Madison Bikes

Last week

After the Council approved option # 2 for Winnebago St, on Tuesday, May1 — a big win for safety because the option provided more buffer between the bike lanes and motor vehicle traffic –⁠ the Mayor then decided to veto the Council’s action. You can read his veto letter here.

We anticipate that the Council will try to overturn the veto this coming week. See Tuesday’s upcoming events for more information.

On Saturday, Robbie and Harald presented work at the Wisconsin Bike Summit in Madison. Other board members, volunteers, and friends of Madison Bikes also attended.

This Week

On Monday, the Madison Bikes Board will meet at 6 pm at the Central Library. Everyone is welcome to attend.

This Tuesday, we anticipate the Madison Common Council will try to overturn the Mayor’s veto of the vote to build option # 2 on Winnebago. The original vote was 11-6, with one alder absent, one abstaining, and one who was chairing the meeting. 14 votes are needed to overturn the veto, and one person who voted in the minority has already said he will vote to overturn.

Everyone can hep by contacting your alder to ask that they uphold the action passed by the majority. There was a robust public outreach process and many committee meetings that came before the Council vote, so it is disappointing that the Mayor wants to undo all that work.

The meeting starts at 6:30 pm in Room 201 of the City-County Building. You can register to speak, watch in person, or watch the meeting on Madison City Channel. It’s a great lesson in local democracy, and you might become a better advocate or more informed citizen.

On Wednesday, the Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee will meet at 6:00 pm at Bendy Works, 106 E Doty St, 2^nd floor. If you’d like to help us out with our work on advocacy issues, feel free to stop by.

Friday, Sun Prairie’s advocacy group will be holding a bike commuter station at Canery Row from 6:00-8:30 am. So if you happen to be out that way, stop by to say hello.

We can expect to see quite a few weekend events, as the warm weather is finally here.

Saturday, there are two events. First, from 9:00-noon, Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 East Gorham St is holding a bike rodeo. There is a long list of activities for all ages and abilities. Get a tune up, try out an electric bike, get some safety training for kids, enter the raffle, and learn how to fix a flat.

Then from 1:00-4:00 join others visiting galleries and art exhibitions by bike for Bike the Arts. The fun starts at the Bubbler at the Central Library and then moves on to other locations. A full list of locations and times can be found here.

Sunday, there is a ride for women to check out mountain biking, or just join others. All levels of expertise welcome, whether this is your first time or know the trails very well. Head over to the Bell Joy Ride on the John Muir Trails the Southern Kettle Morraine, N9097 County Road H, Elkhorn.

You can always get the info on these events by checking out the Madison Bikes Community Calendar. Have an event that you’d like to put on our calendar? Send it out way.

In case you missed it

Here’s what we were talking about on our Facebook group:

Baltazar is asking people to vote on the name for the community latino bike group that is formalizing their organization.

There was a spirited discussion about the Mayor’s veto of the Council vote on Winnebago.

Grant posted the results of a survey on what people want in Monona to improve walking and biking.

Does banning hand-held cell phone use actually improve safety?

Last week

The highlight of last week certainly was the Common Council voting in favor of buffered bike lanes on Winnebago Street. Madison Bikes put a lot of energy into this project, and we’re very pleased that in the end, a majority of alders supported the project. You can watch a recording of the debate about the project on City Channel (starts at 1:04:00). Here’s the voting record:

Alders voting in favor of Option #2 (buffered bike lanes): Bidar-Sielaff, Demarb, Eskrich, Hall, Kemble, Martin, Palm, Phair, Skidmore, Wood, and Zellers.

Alders voting against Option #2: Ahrens, Cheeks, Clear, King, Rummel, Verveer.

Carter was excused, Baldeh was chairing, and Harrington-McKinney abstained.

Please consider sending a quick email to your alder to thank them for or let them know your opinion on their vote.

[Breaking: We just learned that Mayor Soglin has vetoed the council’s decision. The Council now has to vote on it again, and the project will need a 2/3 majority to pass. Read the mayor’s letter here.]

