The Transportation Policy and Planning Board is meeting tonight. On the agenda are a proposal for the City to build a new parking garage at Villager Mall to support the Urban League’s new Black Business Hub, a presentation on Metro’s future fare collection system (spoiler: staff doesn’t recommend going fare free), and a presentation by City Engineering on the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which lays out mayor road and path projects for the next 5 years. One new addition to the TIP is the plan for a new bike path connecting Old Sauk Rd across the Beltline to the employment and commercial centers in the Deming Way area.
Buffered Bike Lanes on Whitney Way
At their meeting last week, the Transportation Commission approved a slew of Vision Zero projects, including a new buffered bike lane on Whitney Way. Currently people on bikes have to share the curb lane with parked cars, and this new design will create a new low-stress bike connection on this important north-south corridor.
Mountain Biking for High Schoolers
Do you live on the west side of Madison or in Verona and have kids in 6th-12th grade? Are they riding mountain bikes, or are curious about riding? The Madison West Area MTB Teams are holding a virtual meeting on Tuesday, May 4 at 7pm. A Zoom link is available on the Facebook event page.
Come and discover the lifelong joy of mountain biking! Our co-ed teams serve 6th-12th grade students, beginner to advanced, casual riders to racers, in the west Madison and Verona area. Join us for an introductory meeting for parents and potential athletes and learn more about the fun, confidence and community that mountain biking can provide. We work with girls and boys riding at all levels. Some of our athletes ride only at practices and maybe an adventure outing or two. Others find that they love racing with their team. We welcome all interest and ability levels!
May Bike Month Challenge
Is it really May already? It must be, as the annual Madison May Bike Month Challenge has just started. Log your rides, join a workplace team or the Madison Bikes Love to Ride group, and have fun all month! More details at https://www.lovetoride.net/madison
Dane County 2021 Road Construction
Fellow Madison Bikes update writer Ben points out some upcoming road construction projects in Dane County that are on popular bike routes:
“[This is the] the 2021 Dane County road project list: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=5e28a536e6064ae99f3592c123621c6b&entry=8
Looks like the biggest highlight overall will be whatever the M changes are from Governor Nelson to 113 are. I clicked through some of the links and nothing super-recent.A few personal highlights that might be of interest for roadies headed out exploring west and south this summer.
- Repaving County Highway B north of Oregon (very commonly used on rustic road loops through Oregon, connecting from Cap City Trail)
- Repaving County Highway A SW of Oregon between D and MM (pretty useful road connecting some alternate quieter N/S roads)
- Repaving and widening County Highway G, adding 3ft paved shoulders, between Mt. Vernon and US 151
- Repaving KP between Kross [sic] Plains @ US 14 to WI 19, slightly widened to include 1ft paved shoulder
- Both F and J S/SW of Black Earth are going to be closed to through traffic due to bridge replacements. This will be annoying, particularly as they will be concurrent closures. Detours are long and everything is hilly out there.
I can personally vouch for the dire state of pavement on many of these repaving roads so overall I’m pretty happy to see the work being done!”
Thanks, Ben! Click on the map link above to get an overview of where the projects are located.
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.