Bikies,
I was the person Kathryn refers to below that pointed out that
cyclists want to get to the same destinations as automobile drivers. I
made some of Arthur Ross's points with people during the break,
particularly, the continuity issue and that East Washington Avenue is often
the shortest route between destinations. I was surprised and disappointed
that the mayor seemed to be encouraging people to drop the bike lanes.
At 3:49 PM -0600 7/10/03, Kathryn Kingsbury wrote:
>There were also a couple people who said they liked the set-up but the
>street could be narrower is bike lanes were eliminated. Why would cyclists
>want to bike on Washington when they could bike on Mifflin or Main?
>Cieslewicz responded that was something to think about, as he wasn't sure
>why anyone would want to bike on Washington, either. Many questions later,
>one of the bikies who is also on one of the commissions (I forget the name
>or which commission) pointed out that cyclists, like automobile drivers,
>also have destinations on Washington and therefore would want to ride on
>Washington, and that the current layout is not conducive to that.
After the break, the neighborhood council debated what they wanted
to do: should they make a recommendation, should they leave recommendations
to the neighborhood associations, or should they listen to more comments.
They decided to hear more comments. Jeanne Hoffman was fielding most of
the questions in the mayors stead as the mayor had to leave at the break.
In response to a question about how much money might be lost if the
project were delayed to pursue the mayor's plan, Jeanne broke the bad news.
The city stands to lose $1 million the state kicked in for the design study
at the minimum. The city might also lose funding for segment 1 and
potentially for the whole project. The reason for this is that funds are
allocated in a set amount by the state each year and the projects are
funded competitively. Thus, if the city doesn't use the money next year
for phase 1, somebody else will probably get the money. There is no
guarantee that the money can be rolled over to a future year. So once
things start getting delayed the funding picture gets murky with nobody
certain if or how much money we might lose. Those segments that lose
funding would go to the back of the line and have to compete all over again
for new funding.
Thus, Jeanne was strongly hinting at the meeting that another
option is to approve the HNTB plan with modifications. I think this is a
recognition that the Council won't vote to delay segment 1 with such
unknown and dire financial ramifications. The idea was to make changes
that wouldn't require having to redo the environmental impact statement and
hence risk losing the $1 million the state paid for the design. Changes
Jeanne has mentioned to me include: colored pavement treatments of
crosswalks to make them more visible, bulb-outs to decrease the crossing
distance of East Washington Ave., an emphasis on improving the green space
in the medians, a tree saving plan, and promoting redevelopments that would
provide plazas between the sidewalk and the buildings.
Mark N. Shahan ------ __o
607 Piper Drive ------- _`\<,_
Madison, WI 53711-1338 ---- (*)/ (*)
(608) 274-9367
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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