Author: Robbie Webber

It’s bitter cold, then it’s amazingly warm; it’s snowing, then it’s raining. There’s ice, and then the streets are bone dry. That’s winter in southern Wisconsin. But there are lots of activities and city meetings to think about and attend. So here we go with our weekly update of the goings-on.

The week ahead

On Monday, both Madison Bikes and Bike Fitchburg will be holding meetings. The Madison Bikes Board of Directors meets at the Madison Central Library at 6:00 pm. Fitchburg Bikes meets at the Fiitchburg Library at 6:30 pm.

Also on Monday, the weekly MEAThead ride leaves at 7:00 pm from Ford’s Gym, 2114 Winnebago St, for a Lake Monona Loop ride, with an optional loop through the Arboretum. This is a weekly ride from November through March, so just put it on your calendar.

Tuesday, the monthly Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission meeting (5:00 pm in Rm 201 of the City-County Bldg, agenda here) will take up a number of seemingly routine, but actually quite important matters. Remember that you can go to all city meetings to watch, and you can also register to testify on any item on the agenda. You can summit comments or your support/opposition via email or in writing in person. Your voice is important! To get more information on the items below, just click the agenda link and follow the attachments for each item.

The PBMVC will discuss the following items:

• Projects within the neighborhood Traffic Management Program (AKA traffic calming).
• Where new traffic signal will be installed.
• A number of general city engineering projects that affect bicycling, including the project at Winnebago and Riverside, a few short path connections, and the repaving of the path that leads to Memorial High School.
• Bicycle-specific projects coming up in this year, mosst of which are small items like flashing lights or curb ramps.
• The city’s policy of bike route maitenance policy.

Also on the agenda is a state law being considered that would add electric bikes to the definiton of “bicycle” in state statutes. You can see a staff review of the proposed state law by Traffic Engineering.

If you’re not I the mood for a city meeting on Tuesday, you can head over to Manna Café on N. Sherman to join up with Down With Bikes for their biweekly winter social ride and games night. Leaving from Manna at 6:30 pm, they will weave through the North Side to arrive at Player’s Bar for ping pong, pool, and board games.

Wednesday

Although the Middleton Pedestrian, Bike, Transit Committee is listed on the Madison Bikes calendar as meeting on Wednesday at 6:30 pm at the Middleton City Hall, no evidence of it can be found on the City of Middleton meetings website. If you are interested in upcoming issues, it might be worth a call to the city to see if a meeting is scheduled.

Finally, on Thursday, the Long Range Transportation Planning Committee will be meeting (5:00 pm in Room 108 of the City-County Bldg, agenda here.) The principal item on the agenda will be continued work on the transportation component of the Imagine Madison planning process, which is the update to the city Comprehensive Plan.

And some reminders:

If you have an event, meeting, or ride that you would like us to list on the Madison Bikes calendar, please drop us a note.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars for Feb 3, when we will be at the Frozen Assets Festival and Fundraiser for the Clean Lakes Alliance. It’s happening on the lake behind (or would that be in front of?) the Edgewater. Drop by and see us and enjoy all the activities, including a fat bike race on the ice on Friday, and on Saturday our popular fat bike sled pull. (Sorry, kids only.)

Although we still have over a week to go, the big news is that we are busy preparing for the Winter Bike Fashion Show on December 9 at the High Noon. Make sure to invite all your friends who are curious about how and why to bike in cold weather. You can even invite those friends who think we are all nuts; they may just have fun or gain a new respect for the cold-weather pedalers. We have a great roster of models lined up!

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Besides the fashion show, there are a couple of city meetings and a whole lot of fun cool/cold weather events to keep your blood and legs moving. Or, you can just be a spectator at the Cyclocross Championships on Saturday.

Monday

Bike Fitchburg monthly meeting, 6:30-8:30 pm at the Fitchburg Public Library. If you live or work in Fitchburg or just care about what happens there, here’s a great group to influence policy in our neighboring city.

