Category: Bike News

The public input meeting about pedestrian, bike, and transit improvements for the Monroe Street Reconstruction was the big event last week. Coming up next week is a visioning session about Jackson Street Plaza (where the Cap City Trail crosses Atwood Avenue). Read more after the fold.

Looking Back

Monroe Street Reconstruction

Last week’s big bike advocacy event was the Monroe Street Reconstruction Ped/Bike/Transit World Cafe at Edgewood College. There was a good crowd of attendees that sat through the three hour session. There were three presentations, one each on possible improvements for people on foot, people on bikes, and people who use transit. After each presentation, there were guided table conversations about what we heard, what was missing, and what we liked.

Some information from the online survey (2,779 responses) was interspersed in the presentations and the summary of survey results can be found here.

Key questions and top three responses:

“Other than by car, how would you prefer to access destinations on Monroe Streets if conditions were improved?”

• 47% Walking
• 38% Bicycle
• 14% Transit

“Please choose up to three (3) qualities that you would most like to see improved and/or invested in as part of the reconstruction process.”

• 54% Walkability
• 46% Green street (more plant life and sustainable design)
• 43% Bikeability

“Please choose up to five (5) priorities regarding what you believe is most important to achieve as a result of the reconstruction of Monroe Street.”

• 70% Better pedestrian-friendliness and safety
• 65% A reconstructed street, free of cracks and potholes
• 51% Better bicycle-friendliness and safety

These results are very consistent with the opinions that have been expressed at the community meetings to date. Improved safety, comfort, and access for people on foot is the primary concern followed closely by improved safety, comfort, and access for people on bike.

Of the 1,000 or so people that said they would prefer to access destinations on Monroe Streets by bike if conditions were improved, there was some clear consensus around what improvements would be the most important (response of 9 or 10 on a 10 point scale):

• 69% stated that protected bike lanes would be a major factor
• 62% said that bike lanes (even without separation) would be a major factor
• 46% called out smoother streets as a major factor
• 45% hoped for better bike connections from nearby bike paths
• 37% and 33% said that less and slower automobile traffic would be a major factor
• And less than 30% of respondents selected better signage, more bike parking near destinations, and installing Bcycle stations as a major factor that would lead to them biking more to Monroe Street

Unfortunately, the presentation on bike enhancements by Assistant City Traffic Engineer, Yang Tao, only mentioned protected and unprotected bike lanes briefly while stressing the impact on car throughput and on-street parking that would result from including bike lanes in the reconstruction. Most of the presentation focused instead on concepts like providing an alternate route from the SW Commuter Path to Monroe adjacent to Glenway or on the long hoped-for connection from Wingra Park to Edgewood Drive. While both of these would be welcome additions to our bike network, neither address the needs of people who do or who would bike on Monroe if adequate facilities were provided. Significant time was also spent discussing improved wayfinding signage from the SW Path to Monroe and the possibility of including more bike parking on the side streets off of Monroe. These are also good ideas, but neither fundamentally improves access to Monroe Street for people on bikes.

Mark your calendars now for Thursday, September 29th. This will be the next big public meeting on the topic at the Monroe Street Reconstruction: Cross Section Workshop.

Looking Forward

The Bicycle Facility Maintenance Subcommittee meeting for this coming week has been cancelled and will pick up on reviewing a new maintenance policy (with particular focus on winter maintenance) in September. Madison Bikes board of directors will meet on Tuesday to work on finalizing plans for our Kick-off Party on September, 19th at the High Noon Saloon. Save the date!

For anyone that lives on or frequents the eastside, consider stopping in at the Jackson Street Plaza on Saturday, 8/20 to contribute your placemaking ideas to an important node on the Capital City Path. Conflict between people on foot and people on bikes was noted as the biggest opportunity for improvement around the plaza.

The one big, important advocacy event this week is the Monroe Street Ped, Bike and Transit World Café onThursday that Robbie has blogged about already. Read more about that and about last week’s highlights after the fold.

