I'm not trying to beat up Tony. He generally does an admirable job. In
this instance the forethought, execution and result: ignoring an
alternative route on Madison's busiest bike route is incomprehensible
and I would argue inexcusable. I encourage Tony to spend and hour
between 7:00 and 8:00 AM along the construction route and watch what is
happening. Cyclists, myself included are either using John Nolen or the
grass strip just inside the curb as an alternative route. The grass will
be destroyed by the time the project has been completed. I think anyone
looking at this before the project could have easily predicted what has
happened and just made a command decision to either close a lane of John
Nolen or as I suggested yesterday, creat a temporary limestone path just
to the inside of the curb. Given the volume of pedestrian and cycle
traffic a John Nolen lane appropriation would likely have been the most
prudent course of action. City engineering staff should never forget
that pedestrians and cyclists are vulnerable users and therefore one
ought to take greater care than ignoring the issue when planning for
pedestrian and cycle route closures.
Brian Mink
Monona
Brian Mink wrote:
I agree Steve and Melanie. I think Tony's response if frankly a cop
out. Basically says there was not a perfect solution so we opted to do
nothing. I think that is frankly a lame approach to a significant
problem. We live in a world where there is seldom an ideal solution.
Heaven help us if we can implement solutions that are less than
perfect. This is precisely why folks get so frustrated with
government, analysts, and policy makers. Most of us are just fine with
a less than ideal solution. We want some attempt made to solve the
problem. One could use Tony's rationalization at every level of
government as an excuse to do nothing. Which is exactly what has been
done. The excuse that the city often closes streets and os not
implement detours is fine for cars because it is no big deal to use
you 2-5 liter engine to go out of your way a few blocks. The attitude
in my mind is very cavalier and I don't think we're comparing apples
to apples.
Brian Mink
Monona, WI
Steve Goldstein wrote:
On 5/8/15 12:13 AM, Melanie Foxcroft wrote:
I think this is another demonstration of why Madison doesn't receive
a "platinum" award for bicycling. This disaster is simply not
acceptable. The double standard of cars vs. bikes is too much.
Hopefully city transportation people will learn from this disaster
and do better next time.
The "city transportation people" are the traffic engineers who, after
considering the alternatives, have been forced into this decision
because nothing else meets minimum engineering standards. We all see
the logic of Tony's deliberations and conclusions.
The problem is that an engineering-only approach doesn't solve this
problem and that was the end of the discussion. If there were enough
political pressure, the discussion could have started out with the
*requirement* that the most heavily traveled bike route in the city
remain passable during one of the peak months of biking. If that
were the case, other alternatives might have been on the table ---
for example, staging the project to enable access or closing lanes on
John Nolen.
Many on this list will recall the activism opposing of the closing of
the Law Park path during construction of the convention center
achieved partial success. Tony's sensitivity to the issues shows
some things have improved over the past twenty years, but this
disaster shows we need more effective activism.
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