MEAThead ride, starting at Fords Gym at 7:00 pm at 2114 Winnebago. This is a no-drop ride of Lake Monona with an optional loop through the Arboretum. If this sounds like fun, but you can’t make this one, it is held every Monday from November until March 6.

Tuesday

The Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission will meet at 5:00 pm in room 201 of the City-County Building. On the agenda is a resolution to proceed with development of a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor running east and west. The eastern and western termini area still to be determined. More information is available in the documents for the meeting. While this is not strictly a bicycle issue, BRT can be a complement to improved bicycling in the city as part of a strong multimodal transportation system. But we will have to be careful that the BRT is not built at the expense of bicycle facilities that allow access to important destinations in the same corridor. Also on the agenda is a discussion of the continuing Imagine Madison planning process. You can watch the meeting streaming here.

Also on Tuesday is another edition of the Tuesday Night Ride, a social no-drop ride averaging 10 mph. Leaving from Colectivo on the Square at 6pm sharp. Don’t forget your lights! This week they will stop by Alt Brew, hoping there will be a new Bicycle Benefits Madison, WI deal.

Thursday

The same two issues mentioned on the PBMVC agenda –⁠ the Imagine Madison update and the resolution in favor of the BRT Phase 1 will also be on the agenda of the Long Range Transportation Planning Committee on Thursday, meeting at 5:00 pm in room 108 of the City-County Building.

Saturday

The Cyclocross State Championships at the Trek Headquarters, 801 W Madison St, Waterloo. It’s back for 2017! Once again, Revolution Cycles Club is promoting the WI State Cyclocross Championships. Expect thrills, spills, and chills on a technical course at Trek HQ!

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Photo from the 2016 Global Fat Bike Day at CamRock

And if cyclocross isn’t your thing, then how celebrating Global Fat Bike Day at the CamRock Cafe and Sport, 217 W Main St, Cambridge. It will be the same day as the Cambridge Country Christmas, so there are events for the whole family. Details here. Group Ride at 2:00 pm. Lots of beverages (brews and non-alcoholic options) stashed at stop points around the trails. Fun back at CamRock Sport at 5:00 pm with Bonfires, Food, and more. All donations and all money raised for food, beverages, etc. going to the Bike Park. Music starts at 7:00 pm and goes all night. And somewhere in there the Badgers will be playing for the Big Ten title!

Sunday

Finally, to round out the week, come to the Cargo Bike/Café Domestique Shop Social, 1404 Williamson St. There will be warm beverages, a short ride, and the chance to learn more about the hosts. 3:00 pm: Meet for a hot beverage 3:30 pm: Roll out for a Lake Monona Loop. 4:30-6 pm: Demos/activities at Cargo and Café Domestique.

Remember, we have all these events listed on the Madison Bikes calendar. If you would like to have an event listed, send us an email.

Photo courtesy of Joel Patenaude

Last week, the bike network got one more connection in the form of a bridge over McKee road near S. High Point Rd. The bridge is part of a path that will run from Valley View Rd south to Verona and meet up with the Military Ridge Trail. Parts of the trail are already built, and this new bridge is a big addition. You can see the plans for the entire planned length as well as updates on construction on the city’s website.

Also last week, a bumpy and cracked section of the Wingra Creek Path that runs from Olin Park under John Nolen Drive and a bit west was repaved. It’s always nice to have smooth, fresh pavement, and we appreciate the city keeping our paths maintained.

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Nice, smooth pavement on the Wingra Creek Path

Grant has created a new Facebook group to keep everyone updated on the Atwood St Reconstruction. You can find it here.

There aren’t too many city meetings this week. I guess that’s what happens during the 5th week of the month. Remember you only have two more days until the end of the month, and that means the end of your chance to fill your Madison Bike! Bingo card! Thanks to all the businesses that participated and all the people that biked. I discovered some new places and had a lot of fun.

