Only a few more days are left in 2024. What were some of this year’s high and low lights for biking in Madison and for Madison Bikes? Here’s my personal perspective. As always, I’m sure I’m forgetting some things! And the post is still going to be long enough that Mailchimp may cut it off.
Before we get into it, I want to thank all of you, our readers and supporters. We’re a small organization, with no paid staff. And so we rely on all of you to make biking better in Madison. You are the ones volunteering. Advocating for bikes with your alders, neighbors, or on (gasp!) NextDoor or Facebook. Writing posts for the newsletter. Reading and forwarding the newsletter. Running for our board or elected office. For showing up at our events. And for donating. We really appreciate it.
Madison Bike Week
Every Madison Bike Week is different. All of them are awesome, and 2024 was no exception. We had some worse-than usual luck with the weather, with several events early in the week getting rained out. But overall we once again we had a wonderful mix of familiar and new events. Biking with your dog. A vintage bike ride. A blessing of the bicycles. The return of Bratcakes. An e-bike expo. Infrastructure tours of the south side, east side, and Middleton. And so on. 89 events total, all organized by individuals, government agencies, community groups, or local businesses! Save the date for 2025: Madison (and Wisconsin) Bike Week will take place from June 1-8.
Infrastructure highlights
I continue to be amazed how much new infrastructure has been completed in the last few years. The city has been exceptionally successful in getting state and federal dollars. And we now see the results of this funding materialize on our streets and paths.
On the east side, the Autumn Ridge Path and overpass form a brand new low-stress link across Highway 30, connecting Sycamore Park and Milwaukee Ave. No longer do you have to contend with drivers through the Thompson Road roundabouts or the cut-through traffic on Swanton Road.
Last year we celebrated the completion of the Broom and West Wilson projects. And in 2025, work started to complete the protected cycle track along East Wilson, from Monona Terrace to the “hairball intersection” of John Nolen, Williamson, and Blair. The project didn’t quite finish in 2024, but some stretches are done already.
On the west side, phase 2 of the multi-use path along Hammersley was completed. Now you can go all the way from the crossing with the SW Path to Brookwood on a separated path.
The biggest infrastructure project of the year was the opening of Madison’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) route. There were some negative impacts on biking from that: On about two miles of East Wash, the combines parking/bike lanes disappear during rush hour. But there are also upsides: On the new BRT buses, you can roll your bike on board rather than dealing with a rack on the front of the bus. And as Mineral Point Road was redesigned for BRT buses running in the center lane, the city built a new multi-use path on the north side of the road. There was a lot of controversy about the path: Bikes were pitted against trees (even though the root cause was a decision to keep two car travel lanes on Mineral Point Road). And people had concerns about the safety of a two-way multi-use path along a corridor with many busy driveway crossings. The jury is still out: I have biked on the new path a few times (stay tuned for a video!), and I think overall its somewhat of an improvement over what was there before.
Segoe Road and Sheboygan Ave were both rebuilt this year. Segoe got a curb-protected bike lane from Regent to Sheboygan; and Sheboygan was upgraded from having no bike infrastructure at all to buffered bike lanes. We celebrated the completion of the project with district alder Bill Tishler.
Dane County Park also opened two amazing new paths this year: A new section of boardwalk connects Fish Camp County Park with Lake Kegonsa State Park. And along the shores of Lake Waubesa, a new trail connects Lake Farm and Goodland county parks.
This section is called infrastructure highlights, but there were also two major setbacks: After decades of planning and seeking funding, it looked like we were set for two trail extensions: The Cannonball Path was going to be extended from Fish Hatchery Road to the Wingra Creek Path. And the Cap City trail was finally going to extend past its current terminus on the east side and continue all the way to County Road AB/Buckeye Road. Plans were completed and approved. Funding secured. And then the Office of the Commissioner of the Railroad (OCR) shut it all down. The railroad company didn’t like the new crossings that are required for the two paths, and the OCR agreed with them. It remains to be seen how these projects can move forward in the next year.
Elections and new alliances
Pretty much every year is an election year, and 2024 was no exception. We continued our work of informing voters through candidate questionnaires and debates. This year, the Dane County executive and all county board supervisors were on the ballot.
Long-time executive and champion of many Dane County bike trails Joe Parisi resigned, and Melissa Agard and Dana Pellebon ran to become his successor. As part of the first ever Madison Housing Week, organized by the newly formed Madison Housing Coalition, the two candidates debated their approaches to housing, land use, and transportation.
For the county board election, Madison Bikes teamed up with the Affordable Housing Action Alliance (AHAA), Madison is for People, and Madison Tenant Power (MTP) for on an election questionnaire. We sent questions about making housing more affordable and how the county could better serve the 30-40% of Dane County residents who are non-drivers, and then published the responses on our website ahead of the election.
In 2025, our focus will be on the common council elections.
Area Plans
Speaking of land use and transportation: One key instrument in how our city plans transportation infrastructure, land use, parks, and utilities in the mid and long term is through area plans. The plans cover 13 areas of the city and, once in place, will be updated every 10 years. The first plans to be created and adopted were for the West and Northeast areas. While the Northeast plan was largely uncontroversial, the West area plan was anything but. And biking took a prominent role. One controversy was focused on the Sauk Creek Greenway and whether a bike trail through and across the area should be included in the plan.
Public meetings turned into shouting matches, NextDoor and certainly editorial sections were abuzz, and we did what we could to provide accurate information. In the end, the north-south path along the creek was not included in the plan. But an east-west connection was, as well as safe and protected bike infrastructure on roads parallel to Sauk Creek.
Now that the Northeast and West plans have been adopted by the Common Council, the process for the Southeast and Southwest plans has started. We’ll continue our coverage in the new year.
Community meetings
One innovation for Madison Bikes in 2024 were monthly community meetings. We have hosted many events in the past, but this year we took a more deliberate and inclusive approach: In December of last year, our board members and anyone who was interested met up at the library over pizza and brainstormed ideas for events in 2024.
This resulted in an awesome spread of topics and events: Of course there was Winter Bike Day, where we handed out donuts and coffee on a freezing February morning. Renee Callaway from the city’s traffic engineering department gave a presentation about “Vision Zero and Active Transportation Planning.” BCycle Madison gave us a tour of their facility. We washed bikes with our friends from Freewheel to celebrate the end of winter. Bike lawyer and Madison Bikes supporter Clay Griessmeyer talked about what to do if you’re involved in a bike crash. An Ecological Restoration Specialist, Eric Grycan, led a bike ride through the Arboretum. Local author and silent sports disciple Timothy Bauer gave a talk about how to combine pedaling and paddling. And we wrapped things up with a Winter Bike Social.
Our planning meeting for 2025 took place two weeks and resulted in lots of great ideas. Stay tuned! If you have an event that you’d like to organize with us, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Remembering Joseph Solomon
On March 15, Joseph Solomon was biking home from work near East Towne Mall. A turning driver hit and killed Joseph. Fatalities like these like these are tragic, and it’s important to remember those who were killed while biking in our city. And do everything we can to prevent these tragedies in the future.
In the wake of the fatal crash, the city rapidly redesigned the road where the crash happened. They used paint and delineators to rapidly and cheaply implement a “road diet,” or lane reduction: Lien Road was converted from a 4-lane undivided road to two-lane road with a center turn lane and a bike lane separated by flex posts.
Bicycle Film Festival
Madison is known a biking city. And yet, the Bicycle Film Festival has never made a stop here. Until 2024: In October, we brought the festival to the Barrymore Theater. It was a great success, with over 250 attendees. And yes, we’re going to do it again in 2025!