Also at the Common Council was the Madison Yards project. This is a huge development project on the city’s west side, next to the Department of Transportation building on Sheboygan Ave. If you followed the news coverage and Facebook discussion after the council meeting, there was some confusion about an amendment that seemingly affected plans for bike lanes on Segoe. The amendment was voted down and bike lanes on Segoe (and other affected streets) remain part of the project.

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At the Board of Public Works, the East Mifflin diverter passed unanimously. The diverter blocks motor vehicles from entering Mifflin at Blair and should help to keep traffic volumes on the bike boulevard in check. The city’s report on the test installation of the diverter was positive, but public testimony at the meeting had a large number of critical voices. The project will now go to the Common Council.

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Places for Bikes released their new city rating system on Wednesday. The scoring system incorporates a variety of data sources on ridership, infrastructure, community perceptions, safety, and current investment levels. Madison scored 3.3 out of 5 possible points. This puts us on 6th place overall, and 3rd among large cities. Where we did worst was in the “acceleration” category, which rates “how quickly a community is improving its biking infrastructure and how successful its encouragement programs are at getting people to ride.”

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On the weekend, the Wisconsin Bike Summit took place, including the Madtown Unity Ride on Friday evening, “celebrating the unity and diversity of Madison and to connect communities together.” Channel 3000 has a short segment on the ride.

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Oboi Reed from Equiticity presenting at the Summit (Photo: Peter Gray)

This week

Tonight, on Monday, the Madison Bikes events committee has their monthly meeting. The next big event on the horizon is Ride the Drive and Bike Week in early June. 6pm at Barriques on Park. New faces are always welcome!

If you want to see better biking and walking in Monona, attend the ped/bike open house on Tuesday. The city’s bike and ped ad hoc committee will give a presentation on the committee’s goals and an open house to discuss potential improvements. 6pm at Winnequah Elementary School.

On Saturday you need to choose between two bike events: REI is hosting their Big Backyard Bike Bash. Dreambikes will accept donations of bikes and used parts at the event, and you can get free safety checks and use the bike was station. 10-4 at REI on the west side. If you’d rather combine biking and Craft Beer Week, join the 80s-themed Madison Bike & Brew Tour. All proceeds from the event go to Down with Bikes, Madison’s newest mobile bicycle repair non-profit. 11am at Alt Brew.

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.

At last night’s meeting, the Madison Common Council voted in favor of reconstructing Winnebago Street from Bashford to Second with buffered bike lanes and canopy trees (option 2)! Madison Bikes supported option 2 with a position statement that you can read below. The decision to remove on-street parking and reallocate that space for safer and more comfortable bike facilities and street trees is a major victory for active transportation and livability in our city.

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We’ll have more details later. Thanks to everyone who contributed to making this happen!

Madison Bikes Position Statement Winnebago

Editor’s note: Our weekly update team has a new contributor. Let’s welcome Jim Wilson, a Madison Bikes volunteer and co-chair of our advocacy committee!

Spring has sprung! The bike counters on the Cap City Path and on the Southwest Commuter Path show that ridership has jumped over 300% since the weather has finally gotten warmer.

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Last week

Last Tuesday, the Pedestrian Bicycle Motor-Vehicle Commission approved the inclusion of the Mifflin St. traffic half-diverter. The next step in the approval of the half-diverter is getting it approved by Board of Public Works this Wednesday.

City Engineering also gave an update on some of their projects including the big Atwood Ave. project. Of note, Engineering is now exploring a cross section of Atwood that would continue the on-street bike lanes on Monona Dr. north to where they can meet up with the multi-use paths on both sides of the street. This change was credited to feedback they received from the public at the last Atwood PIM on April 6, so thanks for turning up to make your voices heard! Other projects included an extension of the 8 ft sidewalk along the east side of Whitney Way south across the beltline intersections, and the installation of an off street pedestrian connection from the Cannonball Path to Todd Dr. along the beltline frontage road.