City meetings this week

Tuesday, the City Council will be accepting the final plans for Crazy Legs Plaza and Wingra Park. Both of these locations are important to bicyclists, because the SW Path passes through Crazy Legs Plaza, and Wingra Park is an important bike connection on the south side of Monroe St. This is part of the Monroe St reconstruction, so you’ve probably heard about the meetings and open houses to discuss these plans. But if you are sure what they are doing, you can find the plans on line or attend the Council meeting at 6:30 p in the City-County Bldg.

Wednesday, the Madison Area Transportation Planning Board will have a presentation on bicycle and pedestrian crashes in Dane County. The meeting is at 6:30 PM at the Madison Water Utility Building, 119 E. Olin Avenue. We’ll try to get an update on this project and see what they found. If anyone attends, maybe you can give us a report.

If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

Atwood meeting. Photo credit: Travis Youman

The upcoming week is a bit slow for meetings, but there are a couple of road and path maintenance projects that may affect your travel this week. And last week featured an important public information meeting to gather input and outline plans for the reconstruction of Atwood Ave in a few years. The reconstruction will be from Fair Oaks to Cottage Grove Road.

This update of the Atwood meeting comes from India Viola:

Coming up this week:

Monday, October 9, at 6:00 pm Madison Bikes board will meet at the Public Library, 201 W Mifflin St.

Also starting Monday and lasting until Wednesday, the SW Path will be closed from S. Prospect to Breese Terrace so the path can be resurfaced. There will be a detour that will take bicyclists onto surface streets, including lanes coned off on Regent and Monroe St. More information on this project and a map of the detour can be found on the city project page.

Tuesday, October 10 Bike-tober Bicycle Mixer. Ian’s Pizza on State Street 5pm -7pm.  (map)

Who loves Ian’s?! Who loves bikes?! Who loves all the gracious employees who give you Bicycle Benefits in Madison?! We are celebrating all of it with a FREE SLICE NIGHT for bike riders and staff of Bicycle Benefits locations in Madison! Come meet other bike riders, cool people and get energized with great calories and bike banter. How do you prove that you are a biker in Madison? Well, if you haven’t heard, Bicycle Benefits is a program where you get a little $5 sticker for your helmet and show it at businesses everywhere to get a discount or reward for riding your bike there. Here are all the places that it works in Madison. If you or your friends don’t have stickers yet, no sweat, they have them Ian’s Pizza Madison Maybe MORE EXCITING! This event counts as a “special event” if you are playing Madison Bike Bingo 2017 so bring your card or pick one up on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, the Transit and Parking Commission will consider the proposal by Freewheel Bicycles to operate the bike center at Judge Doyle Square. A new building is planned for the site where the Government East parking ramp is currently located on E. Doty St. As part of the redevelopment, there will be a bike center featuring secure bike parking, lockers, showers, and a repair shop. Freeweel will be offering many of the same services they have at their Park St location, as well as classes. All the details of the proposal that will be discussed can be found here as part of the meeting schedule. The TPC meeting is at 5:00 pm at the Central Library. This item will be coming to the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission later, so you will have another chance to weigh in.

Sunday, October 15, 9:00am – 6:00pm Middleton Off-Road Ride

5191 Vosen Rd, Middleton, WI 53562, USA (map)

Ten Miles West of Madison, all off-road on private land otherwise not accessible to riding Adults: $35 Kids: $20 The ride will start at 10am, but everyone should be unloaded, lined up, and ready to go before the riders meeting at 9:45am. We suggest getting to the ride between 9am and 9:30am. Lunch won’t be provided, but complimentary rest stops will be available during the ride. The only way to register to ride is to contact Dan. You can contact Dan Fargen by Email:ddkj@td.net Phone: (608)445-8288

If you have a meeting or event that you would like to have included on the Madison Bikes Calendar, drop us an email.

Probably the event this week that holds the most interest for bicyclists is the Atwood Reconstruction Public Information Meeting that will take place at Olbrich Gardens on Wednesday from 6:30-8:00. This is your opportunity to both find out what the plans are and also ask questions. If you are either curious about what’s going to happen or want to express your opinion, here’s your first chance.

