Wednesday’s “Moving Bicycling Forward in Madison” Event was packed with supporters of better bicycling infrastructure for Madison. On the surface, Mayor Soglin hit the right notes, suggesting we need to take a holistic approach and create a comprehensive plan. Soglin also spoke about the fact that going forward, any increase in revenue is going to be dedicated to paying down Madison’s debt – also a great goal. City Staff showed off an impressive array of planned bicycle and ped improvements. But beneath the great talk is a big gulf between improving the bicycling mode share to 20%, and how the Mayor’s vision is likely to play out.
Did somebody say “comprehensive plan”?
Madison adopted a comprehensive plan in 2006, complete with transportation, development, economic, and other goals that comprise just the kind of holistic approach that the Mayor spoke about last night. The problem is not a lack of a plan, but a lack of leadership with enough backbone to make sure the city sticks to the plan. As someone who reviewed the transportation elements of the 2006 plan and has seen the plan ignored since it was adopted, I have little confidence that Mayor Soglin has enough of a backbone to make this happen himself. What we need is for everyone that was in the room Wednesday night to review the plan and start complaining about where Madison is missing the mark at every city and neighborhood meeting. History has clearly demonstrated that our leaders are not going to follow through unless we bust their butts.
About that spending freeze
Many of the projects discussed are scheduled in the 2012 budget to be constructed from 2013 onward. If you take a look at the Mayor’s proposed budget, you quickly see that spending jumps from $4,420,000 this year, to $11,020,000 – but wait – didn’t the mayor say that additional revenues in the future will go toward paying down the debt? That doesn’t leave much room for a 249% increase in ped and bike spending! In fact, since 2007, bike and ped spending has been flat (Major streets spending is up 15-20%) even though every budget shows an ever increasing amount of spending in future years. So not only is a 249% increase unlikely due to pressure to pay down the debt, but historically speaking, we are unlikely to see little additional funding unless something changes. The only thing I see changing this flat ped & bike funding situation is if those people at the event Wednesday night start complaining. If roads can get a 20% boost during a recession, why can’t we get the same boost for ped and bike infrastructure?
Perry Street Overpass
There was also a question about the Perry Street overpass – or why it has never been built. Traffic engineer Tony Fernandez answered that there wasn’t political support so the project was cancelled. But the truth is, there was a lot of political support – except at one WISDOT meeting on a cold winter night, far from Madison which few bicyclists attended. But what really killed the project was District 14 Alder Tim Bruer’s strong arming the council into re-directing dedicated federal funding away from the Perry street overpass and into the Todd Drive project. Interestingly, the federal funding source was from Transportation Enhancements, a Federal fund targeted at improving ped and bike accessibility in existing roadways, and not targeted at creating ped and bike accessibility for new projects like Todd Drive. I talked to USDOT’s Wisconsin representative about this, and they told me they really don’t enforce the policy. This is yet another example where the bicyclists of Madison need to stand up and give the city some backbone to get ped and bike projects built.
The moral of the story is: if you want it, get involved!
