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Bike News Newsletter Weekly Update

Infra News; Bike Donations; BCycle Update

Revolution Cycles Hosting a Fall Bike-to-Work Commuter Station on 9/27

Welcome to this week’s newsletter! It was wonderful to see all of you who came out for the Bicycle Film Festival at the Barrymore last week. What an inspiring series of films and an awesome event! Here’s what you need to know about this week:

Campus Path Closed

Heads up to commuters and other path users near Campus Drive and the Vet School: the multi-use path will be closed from Monday-Friday (Oct. 7-11) for repairs. Those traveling through will want to take the detour to the North on Walnut St. and Observatory Dr. instead.

Donate Your Old Bikes

Saturday, Oct. 12th from 10am-2pm, Bikes for Kids Wisconsin is hosting a bicycle donation drive at their shop at 354 Coyier Lane, Madison, WI 53713. Bikes of all types and sizes will be accepted. Donation bikes should be gently used, although they will also help recycle bikes that are beyond repair with a small monetary donation. Check out the website, https://bikesforkidswi.org/2024-bike-donation-drives-oct-12-nov-23/, for more info and other donation options!

New Opportunities in Bikeshare

On October 1st, Bicycle Transit Systems (BTS) acquired BCycle from Trek. Prior to the acquisition, BTS ran the bikeshare operations (using BCycle bikes and software) in Philadelphia, LA, and Las Vegas. All of the employees of BCycle, including myself, were offered roles at BTS to continue to run and support the BCycle systems across the country. With more of BCycle unified under the BTS umbrella, the organization will be able to focus solely on bikeshare and product development to deliver the best possible bike rental process.

Among the changes, Helen Bradley was promoted to Director of Business Development for BTS, so Madison BCycle is looking for a new General Manager! If you love bikes and transportation, are a leader, problem solver, and have business aptitude, you are encouraged to apply. Check out the responsibilities and requirements and apply here.

Flock to State Ending & Feedback

Have you gotten a chance to enjoy the pedestrian mall on State Street this Summer? If you hadn’t heard, the city further restricted traffic on State Street by limiting the times that non-emergency vehicles can use the street, calling it “Flock to State.” While the street has be closed to private vehicles since 1974, in May the city decided to run a pedestrian mall experiment, where from Gorham to Hawthorne, State Street did not allow any non-emergency vehicles from 3pm to 4am on weekdays and 10am to 4am on weekends.

In addition to the traffic limitations, there were also events planned around that area of State Street such as the Concert Series in September, Science on the Square (upcoming on October 17th), and of course the Madison Night Market. The pedestrian mall is ending on October 30th, and the city wants your feedback on the experiment to determine the next steps. If you enjoyed having this space further dedicated to and prioritizing pedestrians, please consider filling out the super short survey and telling the city what you liked and didn’t like about it!

Mifflin Diverter Project

Looking ahead to next week, the Mifflin Diverter will be installed on Monday, October 14th. The test will add a motor vehicle traffic diverter to the Westbound lane of E Mifflin just past Breese Stevens Field. Vehicles traveling West on E Mifflin will have to turn onto N Paterson, but bicycle and pedestrian routes will remain unaffected. The project is focused on improvements to the bike boulevard on E Mifflin, a critical bicycle traffic artery North of E Washington. Traffic Engineering has been gathering data about traffic volumes before the install, and they will continue to do so throughout the coming months when the diverter is in place. They will also be looking for public feedback, so if you ever bike along this route, be sure to send them a note!

That’s all we have for you this week. Now go ride your bike!

As always, you can find an overview of all bike events on our Community Bike Calendar. Email us at info@madisonbikes.org to add your events. And if you value our newsletter and other work, consider donating to Madison Bikes. For construction updates, check out the city’s Bike Madison page.

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Bike News Newsletter Weekly Update

Housing Week; Board Elections; Advocacy Woes

Bicyclists cruise down John Nolen Drive at Ride The Drive

Welcome to this week’s newsletter. Here’s what you should know about in the Madison biking-for-transportation world this week.

Housing Week is Here

It’s Madison Housing Week! As the population in Madison continues to rise, Madison Housing Coalition is thinking about what can be done to increase access to housing for those who want to work and live here. Going on now, from August 17th-22nd, is a series of events to learn, discuss, and advocate for solutions to the housing shortage. Some events you may want to check out are:

  1. Housing on Tap on Monday, August 19th from 5:30pm – 7:00pm at Vintage Brewing Company
  2. Housing Environmentalism on Wednesday, August 21st from 6:00pm – 7:30pm at the Central Library, room 301
  3. Dane County Exec Debate & Social on Thursday August 22nd from 6:00pm – 9:45pm at The Tinsmith

To see the full list of events, their details, and to RSVP, check out the site at madisonhousingweek.com.