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Possible Atwood Ave. configuration just north of Cottage Grove Rd. through the pinch point in front of American Family.

City Engineering is also doing some good work overcoming several of the challenges it’s been facing such as the change in state law preventing cities from using condemnation powers for pedestrian or bike projects, and in the challenges they’ve had establishing new paths along rail corridors. In their presentation on the 2019-2024 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), they have started to move forward with an alternate to the previously planned Goodman Path in what they’re calling the Garver Path and the Autumn Ridge Path. The Garver Path would connect the Cap City Trail to Milwaukee St. through the Garver lot and O.B. Sherry Park. The first section of the Autumn Ridge Path would connect Portland Pkwy with Ziegler Rd. and would include a new ped/bike bridge over Highway 30. Plans are also moving along for sections of the West Towne Path and the Cap City Trail connection with the Glacial Drumlin that they think they can get done without condemnation powers, however other sections have been postponed indefinitely because of the change in state law.

The discussion on the John Nolen Drive corridor wrapped up the meeting and several questions about the geometry of the Williamson/Blair/Wilson/Nolen intersection caused the acceptance of the report and approval of the geometry to be postponed until next month’s Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission meeting.

This Week

On Monday, the Wisconsin Transit Riders Alliance is having its annual meeting at the Madison Public Library from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting, which will include a discussion of the LaCrosse Area Planning Committee’s efforts to establish a regional transit program in the region, despite the state’s efforts to thwart the creation of Regional Transit Authorities since 2011.

This Tuesday, the final geometrics for the Winnebago St. reconstruction will be approved at the Common Council meeting. The meeting starts at 6:30 PM in Room 201 in the City-County Building at 210 Martin Luther King Blvd., Madison, WI, 53703. This is the last opportunity to submit public comment about the project, so everyone interested in seeing a better Winnebago St. cross section should show up or write to their alder or both. Madison Bikes encourages support for the Option 2 cross section for the following reasons:

• space for bigger, canopy-type street trees
• better access for walking from southeast side of street, especially with the elimination of the current grade separation
• better, shorter crossings for people on foot
• buffered lanes for bikes instead of a door-zone bike lane on a bus route with narrow lanes
• ADA accessible bus stop at Fourth St
• narrower lanes for motor vehicles to encourage lower traffic speed

You can read the recent Action Alert for more information about this project. We could use as much public support as possible for Option 2 as it gives us buffered bike lanes and more space for trees, which would be an improvement to the corridor for both bicyclists and pedestrians over Option 1.

Also on Tuesday, Madison Bikes Communication Committee is having its monthly meeting at 5:30 PM. This meeting will be at the Stiftskeller in the Memorial Union and is open for anybody who wishes to attend.

On Wednesday, there will be a meeting of the Madison Area Transportation Planning Board starting at 6:30 PM in the Water Utility building at 119 E. Olin Ave. in Madison, Room A-B. On the agenda is the approval of a letter to WisDOT supporting the Village of Cottage Grove’s application for Stewardship funding for the Glacial Drumlin Trail connection. You can find the full agenda here.

Also Wednesday, the Mifflin-Blair half-diverter is in front of the Board of Public Works. The Board meeting begins at 4:30 PM in Court Room 354 in the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Blvd., Madison.

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On Saturday, the Wisconsin Bike Fed is hosting its annual Bike Summit in downtown Madison. The event starts at 9:00 AM and will be a great opportunity to network with other bike advocacy groups around the state. The full schedule of events can be found here

Also on Saturday, the Capital Off Road Pathfinders are having their annual party/fundraiser at Machinery Row starting at 6:00 PM and running until 9. CORP has done some incredible work building and maintaining off-road mountain bike trails in the area.

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We’ve written about the Winnebago Street reconstruction several times. But now it’s decision time: The Common Council will decide the future of the street at their meeting next Tuesday (5/1). Without a strong showing of support from the public, the Council will most likely go with Option 1. Alder Rummel supports Option 1, as does the Board of Public Works. Some of the neighbors affected by the conversion of on-street parking into space for trees and bikes will likely speak at the meeting, supporting option 1.

