station on the near east side last week. This week also marks the one year anniversary of the Madison BCycle fleet going all-electric! Might be a good time to revisit one of our most popular blog posts ever, detailing first impressions of those bikes. How have those bikes been working for you?
The Bike Fed posted an in-depth article about how the “Safe Routes Partnership no longer emphasizes enforcement and instead challenges us to improve our forms of engagement.” Definitely worth the read.
Next Week
Put it on your calendar! On Monday, June 29 the city will host #5 in the series of meetings about the Wilson Street Corridor Study (virtual, registration required). According to the page, “Addendum 2” to the interim recommendation is due to be published on Tuesday, June 23 (that’s this week!); many of us will be taking a close look and discussing it in advance of next week’s meeting. One likely spot for that conversation will be our Facebook group. You might also be interested in revisiting some of our previous coverage of the Wilson Street project here and here.
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.