Madison Bikes Board Elections

Madison Bikes board elections are coming up this Fall, and we want to know if you are interested. Have you volunteered with Madison Bikes in the past and want to take your involvement to the next level? Are you interested in helping promote bike advocacy and put on awesome community events? Would you be interested in writing this newsletter? While you don’t need to be on the board to do any of those things, we always welcome and encourage anyone to let us know if they’d like to join. What is it like to be on the board? Well, that’s up to you. Some members focus mostly on planning events, some specialize in the website and social media, and some focus on educating the community on important bike advocacy issues. We all meet to discuss these topics with the goal of making Madison a better place to comfortably ride a bike. If that sounds like your jam, board elections are coming up soon and we would love if you reached out to us at info@madisonbikes.org.

Cannonball Extension Disappointment

In July, Wisconsin’s Commissioner of Railroads rejected a proposed extension to connect the Cannonball Path and Wingra Creek bike paths. On Friday, August 16th, Madison officials decided not to appeal the decision. The proposed route would have crossed Fish Hatchery Road and the Wisconsin and Southern railroad tracks, but was deemed unsafe by Commissioner Don Vruwink, who cited risks such as train derailment and potential bike accidents. The issue with the decision is that it overlooks the dangers of biking on the heavily trafficked Fish Hatchery Road. Despite the frustration of yet another bike infrastructure conflict with the railroad, the city is planning to explore alternatives, such as expanding sidewalks, to address the lack of safe connection from the Cannonball to Wingra Creek.

The approximate location of the path extension that was rejected by the Railroad Commission

West Washington Crash

A cyclist was struck by a driver on West Washington on Saturday, August 17th at the Southwest path crossing. Not much is known about the crash at this time other than the motorist stayed at the scene and the bicyclist was taken to the hospital and is alive.

This intersection is notoriously dangerous and has seen several crashes involving drivers and cyclists this year alone. Despite having a Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon (RRFB) there are multiple potential reasons for the level of danger at this intersection. Path users have to cross 4 motor traffic lanes to get across W. Washington, with a refuge island in the middle. In addition to the issue of crossing multiple lanes at once, often times the driver in the first lane will stop to yield for a pedestrian or cyclist and the driver in the next lane will not. Speeding and driver inattentiveness can also play roles in making this area more dangerous.

What could be done to reduce the risk? Some have suggested a pedestrian bridge. While that would help avoid conflict, it is still a car-centric design. It would be very costly and likely require cyclists to make a significant climb to clear the minimum height of a bridge. Pedestrians would also have to travel a much longer distance to get across, and would likely opt to cross the road directly instead. Another option would be to implement a road diet by narrowing it to one lane in each direction or create other traffic calming measures such as making the path a raised crossing. Personally I would love to see one or both of those changes implemented, as they would be much more cost-effective and have been proven to slow down drivers and make crossing the road safer, often without reducing traffic volumes. What kinds of changes would you like to see?

That it for this newsletter. Stay safe and thanks for being a part of the Madison Bikes community.

As always, you can find an overview of all bike events on our Community Bike Calendar. Email us at info@madisonbikes.org to add your events. And if you value our newsletter and other work, consider donating to Madison Bikes. For construction updates, check out the city’s Bike Madison page.

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Bike News Newsletter Weekly Update

Volunteer Op; Group Rides; Best in the State

“Bike Week Path Awesomeness” event, 2024

Welcome to this week’s newsletter! Summer is in full swing and it’s a great time to ride your bike to get where you need to go, or just ride for fun.

It’s a light week in terms of biking advocacy. Here’s what you should know.

Volunteer Opportunity: Ride the Drive

As we mentioned last week, Parks is looking for volunteers to help with Ride the Drive on August 11th. They need help with things from setup to photography to intersection guides and more. If you aren’t familiar, Ride the Drive is a form of Open Streets celebration where select major streets around town are closed to cars and open to walking or rolling. Vendors will be set up along the route for food and drinks and other exciting things. Volunteers will also get a free Ride the Drive T-shirt. You can read more about the various roles and sign up to help here.

The map of streets and hub locations for Ride the Drive

Machinery Row Rides

Are you interested in riding 100 miles? It sounds like a huge amount, but you may be capable of more than you think! Machinery Row is hosting a series of Century Training Club rides designed to help you train for a century ride by the end of the Summer. It’s not too late to join and get in some longer rides and make some cool new friends! They meet at Machinery Row every Sunday at 8 AM through September 1st. Join soon, since the longer you wait the longer the rides will be!

Riders line up to begin a Century Training Club ride

Are you an e-biker and want to meet other fellow electric bike enjoyers? Consider joining Machinery Row’s other option: Lunch Bunch E-Bike Rides, which go down every Friday from 12-2 PM. The rides are a casual pace and include a lunch stop! Rental options are available though the store or through Madison BCycle.

Best WI City for Biking?

If you didn’t catch PeopleForBike’s city ratings yet, here’s what they found. According to their latest rankings for 2024, the best city for biking in Wisconsin is Washburn, located in Chequamegon Bay, about 50 miles East of Duluth, MN. Washburn also ranked 5th out of the 2579 cities evaluated across the country. Madison is rated 13th in Wisconsin and 86th in the country.

