Until an Outer Ring bike accommodation is created, it may be possible that there is no such thing as riding the wrong way on the inner concourse of the capitol grounds, or any prohibition against riding there at all - a Bikies topic of a few years ago. For several years I had been routinely admonished against riding on the terrace around the capitol, even after sending a similar letter to the head of the Capitol Police unit.
About a year and a half ago I wrote a letter to my then-Assembly rep. Spencer Black summarizing and quoting the applicable statutes, ordinances, rules, and public health benefits of staying as far away from diesel busses as practicable, and requesting an Attorney General's Opinion on the matter. Mr. Black forwarded my letter in a request for an AG Opinion, to then-Speaker Sheridan, and said the Speaker was empowered to make the formal request. I never heard from Speaker Sheridan or AG Van Hollen, but from that time on, no Capitol Police officer has ever said a word to me about biking around the capitol. As the statute says, you need to give an audible warning as you approach other users of the route, just like on a bike path, sidewalk, etc. It's a good idea to maintain a speed compatible with other users, maybe using fast joggers as a benchmark. (Written in a time before the widespread advent of I-pods and ear buds, the statute is silent on the decibel level of audible warning that would be considered reasonable... So is the presumed benchmark an un-budded ear?) 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" -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevin Luecke Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 2:46 PM To: Robert F. Nagel; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] 100 block e mifflin and the outer loop I love the new bike lane! As Mike mentioned, this was in the Platinum report as has been in the works since East Mifflin was designated as a bike boulevard. My inderstanding is that a full light is coming to the intersection of East Mifflin and Webster (which will really help with morning crossings of Webster) and a bike light at Mifflin and Hamilton where the new counter-flow bike lane ends. I would love to see counter flow lanes like this on all of the one-way spurs leading to/from the Square. If you visit Bike Madison (http://www.cityofmadison.com/bikeMadison/), which is a great new city resource, you will see that a cycletrack is listed for the Mifflin side of the Square in the planning section. I think this is still a ways off, but there is a lot of discussion on how to facilitate two-way bicycle traffic from the Mifflin bike boulevard to State Street and West Mifflin (and then on to the Missing Link). I would love to see a counter-flow track of some sort all the way around the square. Have you ever seen parallel one-way streets that run in the same direction? Let alone squares that do that? I would venture that there is more sidewalk riding and wrong-way riding on the Square than anywhere else in the city, and it is because bicyclists have to go so far out of the way if they follow the traffic patterns. The city did a great job with the Mifflin counter-flow lane & it will be even better once the final signage and lights are in - keep it up! Kevin Message: 8 Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:00:47 -0500 From: "Robert F. Nagel" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: [Bikies] 100 block e mifflin and the outer loop Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" normally i see a post here lauding new bike-friendly city actions, but i haven't seen one yet about the new construction on the 100 block of e mifflin and the outer loop; especially notable is the counter-flow lane in the 100 block of e mifflin and looks like there'll be a bike lane in the outer loop who knows what caused that to happen? who knows what else we might have to look forward to around the square or elsewhere? -- Kevin Luecke Lead Planner, Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin www.bfw.org <http://www.bfw.org/> | 608-251-4456 _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