So please voice your support for Option 2 by speaking at the meeting or writing to your district’s Alder.

As a reminder, these are some of the arguments in favor of Option 2:

• space for bigger, canopy-type street trees
• better access for walking from southeast side of street, especially with the elimination of the current grade separation
• better, shorter crossings for people on foot
• buffered lanes for bikes instead of a door-zone bike lane on a bus route with narrow lanes
• ADA accessible bus stop at Fourth St
• narrower lanes for motor vehicles to encourage lower traffic speed

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Rendering of Option 2 (Image: City of Madison Engineering)

Grant wrote a comprehensive overview of the project and its implications for people walking and biking on Winnebago here. The Isthmus also covered the debate in a recent article.

Some quick tips for writing an effective comment:

• Primarily address your district’s alder, but also include allalders@cityofmadison.com as a recipient
• Start the letter by saying why you care about this issue. Do you live in the neighborhood? Do you frequent businesses on Winnebago? Does your kid go to East High? Does your commute take you in Winnebago (or would it, if conditions were better)? Do you support the city’s sustainability goals? Do you like big trees on all Madison streets? Have you had a good/bad experience riding or walking on Winnebago? Etc.
• Short letters are fine, as are long ones
• Make it clear that you support Option 2
• Ideally send your letter by Monday evening

Feel free to share your comments in the comment section below or on Facebook so that others can see them as well.

Hard to believe that this was less than a week ago (Photo: Gordon Sussman)

On Sunday, the Tour de la Familia Latina/Tour of the Latin Family, had a great ride, with more than 50 folks riding bikes in Madison while biking up trash they found in recognition of Earth Day.

This week, after what felt like fourth winter, it seems that spring is finally here. If it felt warm on Sunday, it was – we finally broke 60 degrees and lots of folks were out on bikes taking advantage. Weather should be in the 50’s and 60’s so we should see lots more folks getting out and enjoying riding.

Awesome weather aside, there are a few meetings, including one very important meeting of the Joint Pedestrian Bicycle Motor-Vehicle Commission and Long Range Transportation Planning Commission on Tuesday. The planned diverter at Blair and E. Mifflin is on the agenda for approval at this meeting. There are also a slew of fun events on Saturday celebrating biking through bike demos, socializing with bikes and beer, and music with a bicycle themed performance of UW Madison Madrigal Singers and Chorale.

On Monday, April 23 Bike Fitchburg holds its monthly meeting at Fitchburg Public Library, 5530 Lacy Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53711, USA, 6:30pm –⁠ 8:30pm. Anyone with input on improving cycling in Fitchburg should attend.

On Tuesday, April 24 A Joint Meeting of Pedestrian Bicycle Motor-Vehicle Commission and Long Range Transportation Plan Commission will decide on making the diverter at Blair St and East Mifflin permanent. This diverter is the first real change to the design of the E. Mifflin Bike Boulevard and will improve the safety of the roadway for all users. As Jonny Hunter, member of the Marquette Neighborhood Association’s traffic committee, noted, “[Developer] TWall has been putting up significant opposition to this and has hired a lobbyist to fight the diversion.” It will be key to have folks show up in support of the traffic calming project. Also on the agenda: The consultants for the John Nolen/Blair project are presenting their final report.

The meeting begins at 5:00 pm and is in the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Room 201, Madison, WI 53703. The full agenda is available here.

After having to reschedule because of the snow, on Wednesday, April 25 the Madison Bikes Advocacy Committee meets from 6pm–⁠8pm at Bendyworks, 106 E Doty St #200.

On the weekend, you have several options for fun bike events. On Saturday, April 28 you can test ride mountain bikes at Quarry Ridge. For more information check out the event’s Facebook page here.

