Bicycling Dane County

I have been doing close to 100 miles a week bicycling Dane County this year. Observations:

• The most dangerous riders are on the trails, not the county and town roads.
• The most dangerous practices are riding two abreast into oncoming traffic, and wearing no helmet - usually the same people are guilty of both.
• Judging from the change in mowing practices in Orton and Olbrich Parks, I would say active recreation advocates won out.
• The plethora of illegal signs on front lawns and terraces have decreased since Lisa Subeck and I raised the issue a month ago.
  • Contractors are clearly the worse offenders, followed by landlords and restaurants.
  • I called City of Madison Building Inspection on two offenders and it was handled promptly.  I should not have had to make the call. They cleaned up the garish Midvale Heights Apartments.
  • Lisa: how is your area doing?
• The most littered street has to be the first 200 feet of Doncaster across from the apartment building. I am almost certain the apartment building's dumpsters are improperly placed and screened. I pity the poor single family residences down the block who keep the area tidy.
• I still enjoy using the Capital City Trail and then heading around Lake Monona and winding down State Street.  My two favorite retailers continue to be Paul's Bookstore (Carol is almost always in.) and Poster Master (Dan is just as likely to be in someone else's shop.). Local merchants!
• The bike lane on University Avenue needs reconstruction. For the number of bikers, it is just too dangerous.
• The ride to Paoli is the best.
• The Sixth District owes a lot to Michael Christopher. When he was elected to the City Council in 1973, he made a concerted effort to get as many trees planted as possible to replace the dead elms.  It paid off.

Comments

[Dan Sebald]

# The bike lane on University Avenue needs reconstruction. For the number of bikers, it is just too dangerous.

Got that right! The ruts are a few inches wide. I weave back and forth looking for the narrowest gap so that I don't end up wrecking a rim. When crews fix this stretch, they use unflattened mounds of blacktop which last a few months.

The other dangerous location is the northeast side of the Regent and Monroe intersection. The road is falling apart.

[Paul]

Dan, I forgot about that one! The pothole on Monroe as you round Camp Randall entering Regent is large enough to swallow a large Buick.

[Michael Basford]

The most dangerous practice is using the iPod while biking. That'll get you killed.

Soon, the paths will take you to the Northside.

[Lisa Subeck]

It's looking a little better in my hood. As of when I returned from out of town this weekend, the whole set of Hollywood Video signs were gone. The daycare sign has disappeared from the median, and Dominoes hasn't had its signs out lately. The Little Caesars and Subway sandwich boards remain on the other side of the street, but I haven't seen the gigantic banners and other signs propped in the hoods of cars over there lately. It's definitely getting better.

[aaron]

Have you mapped out your routes, Paul? My wife is training for a triathalon (and I'm getting hooked on the bicycle part) and is constantly on the lookout for interesting rides all over the county. We use www.mapmyrun.com to set up and trace our routes everywhere (yes it's a running site but works for anything moving). You should link to your routes and we'll check them out--heck, we'll even show you the coolest way we found to Cambridge!