Why is a town of 2,025 people a better place to bike than Madison with all of our paths and great bike infrastructure? Well, to understand that, we have to understand how it’s scored. The score is a “Bicycle Network Analysis” and it is intended to measure how well the bike network gets people to where they need to go. In further detail:

A low score (0-20) indicates a weak bike network, meaning the city lacks safe bikeways or there are gaps in the network. A high score (80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes that serve people of all ages and abilities.

https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/about/how-city-ratings-works

So my interpretation is Washburn is highly rated because it’s easier to get all your basic needs by bicycle for most of the people living there. The town is about two miles end-to-end and almost all residents live in safe biking distance from school, groceries, the doctor, or any of their other basic needs. Most importantly, the safe, bikeable areas are well connected so more people feel comfortable getting to their destination by bike.

Washburn, WI’s Bicycle Network Analysis score map.

Compared to Madison, Washburn is much more connected. Madison, especially farther on the outskirts (like West/South of the Beltline or East of Stoughton Rd.) would be really tough places to live without a car. While we have some great trails for commuting and recreational riding, there are still lots of areas where it’s very uncomfortable to ride due to high traffic speeds. Furthermore, due to the design of some suburban neighborhoods, traveling only by residential or slow traffic streets is mostly impossible. Washburn, on the other hand, while admittedly much smaller, is a grid of mostly low speed streets.

The grid system also makes a city more walkable. No winding, sprawling suburban streets that take you nowhere (except around the block). Yes, I realize there are some large lakes in Madison that prevent it from being a perfect grid. No, a grid is not impossible in Madison and more grid-based design would make the city better for biking, assuming it were combined with some hefty rezoning, but that’s another story.

Madison’s Bicycle Network Analysis score map.

It’s not all bad for Madison, though. PeopleForBikes recognized it as a “2024 City on the Rise” due to the city staff’s recognition and participation in bicycling and bike-related projects. The total score rose from a 50 in 2020 to a 60 in 2024, which is a really great improvement considering the average score across all US cities measured is only 28.

What are your thoughts on the PeopleForBikes city ratings? Are there any areas of Madison you bike in that you wish were better connected?

As always, you can find an overview of all bike events on our Community Bike Calendar. Email us at info@madisonbikes.org to add your events. And if you value our newsletter and other work, consider donating to Madison Bikes. For construction updates, check out the city’s Bike Madison page.

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Bike News

Monday Update: Cannonball, Winter Biking, Global Fat Bike Day

We hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Weekend! Yours truly stayed in town, ate Tofurkey, and on Sunday braved the horrible weather to go for a bike ride. While I certainly prefer riding in nicer weather, being outside always makes me feel better, even in sleet and rain and snow. Speaking of, many of this week’s bike events are about winter riding.

On Wednesday at noon, the UW’s University Bicycle Resource center offers a Ride Through Winter workshop: “Tips on biking through the winter including lessons learned from a winter bicycling veteran. Suggestions for clothing and other gear plus basic winter maintenance tips and available resources. Class taught by UW Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator Chuck Strawser. Free Planet Bike blinky light set to the first five (5) attendees. Bring a brown bag lunch! All events are free and are held at the University Bicycle Resource Center in the Helen C. White Garage (Lot 6) at 600 N. Park Street, unless otherwise noted. There is no registration required. Classes are first come, first served (limit 20 people per event).” If you missed the Winter Bike Fashion Show, this is a great opportunity to make up for it. Starts at noon.

Later on Wednesday, a public input meeting on the next (and possibly final) phase of the Cannonball Path will take place. The path currently ends at Fish Hatchery Road, with no low-stress connection from there to the Wingra Creek Path. Initial plans to continue the path along the railroad line have faced a number of hurdles, and the City is now seeking input on how to close this gap. One proposed option is to build a multi-use path along Fish Hatchery Road; the other is to further pursue the railroad alignment. 6 pm at Wright Middle School, Library Media Center, 1717 Fish Hatchery Road. More info on the project page.

On Friday evening, the MTB advocates from Capital City Offroad Pathfinders (CORP) are having their annual meeting at Slow Roll Cycles on the east side. After a short business part, there will be “food and drink to show our appreciation for our members and volunteers, a review of 2019’s highlights and plans for 2020, and the awarding of the coveted Volunteer of the Year Award.” Starts at 5:30pm, 4118 Monona Dr.

On Saturday it’s Global Fat Bike Day. You can join CORP and Bell Joy Ride for some fat bike fun at the Camrock trails in Cambridge if (and that’s a big if!) the trails are dry or frozen. Make sure to check the event page right before you head out there.

Finally, if you missed the Winter Bike Fashion Show and Wednesday winter biking workshop at UW, there’s one more opportunity to learn about winter riding. Freewheel Bicycle Collective is hosting a “Winter Biking Workshop with Eric” on Saturday. Eric? Yeah, that Eric, one of our Fashion Show models:

Photo: Dan Stout

Workshop starts at noon, more info here. 1804 S Park Street, .

As always, you can find an overview of all bike events on our Community Bike Calendar. Email us at info@madisonbikes.org to add your events. And if you value our newsletter and other work, consider donating to Madison Bikes. For construction updates, check out the city’s Bike Madison page.

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