I love the concept of a narrower roadway and wider public space on Willy. Like Linda and others, I avoid Willy and other busy streets like the Plague, but now and then need to mix it up with traffic to get to the hardware store, Nature's Bakery, the kitchen outfitters, etc.
At those times, it is annoying to be in that constant parade of cars, but I've never had any problem taking a whole lane for two or three blocks to avoid the risk of getting doored. Eleven-foot lanes make it even easier to justify taking the whole thing (and I have no confidence in safely using bike lanes on such streets - it sounds like they'll still be too narrow for safety between parked cars and moving ones, as on Johnson, Gorham, etc.). Regardless, for people using the path to parallel Willy, it would be VERY handy for occasional visitors like me to have signs along the path, at each cross-street intersection, that list the businesses on each half-block in each direction from the cross-street, so cyclists can minimize the distance they need to travel on Willy - by turning onto the cross-street that is nearest their destination. Yes, such signs would be expensive, but would constitute a minuscule fraction of the cost of the entire project. Jeff Schimpff Madison, WI "Bus, Bike, Carpool to Work for Clean Air for Kids" "Pedestrians and cyclists are the indicator species of a healthier community" ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Linda Kietzer Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 3:01 PM To: burleigh chorus.net; Rich Felsing Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] Willy St rebuild at Board of Public Works tonight (Wednesday) Am I the only one that doesn't want to share the road with cars? Sure, as a bikee I have a right to those roads, and I do use them , but I hate it. I don't want to breathe car exhaust, I find the experience stressful, and in the event of a bike/car collision, I know I'll suffer the injury. With a bikepath just a block away, I'm all for a narrowed Willy Street. I want an entirely separate infrastructure of bike-only pathways, everywhere. A girl can dream, can't she? ________________________________ From: burleigh chorus.net <[email protected]> To: Rich Felsing <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Sent: Fri, October 22, 2010 1:36:40 PM Subject: Re: [Bikies] Willy St rebuild at Board of Public Works tonight (Wednesday) Rich, You make a lot of good points. But I'll point out that Midvale, Willy, and in fact all streets do have one thing in common - far too many of the motorists are incapable or unwilling to share the roads with bicyclists. My position has always been that we don't need special facilities for bikes, assuming everyone was familiar with the rules of the road. But that's just an idle fantasy. No one takes seriously the concept that bikes are vehicles that are entitled to an entire lane. Take for example Midvale. With 2 lanes in each directions, who needs an extra lane for bikes? Just ask any of the motorists who've honked or buzzed me for actually using one of those lanes. So sure, build a narrow street, create a wider terrace, thats all nice. But for bicyclists the message will clearly be "use at your own risk, and if something happens its your own damn fault". Because that is the status quo, and nobody is going to try to change that. On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 12:36 AM, Rich Felsing <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > As Michael Rewey's recent comment also did in citing Midvale's experience, > in which he quite rigidly and even openly presumed to dictate what width the > road on Williamson should always be, and how narrow it could never be. ("I > stated this morning that it was OK to narrow Willy Street from 48 feet to > 44 feet .. . I was in error [sic]. . . . I ma sure that after the > discussion on Midvale that Darin Burleigh will agree.") Obviously Midvale > and Williamson are two very different streets, carrying different kinds of > traffic, through distinctly different land use contexts -- one's a retail > district, the other residential -- built during different eras, and each > with plainly different pedestrian volumes. So each requires a very > different treatment. > The classic urban street we idolize is functionally dismantled by the > grossly imbalanced cars-same-as-ever-bikes-same-as-cars policy we've had to > live with here. Widening streets to install wider bike lanes cuts out the > heart of New Urbanist practice. > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
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