Last year’s Oregon bicycling summit had the Oregon Tourism Department talk about Oregon as “the Land that Bicycles Dream About.” Madison is probably a place that cows dream of bicycling (though, of course, Oregon’s cows and dairy industry would debate that).
A University town, Madison is also home to the state capitol and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. Three bits that got left out of the previous blog post about Madison:
First off: Wisconsin is a huge center for bicycle industry. I got a tour of the Saris factory right outside of Madison, and Planet Bike, based in Madison, hosted a party for bicycling advocates while we were there. The advocates’ representative (Joshua of New York Bicycle Coalition) beat the Planet Bike champ in ping-pong (note to Joshua: you’re supposed to let your donors win). But I digress!
Wisconsin is also home to Trek, Pacific Cycle (Specialized), and Waterford. Saris built the powertap that helped Floyd Landis in his amazing Tour de France performance, and also makes bike racks, including many of Portland’s. All in all, bicycling is estimated to bring $556 million a year to the state.
Second: Madison has a host of wonderful streets, including State Street. While the neighborhood streets (above) are wonderful, Madison has a way to go to improve them into bicycle boulevards. What’s more impressive is State Street, the hub of the tourist industry.
This street, for about eight blocks from the capitol, prohibits private cars. Bicycles, busses, and delivery vehicles can use it, but with a roll-curb, it’s much more likely to see pedestrians and bicycles meandering up and down the street and enjoying the sidewalk cafes. An equivalent in Oregon? Eugene tried to do something somewhat like it with their pedestrian mall, but recently added back in cars. When Portland had a visioning session of great streets, they offered many of the world’s examples, all of which were car-free — but added in cars to Portland’s draft. (hat tip: Portlandtransport.com)
Finally, Madison busses seem to all have triple-bike racks on the front of them. This is something we’ve asked TriMet to do, and Kiran Limaye of TriMet was at the conference and investigating how the program was working out for Madison. I also saw a Raz transportation bus in Portland the other day with bike racks on the front and back — a four-or-six capacity solution. As more and more people bike, this sort of challenge will become more and more prevalent.
Madison is all the things you say. I went to grad school there in the mid-90s and rode my bike year-round. (That’s one thing that gives Portland an advantage–no snow drifts in January.) I was shocked when I got back to Portland, which was at the time not very bike-friendly at all, and started hearing how it was a “great bike town.” We have made great strides since then, but I see from your report on that plastic surfacing that Madtown still sets the standard. We’ve become a great bike town, but Madison was doing it more than a decade ago.
Go Badgers!