In response to Madison's call for bicycle and pedestrian projects,
http://www.cityofmadison.com/news/view.cfm?news_id=3203, I submitted the
attached testimony. I've also published it as a Facebook Note, at
http://facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150958712940751.
I urge public transit, pedestrian, and bicycle advocates to support this
and other worth ped and bike projects before Madison's Ped/Bike/Motor
Vehicle Commission tonight, or by e-mail to [email protected] by
the deadline of June 1.
Your feedback on this idea and other suggestions are welcome anytime!
--
Steve Arnold, Fitchburg Alder, District 4, Seat 7
2530 Targhee Street, Fitchburg, Wisconsin 53711-5491
Telephone +1 608 278 7700 · Facsimile +1 608 278 7701
[email protected] · http://Arnold.US
Become a supporter: like http://facebook.com/ArnoldforAlder.
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Members of the Pedestrian/Bicycle/Motor Vehicle Commission:
I regret that I will not be able to be with you tonight because of
conflicting meetings of the Fitchburg Public Safety and Human Services
Committee, and the Fitchburg Common Council, on which I serve. Please
accept this written testimony. I would greatly appreciate your
acknowledgement and response, either as a body or individually, at the
address below.
On behalf of current and future residents of eastern Fitchburg and
Madison south of Wingra Creek, please consider adding an overpass over
the Beltline at Perry Street to the Madison Capital Improvement Program.
Before I became active in politics, I'm told that a reconnection of
Perry Street was discussed, approved, and funded, but that the project
was later derailed, and the funds used to improve the Todd
Drive/Beltline underpass. I am not certain of this history, but I can
say that a Perry Street connection is now more important than ever.
The limited-access Beltine traversed undeveloped farmland when it was
first built, but now separates and isolates neighborhoods. Between Fish
Hatchery Road and Park Street, the Beltline separates the primarily
residential Burr Oaks neighborhood to north from the industrial and
commercial Stewart Street neighborhood to the south. In particular, it
separates residents who need jobs from opportunities for employment. It
concentrates automobile traffic and public transit onto Fish Hatchery
Road, and serves as a complete barrier to bicyclists and pedestrians
(except when vandals cut the Beltline fences to enable pedestrians to
cross the Beltline on foot!).
Fitchburg is unusual, and perhaps unique in Wisconsin, in including many
square miles of undeveloped agicultural and wild land within its
municipal boundary, and for that reason, in having a fifty-year regional
development plan. The regional plan follows the concepts of UW
Landscape Architecture Emeritus Professor Phil Lewis: Develop urban
centers along transportation corridors (rivers, canals, and railroad),
except where the transportation corridors are crossed by environmental
corridors. Thus Fitchburg has adopted an urban development boundary
focusing future development along its eastern rail line, and adopted
three neighborhood plans for transit-oriented development (TOD) along
that corridor.
The comprehensive plans also calls for four principle north-south
bicycle transportation routes: Seminole Highway/Badger State Trail,
Fish Hatchery Road, the eastern rail line/Syene Road, and CTH MM/Rimrock
Road. The third of these connects Fitchburg's future TODs, including
Nine Springs, now under construction between the rail line and US
Highway 14, with Madison's Park Street corridor and Metro's South
Transfer Point, except for the Beltline barrier at Perry Street. Without
the Perry Street connection, cyclists must detour west to Fish Hatchery
Road, or east to Rimrock Road, to get over the Beltline, discouraging
active transportation to Madison from these areas.
Should the City of Madison complete the Perry Street connection,
economic activity, and property values, on both sides of the Beltline
will increase. Travel distance between Stewart Street and Burr Oaks
will be cut to a half or a third, to easy walking distance, and
congestion on Badger Road, Fish Hatchery Road, and Greenway Cross will
be dramatically reduced. Metro Transit routes, including 16 and 40, can
be rationalized to run faster and better serve Madison's and Fitchburg's
neighborhoods. New Fitchburgh neighborhoods, such as Nine Springs,
which are being built and marketed as "bicycle friendly", will
contribute transit riders, bicyclists, and customers to the Park Street
corridor instead of more single-occupancy private vehicles to Fish
Hatchery Road.
There is frequently pushback from current residents against any kind of
new connection because of the fear of through traffic. I argue against
this pushback by demanding to know why residents should be able to enjoy
a "quiet neighborhood" while being able to drive through any of the
other neighborhoods of our cities. I offer instead a "fair share"
concept: with lots of connections, people have many options for getting
from one place to another, and no neighborhood is burdened by excessive
traffic. I hold that new traffic patterns over a Perry Street
connection should not be burdensome, and the decrease in congestion
elsewhere, and better accessibility, will be ample compensation.
In the past, it has been asserted that what the Stewart Street
neighborhood really needs is for Post Road to connect west to Fish
Hatchery Road, and that this connection (in Fitchburg) should be the top
priority. Fitchburg is now well along to making that connection, with
one home purchased and demolished, a second purchased for demolition or
moving, the remaining property acquired, funds allocated, and
development agreements authorized to begin roadbuilding this year. I
ask that Madison now do its part to make the critical Perry Street
connection over the Beltline barrier.
I am encouraged that the state Department of Transportation is making
safety improvements to the Beltline at Fish Hatchery Road and Park
Street, and is preparing to study the Beltline as a whole. I am
grateful that Federal highway projects can now fund mitigation of
pedestrian and bicycle barriers near the project, and am hopeful that
this could be a source of funding for the Perry Street connection. In
any event, connections over or under limited access highways like the
Beltline and US Highway 14 are critical to mitigate congestion by
keeping local traffic off the regional highway system, and Fitchburg
will continue to invest in crossings. I hope Madison will do the same.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Steve Arnold, Fitchburg Alder, District 4, Seat 7
2530 Targhee Street, Fitchburg, Wisconsin 53711-5491
Telephone +1 608 278 7700 · Facsimile +1 608 278 7701
[email protected] · http://Arnold.US
Become a supporter: like http://facebook.com/ArnoldforAlder.
--- End Message ---
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