Monroe Street Reconstruction

Thursday, August 11^th, 2016 from 6:00-9:00 PM

The Washburn Room at Edgewood College, 1000 Edgewood College Dr., Madison, WI 53711

RSVP (not required): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monroe-street-pedestrian-bicycle-and-transit-infrastructure-world-cafe-tickets-26566505132.

If you’ve thought about attending a public meeting on a bike project, but haven’t done so yet, consider coming to the Monroe Street Bike, Ped, and Transit World Cafe this Thursday at Edgewood College. Monroe Street is up for a complete reconstruct from Regent to Leonard and curb to curb resurfacing from Leonard to Odana. This is a once in a generation opportunity to reprioritize our public right of way. Some argue that accommodating bikes on Monroe isn’t needed since the SW Commuter Path is only a few blocks away. But those who rely on their bikes for transportation know that people on bikes need to get to all the same places as people in cars.

With a relatively narrow 66’ right of way, there’s no way to squeeze in bike lanes without losing some on-street car parking. Some business owners worry that a loss of parking would have a negative impact on sales even though studies on the topic show again and again that bike lanes increases sales and are a boon for business. Some neighbors have also objected to the loss of parking on Monroe out of a fear that visitors will park in front of their houses on the side streets and increase traffic in their otherwise quiet streets ‘searching’ for parking—something that could be addressed with better parking management or diverters on side streets that prevent through traffic.

See our Action Alert for more details and plan on coming down to support safe and comfortable bike facilities for all on Monroe Street.

Last week’s highlights

Monona Bay Bike Boulevard

You didn’t miss much if you weren’t able to attend the Monona Bay Bike Boulevard meeting. The plan is to add some bike sharrows and a few Bike Boulevard signs along West Shore and South Shore. None of that will change how the street functions, but perhaps it will help highlight that this is a shared road space for people on bikes and people on cars (and joggers who don’t have a sidewalk bayside). Some neighbors pointed out the challenge of Gilson Street and wondered if something could be done to address the high speed car traffic that comes through there. I advocated for a wider curb cut at the top of West Shore heading into Brittingham Park. It’s not that bad unless there is two-way traffic or in the winter. Widening it to the south would make it much more comfortable for all users.

Good bike parking is an important but often overlooked component of bike infrastructure, despite its relatively low cost. By and large, the situation in Madison isn’t too bad. The zoning code requires a modest number of bike parking spots to be installed in new developments, and many developers and businesses have come to acknowledge the benefits of providing bike parking.

But sometimes a little citizen activism is needed.

In the summer of 2015, 5th Element Coffee, a high-end coffee shop, opened in the mixed-use building at the corner of University and Highland. I’m a bit of a coffee geek, and so I was excited to bike over there and check out their offerings. The coffee did not disappoint, but the bike parking did: There were no racks in front of the shop, nor even in the general vicinity. One other biking customer had dealt with that by locking to a young tree, and I locked up to a traffic sign nearby. When I mentioned the lack of bike racks to one of the baristas, he acknowledged the problem. To move things forward, a couple days later I emailed the shop:

A response followed quickly, and it was very positive:

So far, so good. However, for the next ten months nothing more happened. I would get my coffee fix elsewhere, where bike parking was easier, and I was too busy with other things to follow up with the shop or the city. A couple weeks ago, though, I bike past 5th Element and spotted newly installed racks on the sidewalk! And not only were there racks in front of 5th Element, but also right next to the entrance of Oliver’s Public House, located in the same building.

One can argue that eight bike parking spots busy a coffee shop and pub is not a whole lot, and waiting almost a year for those to be installed is a long time. But hey, little victories still are victories. Have you successfully convinced a business to install bike parking? Do you know of locations that desperately need more bike parking? Share your stories in the comments.

Image: Current bike parking situation. Green are the newly installed racks. The rack in the back of Lombardino’s is wall-mounted and not very useful. Map: OpenStreetMap contributors, Harald Kliems

The public input process for the Monroe Street Reconstruction project continues with the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Transit World Café , to be held Thursday, August 11 at Edgewood College from 6:00-9:00 PM. This will give users of these modes a chance to say what is important to them and think about trade-offs on the street.