Also happening this week:

On Monday, Sun Prairie Moves will host another Slow Roll, a fun, casual ride for all ages and abilities. The ride will start at Orfan Community Park and wil ride on paved city paths. For more information, check their Facebook page.

Tuesday the Madison Bikes Communication Committee will meet at Memorial Union Terrace. All are welcome to attend if you would like to help us out with getting the word out about not just our activities, but important meetings across the city.

Also on Tuesday the Common Council will consider the following for items:

• Final plans for Monroe Street,
• Allowing bicyclists to ride on the 100 block of W Mifflin. Yeah! The cul-de-sac at the end of W Mifflin will finally be connected to top of State Street and the Square,
• Allowing the Police Department to donate abandoned and recovered bikes to non-profits. Previously, if the bikes couldn’t be sold at auction, the were required by law to send them to the landfill.

The Council meetings in the City-County Building starting at 6:30. Anyone can speak on any item on the agenda. Just fill out a slip when you arrive. You will have three minutes to speak.

Wednesday brings the monthly meeting of the Transportation Planning Board (the body that does transportation planning for the entire metro and urbanized area. A lot of the biggest projects in the area are discussed here, so if you want to know what’s up with big highway projects down to the regional bike network, these are the meetings where those discussions happen. You can find the agenda and materials for each item this month here.

This month the meeting will take place in Verona because they will be considering land use and transportation plans for Verona this month. The Board tries to hold meetings around the region during the year to make things easier for people all over the affected area, but most regular meetings take place in Madison.

If you have a meeting or event that you would like to have included on the Madison Bikes Calendar, drop us an email.

Oops, a little late this week. But the real fun starts on Tuesday anyway.

Tuesday is our 2^nd Annual Party and Fundraiser takes place from 6:00-9:00 pm at the High Noon. Make sure not to miss that, as it will be one of the few opportunities to get a stamp for the center square (Event) on your Bike! Bingo card.

Speaking of Bike! Bingo, everyone who comes to the party will receive a card when they make a donation. You will also receive a ticket to win door prizes. Of course, you’ll be supporting Madison Bikes so we can help you make the city more bike friendly for all ages and abilities. And you can fill out a postcard to tell a business, elected official, or anyone else either what needs to be fixed or what you love about their efforts.

You can also purchase additional Bike! Bingo cards or bike Benefit stickers for your family and friends that missed the party. So come on by and join the fun. Families welcome! Food by Jonny Hunter or Underground Food Collective will be available for purchse, and all proceeds will be donated to Madison Bikes. Yummy!

On Thursday, 6:00-7:30 pm at the Wingra School Gymnasuim (first floor), 718 Gilmore Street there will be a design alternatives presentation of ideas for Crazy Legs Plaza and the Wingra Park entrance off Monroe St. Both of these will be important for bicyclists that use the SW Path or want to bike through Wingra Park as a connector at the other end of Monroe. Participants at several past workshops and meetings gave their ideas and opinions to the consultants, and now we are going to see the results. If these two locations are important to you, please attend.

Do you have something that should be included on our weekly calendar? You can email us events and meetings to us to include and also see what’s coming up by looking at our Madison Bikes Community Calendar.

Sunday is Bike (and Bus) the Barns, featuring live music, farm tours, and a spectacular day of biking fueled by gourmet and local food. Pledges raised support Partner Shares, which helps low-income households afford to join a CSA farm. Bike the Barns features area CSA farms & tours, gourmet local food, craft libations, and live music –⁠ all to raise funds for fresh food for all! There are 3 routes to choose from, depending on your interests and capabilities, as well as a bus option for those who don’t wish to bike! Start and end location is Lake Farm Park, in Madison, Wisconsin. After the ride, join us for an after party in the park with more food, drinks, and live music! NEW: Bus the Barns! Space is limited. Bus tour registration includes all meals (breakfast snack + coffee, snack stop, lunch, and after party meal & beer ticket), farm tours and activities at three farms, and bus transportation. It all starts at Lake Farms County Park and runs from 7:00am –⁠ 6:30pm

Also on Sunday is the September Kidical Mass. This month will feature a ride-decorating party so the bikes can be part of the Willy St Fair Parade. Meet at the Cargo Bike Shop at 1404 Williamson St at 10 am.

