Hank - Thanks for writing that. I agree with your analysis, and am disheartened that this plan will also serve as the basis for the bicycle component of the City of Madison Transportation Master Plan.
The MPO is not able to set policy, yet they are the regional transportation planning body. This is the closest thing that we have to an actual transportation planning and policy for the area that both feeds into and influences the travel patterns of Madison. The city doesn't really do transportation policy, and the planning seems to be about facilities, and not other elements: actually proactively trying to get more people to bike (or walk, take the bus, use multiple modes, drive off-peak hour, or other ways to reduce the burden of driving on the general public and infrastructure.) There are "recommendations," but not goals. There are trends, but not policy. Nowhere does it say, "We aim to fix these gaps and increase both the mode share and absolute number of bike trips within the next ten years." Nowhere is there a goal to have an increased percentage of the metropolitan area be within 1/4 mile of a primary bike route. Nowhere is there a list of the actual metric that should be used to see progress. And there is no talk about integrating bicycling with other modes. Park-and-bike lots, better bike parking at Metro transfer points and major other hubs, increased use and network of BCycle as part of the transportation network, etc. I feel partly responsible for the lack of hard metrics and policy, since I was on the advisory committee for the report. But we were frequently asked about the network, but not the overall goals. It wasn't until fairly recently that I realized what was missing. Even if this plan is adopted tonight, we can still work on the Madison in Motion (Transportation Master Plan) and elements in other communities. I hope others on this list will also push for goals and policy at the city level. Fill the gaps, increase the numbers (and make sure we have good, regular bike counts to document that), integrate bicycling into daily life through city programs. Robbie Webber Transportation Policy Analyst 608-263-9984 (o) 608-225-0002 (c) [email protected] All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer or any other group with which I am affiliated. On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 8:46 AM, Hank Weiss <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Everyone: > > My first post. My family has returned to Madison after a very long > absence. Great to be back to a GREAT city. > > FYI, I am sure many of you know the Bicycle Transportation Plan for the > Madison Metropolitan Area and Dane County is working on a plan > for improving bicycling conditions and increase bicycling levels throughout > Dane County. The plan has been online for several weeks and is being > presented to the MPO policy board TONIGHT. For details: > http://www.madisonareampo.org/planning/BikePlan.cfm > > I think the plan is a really great start with some innovative analyses and > is chock full of great recommendations. It obviously reflects a lot of > work. But I also think it is as yet an incomplete (but eminently fixable) > plan for reasons I highlight in the linked document. In a nutshell, > it needs to better address connectivity issues, needs more time based > measureable outcome for the goals, and needs to better address intersection > improvements. > > I personally would respectfully urge the MPO policy board to > postpone adopting the plan at this time and urge some discussion here of > the issues I raise and the plan itself. Interested what other people think. > Apologies if this has been covered, as mentioned, I am new to this list. > > My comments on the plan: > https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=3FC3897D341E4786!138430&authkey=!ABZ_zyaz7cQhrFc&ithint=file%2cPDF > > Cheers, > > > Hank Weiss > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > >
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