Below are the official announcement and RSVP form from Urban Assets, the firm coordinating the public input from various interest groups. They ask that you RSVP so they can prepare for the right number of people but an RSVP is not required to attend.

If you think trying to squeeze in the interests of all those user groups is going to be tough, you’re right. That’s why the meeting is three hours long. If you can’t attend the whole meeting, you should consider coming to the first part, as this is when the information about your options to input is going to happen.

Transit users may not have the same interests as those who get around by bike; and when you are walking, you may be annoyed by someone riding their bike on the sidewalk (maybe because there are no bike lanes…?). But this meeting is a great chance for people who don’t primarily drive to or on Monroe Street to speak up for a more livable street that welcomes those who use active transportation and don’t need car parking.

A world café allows people to actually discuss what is important to them. Volunteers will be on hand to record everyone’s thoughts and concerns so that you don’t have to have all your comments prepared before the meeting. You will be part of an actual dialogue about what you want to see, what works now, and what doesn’t.

So I hope we get a really big turn out and a great discussion.

Also note that the deadline of the online community survey about the reconstruction has been extended once again – this time until Aug 7. So if you haven’t done so already, please respond to the survey!

Ride the Drive is my favorite Madison bike event. For a few hours each year, what is usually a busy thoroughfare full of cars gets transformed into a quiet, peaceful space full of smiling people. Media reports and roadside signs before the event reported that “John Nolen Drive is closed to traffic,” but what those signs should have said is “John Nolen Drive is opened up to people.” This year I was unable to ride the drive myself because of a broken wrist. Instead I took pictures of happy people on bikes, unicycles, inline skates, … Enjoy and let us know what your favorite Ride the Drive moment was!

This week there is only one meeting on the calendar, after last week’s three city transportation meetings. The meeting is tonight already and deals with “proposed bike route system enhancements along West Main Street, South Shore Drive, West Shore Drive, and Gilson Street” (see map above). Read more about the meeting, as well as a short recap of last week’s meetings after the fold.

Monona Bay Bike Boulevard Public Information Meeting

Monday, 8/1/16

Water Utility-Engineering, 119 E Olin Ave

5:30 pm

“Please join me to hear from city Traffic Engineering staff to learn more about the proposed bike route system enhancements along West Main Street, South Shore Drive, West Shore Drive, and Gilson Street. We will discuss bike/ motorist signing and pavement markings to enhance the bike route system, including the “Bike Boulevard” designation and its associated signing and marking.”

Last week’s highlights

PBMVC (PEDESTRIAN/BICYCLE/MOTOR VEHICLE COMMISSION)

got its first view of the draft Madison in Motion plan. The materials weren’t available ahead of the meeting and still aren’t published on Legistar, but there really isn’t much to see anyway (here’s a version posted to the MiM site). The plan is supposed to be a ‘comprehensive transportation master plan’ that is meant to ‘guide transportation decisions in the City of Madison…to help make Madison a more walkable, bikeable and livable city…’ It should ‘identify the strategies and implementation recommendations…and will include a realistic, strategic implementation plan for the City to follow for the next 25 years…’ Despite recommendations from the oversight committee, the current draft has no measurable goals and no clear vision, especially as it relates to bicycle transportation in Madison. It’s essentially a collection of concepts and a long list of recommendations to just continue what we’re doing. There should be an opportunity for public comment later this summer/fall.

TORC (TRANSPORTATION ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE)

reviewed the Draft Statement of Purpose drafted by City Attorney Strange. This is a big task and the group seems to be making good progress. The biggest identified gap to date has been in the lack of transportation planning (see issues with Madison in Motion). The discussion has begun to coalesce around the concept of having a more comprehensive Transportation Commission. This commission would be focused on driving transportation strategy and policy. What that means for the current transportation committees/commissions is still to be determined. Alder King called out what may be the most critical decision by this body: can we really make progress with a new centralized Transportation Commission if it doesn’t have a matching staff component? In my opinion, this new committee/commission makes a lot of sense, but only if there’s a matching Director of Transportation to coordinate and support it.