Our big news is that we are preparing for the Madison Bikes Annual Party and Fundraiser . Join us on September 12, 6:00-9:00 pm at the High Noon Saloon. Madison Bikes is turning two and we’re celebrating our growing community, which is now over 925 Facebook followers strong. Let’s see if we can get to 1000 by the end of the party!

At the party you’ll find useful and fun door prizes, a super-stylin’ membership bonus package with your $20 suggested donation at the door, food to purchase from the Underground Food Collective (all proceeds benefit Madison Bikes!), the kickoff of our fall Bike! Bingo event, Bike Benefits stickers for sale, great people, and good vibes. The center of the Bike! Bingo card needs a stamp for a special event, and the Madison Bikes party is the easiest way to get that stamp.

Bring a friend and help us celebrate! Here’s the party flyer.

Before we celebrate, here are a couple of meetings to tune in to this week.

On Tuesday, Sept 5, the Common Council Executive Committee Meeting will consider the recommendations of the Transportation Ordinance Rewrite Committee (TORC). The meeting will take place in Room 108 of the City-County Building. [Agenda, with links]

What is TORC? It is a committee that was charged with examining whether the committees that currently oversee the transportation business of the city — including the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission, the Parking and Transit Commission, the Long Range Transportation Planning Committee, and various other smaller committees and sub-committees —should be restructured.

On top of rearranging the city committee structure, TORC also recommended that the city hire a Transportation Director. This is something that Madison Bikes has also been advocating for, and here’s why we think it’s important: Madison needs someone at the helm to oversee all modes of transportation and to assure that the policies and plans that the committees and Council vote into place are actually carried out. Without a Transportation Director, there are too many missed opportunities in our transportation planning and implementation process.

Wednesday, Sept 6, the Transportation Planning Board — which oversees transportation funding and plans for the entire metropolitan area, not just Madison — will hold a public hearing in Room 354 of the City-County Building on the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) for 2018-2022. This is a good way to see what major projects will be funded for the next five years. There are quite a few bike projects planned, and many road projects in the TIP may also affect your cycling comfort and safety. The full TIP can be found here. Public comments, letters, and other communications will be taken at the meeting or may be sent to: MPO@cityofmadison.com

We invite you to join us this Friday for a movie about Jane Jacobs, an incredible woman who changed how we think about the city. After the movie, there will be a reception for discussion and socializing, including a chance to meet one of the Executive Producers, who is a Madison resident. The movie is at 7 PM at Cinematheque, Rm 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave. The reception will be following the movie –⁠ about 8:30 PM, at the University Club, 803 State St.

If you know about Jane Jacobs, you need read no further. If you don’t know of her, I’m going to link to a few Wikipedia pages below, in case you want to dive in just a bit deeper.

Jane Jacobs was a resident of Greenwich Village during the Depression. She took on one of the most powerful men of her time, Robert Moses, who was not only the “master builder” of the mid-20^th century, but a political force stronger than even the Mayor of New York. At one time, he held 12 positions simultaneously (none elected) in New York city and state government

Jacobs became a hero to her neighbors, coming to public meetings with stacks of papers with information and petitions signed by the people who would have been displaced by the grand plans of Moses. She was initially just trying to save her neighborhood, but she changed how we talk about housing, transportation, cities, neighborhoods, and businesses. Her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is considered one of the most important works about urban planning. She wrote about the concepts of “eyes on the street,” the importance of sidewalks, and social capital.

Jacobs knew that average people banding together and speaking up at public meetings could bring enough political pressure on the powers-that-be to change the course of history.

Moses believed in clearing the city of small, old apartment buildings that were affordable housing for people of modest means. Instead, he strived to construct large public housing projects set in a “park-like” setting. He thought the existing housing stock and small businesses – apartment buildings such as Jacobs and her husband lived in mixed with family-owned businesses right down the street – was “sub-standard” and “crowded.” He thought the neighborhoods fostered criminal behavior and unhealthy living conditions.

