Thanks for providing some more insight, Tony. Could you explain your thoughts about there not being sufficient space to go along Johnson/3rd? It looks to me like the 2000 block of E. Johnson has a ~36' curb to curb width adjacent to the Occupy site. If the street were narrowed to two 11' travel lanes without a median there should be a lot of room to work with in the existing ROW and wouldn't require any land from OM. I don't believe that removing the median would make crossing the street more difficult for pedestrians if the width of the crossing were reduced to 22'.
I do agree that it could result in some compromised geometries, but think the 3rd street crossing could be set up quite well if we are willing to use some of the road space on 3rd (we don't need to keep on-street parking on both sides of the street). The turn at 3rd/Johnson would not be ideal, but again, could probably be softened quite a bit if we there were a bulbout at the corner into 3rd St. (and maybe OM could lose a foot or two right at the corner to help soften it as well?) Of course, that doesn't touch the issue of why on earth we have 3 lanes outbound on Pennsylvania when they're not at all needed. Going down to two lanes there could open up options for going around the west side of Schoelkopf. I guess the larger point is, why aren't we more comfortable repurposing our existing street ROW away from MV use (including on-street parking) and towards accommodating bike travel? Grant On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 2:54 PM, Fernandez, Anthony via Bikies < [email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Martha, and I want to add a little clarification from my standpoint > as the project engineer for this. > > > > We would not have been proposing this project if we thought that it would > ultimately harm the Occupy Madison site and program. We felt that we had a > good solution using the vacant land that would, in the end, make this a > win-win-win-win. (Occupy – Schoelkopf owners and tenants – biking > community – City). There was potential to make more space available to > Occupy than we would be acquiring for the path while providing fair > compensation (through the eminent domain process) to “make them whole”. We > had discussed this with some of their Board members and thought we had at > least qualified support. > > > > Of course we also wanted to minimize impacts to the Schoelkopf site to > maintain its viability for current and potential uses. We were > coordinating with those owners as well. Taking out a row of their parking > would be a major impact. > > > > We looked carefully to find a good off-street alternative to going between > the Occupy and Schoelkopf sites. In my judgment there is none. There is not > sufficient space to create an acceptable bike facility around the Johnson > St and Third St sides of the Occupy site without acquiring significant > width from the Occupy site on both sides and perhaps having an even more > detrimental impact on their site. It would also provide much worse > geometry for bicyclists, both rounding the corner and entering Third St. > There is also not sufficient space to get a bike path around the west side > of the Schoelkopf building (with necessary clearances from the building and > the street). > > > > The other alternative is to transition bikes into and out of the street > for a couple blocks. This is certainly feasible if there is no alternative, > but not very desirable when we are trying to create facilities that feel > comfortable to a broad range of users. > > > > There were complications to making the Occupy land transfer work and in > reconfiguring their site. In the end it seems that the Occupy leaders > decided they were better off advocating for no change, and we have to > respect that decision. Beyond that there may have been some > misunderstanding due to lack of communication on our part. > > > > At this point I think it makes sense to step back and look at all possible > alternatives. Bottom line is we really want this to work for all the > stakeholders, including Occupy. IMO there was – and maybe still is - a > good solution. > > > > Tony Fernandez > > [email protected] > > voice: 608-266-9219 > > > > *From:* Bikies [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Martha > Laugen via Bikies > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 27, 2016 3:38 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [Bikies] Bike path, Tiny houses, etc. > > > > Thanks to all for the dialogue re: bike path. > > > > For what it's worth, a few clarifying points. > > Yes: Madison BCycle's shop, office and vehicles are based here. In order > to serve the community the way we do on the budget we have - we do require > all the space in our current lot for vehicle manuverability. So do other > tenants in the building including businesses that receive delivery via > large box trucks regularly, and customers that arrive via bike, car, > motorcycle and wheelchair. > > > > We do not want to see anyone displaced of course, and are excited about > the path expansion. There is an adjacent parcel of land that is currently > unused here. Could that facilitate Tiny House expansion or bike path > re-routing? I am not the planning expert but the potential is certainly > there. > > > > As for how straightforward the path planning is there - I encourage folks > to inquire w/ city planners, but as someone who bikes there daily, in all > seasons, it is not a straightforward extension of current routes. > Currently, paths suddenly become sidewalk, bikelanes merge with paths or > just disappear, paths cross busy roads at an angle where it's impossible to > see car traffic coming from either direction. From what I've seen of plans, > the proposal makes this interface much safer. > > > > My hope is that no current area residents or business will be compromised > by this - and I'm certainly not sure that's our fate at this time. > > -Martha Laugen, Madison BCycle > > > > > -- > > *Martha C. Laugen, MPH* > > *617.320.9806 <617.320.9806>* > > *[email protected] <[email protected]>* > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > >
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