LONG-RANGE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING COMMITTEE (LRTPC)

received presentations on a number of Planning Data Tools: UrbanFootprint, Fiscal Impact Model and Active Living Index. The presentations for these was also not posted to Legistar.

We try and keep all regular transportation-related city meetings on our Community Bike Calendar. This week’s highlights: The 4th week of the month is always a busy one for city meetings, with meetings of the Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Motor Vehicle Commission (PBMVC), the Long Range Transportation Planning Committee (LRTPC), and the recently created Transportation Ordinance Review Ad Hoc Committee (TORC). In addition to those meetings, it’s also the week of one of Madison’s biggest fun bike events, Ride the Drive this coming Sunday.

More details after the fold.

PBMVC (Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission)

is the main city committee focused on bike-related issues. This month will include a Racial Equity and Social Justice Presentation by Toriana Pettaway and discussion around how we best incorporate this into our transportation planning. Also, a presentation on the status of our Sustainable Master Transportation Plan (Madison in Motion) by Dave Trowbridge. This is one of the few city meetings that is live streamed and available over the web.

Tuesday, 7/26/16, 5pm

Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission

210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Room GR-27, City-County Bldg. Police Conference Room

Agenda here and you can watch from home here.

TORC (Transportation Ordinance Review Ad Hoc Committee)

is an ad hoc committee that’s been meeting since spring. Their charge is to review and rewrite the city’s transportation ordinance. The existing ordinance currently calls for a Director of Transportation (among other things) even though we have not had one at the city for many years. The work done here could lead to a significant restructuring of our transportation committees. This week there will be a review of the Draft Statement of Purpose drafted by City Attorney Strange.

Wednesday, 7/27/16, 5pm

Transportation Ordinance Review Ad Hoc Committee

210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Room GR-27, City-County Bldg. Police Conference Room

Agenda here.

LRTPC (Long Range Transportation Planning Committee)

is staffed by our Planning division. It typically receives presentations related to long-term transportation planning. This month will see a review of planning data tools including: Urban Footprint, Fiscal Impact Model and Active Living Index and will also have an overview of the Greater Madison Vision Planning Process.

Thursday, 7/28/16, 5pm

Long Range Transportation Planning Committee

210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Room 108, City-County Bldg.

Agenda here.

Ride the Drive

Keep your eyes peeled for the Madison Bikes crew at the event!

Sunday, 7/31/16, 10am-2pm

Ride the Drive

Madison Bikes is a young organization, and we’re run almost entirely by the volunteers on our board of directors. To become a sustainable and effective organization that can achieve our vision, we need your help. A bike advocacy organization requires many skills and people who are willing to contribute those skills and their time. If you would like to volunteer with us (or have questions about volunteering), please go to our volunteer sign-up form. We really appreciate your help, no matter whether it’s helping out for a single event or signing on as a longterm volunteer. We look forward to hearing back from you and already say thanks for your contribution. Please share this post with others who may be interested in working with Madison Bikes.

Please welcome our guest blogger Elysha Jones. Elysha and her family love biking and live in a car-light household. Elysha tells a great story about having out-of-town guests and showing them how awesome biking in Madison can be. Especially for those of us who already regularly ride, it is easy to forget how others perceive biking—dangerous, weird, requiring special gear, not for families, and so on. Elysha’s post puts this in perspective and reminds us that getting around by bike in Madison is pretty convenient and fun. Thanks for sharing, Elysha!

A little background on us: Scott, my husband, and I were both born and raised in the suburbs of St. Louis, MO. During a visit to Amsterdam we fell in love with the biking life. But back home in the suburbs we found that we couldn’t bike everywhere like the Dutch did. So we decided to move some place more bike/pedestrian friendly, and Madison fit the bill for us. For five years now we have called Madison home, and we haven’t looked back.