From 11:00am to 3pm check out Bike Day at Working Draft Beer Company at 1129 E Wilson St, as it celebrates bikes, beers, and better weather! Neff Cycle Service will be hanging out in the parking lot from 11am-3pm offering FREE bicycle safety checks and helping tune up bikes for Spring. Working Draft will have a full lineup of beers. I mean all the beers (hoppy, malty, lagers, ales, GF – you name it). Come get beered, socialize, and get the bike ready for the season! More info here and here.

At 7:00pm join the UW Madison Madrigal Singers, Chorale & Jazz Quintet for the concert: “Free Wheeling: A Tribute to the Bicycle” The performance is at Mills Concert Hall, 455 N. Park St. The UW Madrigal Singers and Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Bruce Gladstone, will join forces to present “Free Wheeling: A Tribute to the Bicycle”, Saturday April 28 at 7pm in Mills Concert Hall. The concert opens with no less than five world premieres, written specifically for this concert. There are two works from John Stevens, veteran composer and UW-Madison emeritus professor. “Toasting Song” is a rollicking number about the pleasures of both cycling and wine. “A Bicycler’s Song” takes a poem in praise of bicycles and cycling. Free and open to the public. Event Description here.

https://youtu.be/myLCH1KGM6g

Last week

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A post shared by The Cargo Bike Shop (@thecargobikeshop)

The Wisconsin Bike Fed is changing its organizational structure to become more effective in their advocacy. Last Wednesday, the Bike Fed’s executive director Dave Schlabowske met with Dane County bike advocates and presented his plans and ideas. Stay tuned for further announcement online or at the Wisconsin Bike Summit.

Bombay Bicycle Club had their annual spring membership meeting on Sunday, and their 2018 ride calendar will be available shortly. We’ll work with them to also get those rides on our Community Bike Calendar.

This week

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Current plans for Atwood Ave reconstruction

The big advocacy event this week is a public involvement meeting on Atwood Avenue. The street is going to be reconstructed between Fair Oaks and Cottage Grove Road, and one goal of the project is to improve conditions for people walking on biking in the corridor. Right now, Atwood forms a barrier between the residential areas and the park and lakefront. Crossing the road is difficult, and vehicle speeds are high. Bike access is limited to a narrow sidewalk shared with people on foot. The city has proposed a number of improvements that would address some of these issues. But some important questions remain — for example, do we really need two lanes in both directions on Atwood? Will the new road design lead to slower vehicle speeds and allow safe
crossing? Why does the city want to allocate more space for car parking? So please attend the meeting and help the city get this
project right. Monday, 6:30-8 pm at Olbrich Botanical Garden. You can also send questions and comments to the project staff:
cpetykowski@cityofmadison.com and bwilkinson@msa-ps.com

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Current state of Atwood (Image: Google Maps)

Sun Prairie Moves, the local bike advocacy group in Sun Prairie, also meets on Wednesday. On the agenda: Updates on planned events, on a planned network of off-street paths, and on a new official bike map in Sun Prairie. Wednesday, 6:30pm at Colonial Club Sun Prairie.

An area that also could use improvements for those who don’t get around by car is the “Milwaukee Street Special Area“. The planning efforts for the area are still in the early stages. Learn more at the first open house at Whitehorse Middle School on Thursday, 6:30-8pm.

On Saturday, you can again join the folks at Cafe Domestique for their rain-or-shine Spring Rides. Meet at Cafe Domestique at 8:30am. A more mellow ride option starts at noon at Freewheel Community Bike Shop: This kid- and family-friendly ride will go to Elver Park and include a potluck picnic. And if you’d rather stay inside on Saturday, consider attending Terrace Town at Monona Terrace: Dane County elementary school kids have build a small-scale city with a focus on sustainability out of recycled materials, and now they’re eager to present their work to the public. 10-4 at Monona Terrace.

And on Sunday, bike out to Warner Park for the Annual Bird and Nature Festival. Or finally get that tax return done…

For details on any of these events, head to the Madison Bikes calendar. If you have an event that you’d like added, send the details to info@madisonbikes.org.