Of course, those neighborhoods were really walkable, transit-friendly, and often close-knit. You could buy everything you needed within a few blocks of your home, and people sat outside on the building stairs or stopped on the sidewalk and talked to each other. The “park-like” settings that Moses envisioned spread out the buildings so far that walking was difficult, and the community feeling was absent. Retail and jobs were separated from residential buildings, so all daily trips became much longer.

Moses also loved to build huge highways and arterial roads that made driving easier. Under his reign, large swaths of low-income and minority neighborhoods were bulldozed to make way for roads that carried white suburbanites on their trips into and out of the city each day. Moving cars and “urban renewal” were his goals.

The battles between Jacobs and Moses are the stuff of legend. But in the end, Jacobs saved Greenwich Village; the Lower Manhattan Expressway was not built through Washington Square Park; and walkable, mixed-use urban neighborhoods were recognized as valuable to the life of the city.

I hope you can join us for the movie and reception to take inspiration from Jane Jacobs for our own efforts. 

Just after Tim Wong died on June 30, I posted an announcement and added a few words about what Tim meant to the bicycling movement in Madison. Several people asked me to put it up as a blog post. I’ve adapted the original a bit with comments that other people shared with me.

If you didn’t know Tim, you really missed a true Madison character, and someone who you can thank for being one of the early leaders of the bike advocacy that continues today.

I wasn’t around for some his early adventures, like the mass, simultaneous flat tires that a group of bicyclists got at the intersection of John Nolen, Blair, and Willy St. If you think that intersection is bad now, you can thank Tim that it isn’t worse. I don’t know the whole story, but I know that Tim helped organize a movement to add bicycle accommodations that made it at least somewhat safer for bicyclists and pedestrians at a time when almost no one rode a bike for transportation. Tim was one of the founders of the Bicycle Brigade, the first Madison-focused bike advocacy group. At his memorial, someone had dragged out old copies of the Spoken Word, an early advocacy newsletter. When auto manufacturers claimed that auto emissions were now cleaner than the outside air, Tim co-wrote a letter to the editor at the Wisconsin State Journal introducing the concept of the “dash pipe.” The State Journal never published the letter, but you can read it here.

Tim wrote more letters, showed up at more meetings, and spoke at more city committees than almost anyone I’ve known. He served as the Chair of the city Bicycle/Pedestrian Sub-Committee (before the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission that exists today was formed), but was squeezed out when the committee structure was rearranged. In the early and mid-2000s he was back, serving on the Transit and Parking Commission. Putting his professional skills as a data analyst to use, he poured over the quarterly reports and asked detailed questions when others just passed them over. He ended up getting thrown off that committee as well, probably because he asked too many questions about how money was spent and how things were run.

He never owned a car, and was probably the person that first coined the term “death-mobile.” He was also fond of calling John Nolen Drive, “John No-Lane,” because when Monona Terrace was being planned, the Lake Monona Path was going to be shut down for two years, and city officials scoffed at the idea that a lane of the existing road should be devoted to the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians. Tim helped organize Friday peak hour rides that took over a lane anyway to demonstrate the need for safe facilities for walking and biking during the construction. The path was shut down for only 6 months instead of two years. I thought about him and those early critical mass rides when that path was being worked on recently, and there was indeed a lane of John No-Lane blocked off for bicyclists.

Tim was not subtle about his distaste for cars and driving, often calling drivers “muderists.” He could be irritating and alienated some people — including his allies. But you could never say he didn’t speak his mind and stand up for what he believed. One person wrote saying, “He always had strong opinions but I can’t think of any instances where he was actually wrong, even (or particularly) when we disagreed.”

Betty Chewning, a neighbor of Tim’s and a professor at the UW whose research focused on health, spoke at his memorial, and she said how much she appreciated that Tim put his reputation and time on the line over and over again. He told the inconvenient truth, even when no one wanted to hear it. He convinced her to testify about how important the bike paths were to her. He knew that it couldn’t just be him, or any one person, carrying the message; everyone has to speak up.