This past weekend our friends from St. Louis came to visit. Weeks before the visit I talked with Becky about all the stuff we could do here, and I kept mentioning that biking would really be the best way to go to all the different places. She was very skeptical and told me she wasn’t sure she could handle biking with her two kids (ages ten and eight). I told her I have a bakfiets and could borrow a long tail bike from a friend. Another excuse for Becky not wanting to bike was curbs: Becky was sure there would be curbs that we would have to maneuver. So on one of my many errands by bike I stopped every now and then to take pictures of the bike trails and streets they intersect with and sent them to her. Again she worried: What should she wear while biking?! She didn’t own “bike clothes” and neither did her husband. And again I tried to reassure her by taking pictures of me in my “biking” outfits, that is, just regular clothes. Still, Becky remained unconvinced and tried one more excuse: Her husband, he didn’t want to bike at all. He thought it was really weird and had no desire to do it all. So I hatched a plan to convince him it was normal to bike around in Madison.

When they got into town, on Friday, we took them out to dinner. We live just a bit off of Atwood, and so we walked down to Glass Nickel Pizza and then walked from there to the Chocolate Shoppe. I made sure we walked down the bike path. I wanted to normalize biking as much as I could. I also made sure to point out all the “regular” people biking by and the Bicycle Benefit stickers at all the places we went to and explaining to them what they get for that little sticker on their helmet. Finally, we got back to our house and they were a bit unsure of biking still. But I could tell: At this point they were at least thinking of it as a possibility. I thought it would be best if I showed the kids the bikes they could ride on and let the grownups see our bikes too.  I opened our garage door and told them to go ahead and pick out bikes that would work for them. They had a blast in our mini bike shop. They all picked out bikes and we went for a quick ride around our neighborhood. There was a lot of laughter and cheering. It seemed like my plan was working!

Saturday morning I suggested we bike to the farmers market on the Square. They all agreed, and the 12 of us made our way downtown. Our friends were impressed by the bike paths and the bike elevator and cars stopping for us! After walking around the Square I suggested we bike down State Street to the Union Terrace. Again, this was a huge surprise to them: a street just for bikes and special vehicles! They loved the Union too, and when we got home and they realized they had biked 12 miles round trip, they were all pleasantly surprised. “It didn’t seem that long!”

On Sunday I suggested we go to the zoo and I said whoever wanted to drive could and whoever wanted to bike could. All the kids wanted to bike, and my friend’s husband wanted to bike too!!  Even though he said he was a bit sore from all the biking the day before, he still chose biking over driving! So we all biked to the zoo and then on to Ella’s Deli for ice cream. Their kids chatted about how they wanted to live in Madison when they got older, and our friends were able to see how and why biking was such a big part of our lives. It was a huge success and made us really appreciate the biking infrastructure that Madison has.

The City of Fitchburg—currently ranked a “silver” Bicycle-Friendly Community—is updating their Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. The meeting will take place on July 21, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at the Kids Crossing Shelter at McKee Farms Park. If you can’t make it to the meeting, there is also a website with information about the plan and the opportunity to take a survey and provide input. Read the full announcement below.

Public Open House and Workshop – Update to City of Fitchburg Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan – July 21

6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Thursday, July 21

McKee Farms Park – Kids Crossing Shelter (just west of main park shelter, by Kids Crossing Playground)

Fitchburg has recently begun the process of updating its Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, to maintain and improve options for biking and walking in the City. A key component of the Plan update is to gather input and feedback from City residents and those that bike and walk in Fitchburg. As such, the City will be holding a public open house and meeting on Thursday, July 21, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at the Kids Crossing Shelter at McKee Farms Park (The shelter is located just west of the main park shelter, by Kids Crossing Playground). The open house/workshop will consist of a short presentation at 6.00 p.m., followed by various opportunities to provide input and feedback.

Additionally, the City has other tools that can also be utilized to provide feedback on the Plan update, including a public opinion survey and an interactive map. The survey and map will be available until July 31.