I went. The meeting was pretty sparsely attended. (the dimly lit building is at the far end of the street - its where you can drop off your old computer for recycling. ).
The problem they are trying to address is the East-bound Beltline, where the off-ramp (to Southbound Fish Hatchery) overlaps with the on-ramp (from Northbound Fish Hatchery). Their solution is to remove the existing off-ramp, and create a new one. I'm not going to try to describe the configuration here. They really should post the designs on the web. As many of you are aware, this is a treacherous road for bikes because of the cars that are speeding on and off to the beltline. The traffic signal might mitigate this very slightly for North-bound riders. But overall not an improvemenet for bikes. I took advantage of the sparse attendence to have an extended conversation with Ray Polkinghorn (he works for SEH, the engineering firm handling the project; see Geoges's previous post). I pointed out that I'd used that intersection many times, and while it is somewhat challenging, its not really a problem. But I've also biked across FishHatch, and thats a real problem, so why not solve that problem first? I also said that many traffic problems are not really engineering problems, they are behavior problems, i.e. bad drivers. Which should be more appropriately solved with education and enforement. (yes, the 3 E's). I asked, does his firm ever put this in their analysis? In short, no. He suggested this is more properly addressed by lobbying public officials. I think this is a cop out. By the time this public information was held, WisDOT had already decided on an engineering solution. The public was not invited to those discussions. They are also planning to widen the bridge, in anticipation of (maybe) adding a separate bike lane in a future project. The future project, in 2013, is to raise the bridge to meet height standards. I'm skeptical that simply adding an extra bike-only lane will significatly improve safety there. I asked, don't trucks go through here every day? He said, well, its not up to standard. and then he mentioned something about 'military vehicles'. hmmm. -- ===== darin ---- Aaron Crandall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Was anyone able to attend this meeting? I biked up & down Badger Rd, after > surviving the ride down Fish Hatch, & wasn't able to find the place. I gave > up because my hands were freezing (accidentally just wore wind stopper gloves > w/no insulation). I made an effort but will have to email my comments, I > guess... _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