Even former City Engineer, Larry Nelson, wrote to say that he appreciated working with Tim:

“Despite the derogatory terms Tim used, such as the ‘great Wasteside of Madison’, I found him actually to be a very gentle person. He was also very frugal, and perhaps large transportation projects, even though they were bike facilities, were in Tim’s mind contrary to his own innate frugality.

“On the other hand, I found Tim very helpful pointing out both the need for and the most effective way to maintain bike facilities. The concept that the City should provide winter maintenance for bike facilities isn’t that old, folks. But, Tim needed to bike in the winter.”

Tim was 69, and rode his bike everywhere until a month before his death, when he fell (not while riding) and hit his head, leading to complications that ultimately did him in. At his memorial service I heard his family talk about how he refused to give a thumbs up to the doctors trying to determine his physical abilities. Tim said the thumbs up was what Trump did. So his doctor asked him to raise any finger, and sure enough he gave it to them.

If you didn’t know him, you have no idea how far back his advocacy for bicycling goes. He wasn’t always easy to work with, but he will be deeply missed. 

Rest in peace, Tim.

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The West Wilson Street reconstruction and the question whether the street should be reconstructed as-is or include safe and comfortable accommodations for people biking was discussed at the Board of Public Works (BPW) last Wednesday. The proposal by City Engineering and supported by the district’s Alder Mike Verveer argued for the former, but at the meeting many voices disagreed. Looking beyond the West Wilson project itself, the BPW meeting perfectly demonstrated why Madison needs a Director of Transportation, someone who would be the liaison between the often-competing interests and desires of various interest groups and the city staff who are charged with maintaining and rebuilding our streets.

Alder Mike Verveer, in whose district the W. Wilson reconstruction project is located, said that he felt “whiplash” by the requests for protected bike lanes, constituents who fear losing on-street parking, other alders –⁠ including two on the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission — who requested that the PBMVC needed to see the project again, and city staff who had already sent a letter to adjacent property owners saying there would be neither a pilot test of the protected bike lane that had previously been proposed. Verveer also claimed that this project was being used to fight a turf battle between different city committees.

However, three Madison Bikes board members and several other bicycle advocates testified or submitted comments to the Board of Public Works on Wednesday evening, saying that the public process has been botched, the street was unsafe for bicyclists, and insisted that the BPW and city staff follow the city’s many transportation and sustainability plans that point out the need to provide safe infrastructure for all road users.

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Public testimony at the BPW meeting

It was apparent that the BPW felt very uncomfortable with the conflict playing out in front of them. Normally their schedule is filled by nothing more controversial than approving bids for infrastructures and assessments for new sidewalks.

Staff from City Engineering insisted that there was no time to send the matter back to the PBMVC and still meet a September deadline to use Tax Incremental Financing for the project. Additional there was the procedural question whether the Board even had the authority to refer the matter to another committee. In the end, the BPW approved the project to be rebuilt exactly as it is now: no bike lanes, no widened sidewalks, and no test of a protected bike lane in place of parking on the south side of the street. But staff claimed that the design would be “flexible,” should anything change in the future.

While this may sound disappointing, there was a bright spot: The resolution to go forward with the reconstruction as-is was amended. Alder Denise Demarb introduced a provision that city staff will develop a plan to make the entire length of Wilson St bicycle-friendly all the way from King Street to Broom Street by the time that the construction around the Judge Doyle Square project is completed (expected to sometime between 2020 and 2022).

We will continue to push for a safe, comfortable design on West (and East) Wilson Street that will give space for people biking and walking and support the oft-stated goal of the city to encourage bicycling, walking, and transit use. And we will continue to push for a better public process so that these issues can be resolved and all interested parties can be involved long before a financial deadline is looming.

The Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission will discuss the matter at their meeting tomorrow, and the project will be before the Common Council at their June 6 meeting. We will keep you updated for when your input is going to be most effective. Thanks to everyone who testified or submitted written comments: They really made a difference.