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Sheriff Clarke makes it clear: no bike lane on the Hoan Bridge

Posted by Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel on Oct. 5, 2011

cycling, Hoan Bridge

In talking about the death of a man on the Hoan Bridge Tuesday, Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. staked out his position on the proposal to add a bike lane on the elevated roadway: an emphatic no.

Clarke called it the "dumbest thing I ever heard" during a news conference.

"Bikes in heavy traffic is not a good mix," he said. "I don't care what kind of safety barrier you're going to put up."

State Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said the sheriff is wrong.

"He should probably get that foot-in-mouth disease checked out soon," Larson said. "He's commenting on something he doesn't know about."

Larson said there are numerous examples of safe routes, separated by barriers, on similar bridges. The Wonders Way Bike Path on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in South Carolina is one of them.

Neither Clarke nor a sheriff's representative spoke in August at the town hall meeting organized by elected officials and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to gather input on the prospects of a bike and pedestrian route on the bridge. The DOT is studying the cost and feasibility as part of its planning for a reconstruction of the bridge deck, expected to cost $275 million to $350 million.

A consultant's report on the bike lane is expected to be completed this fall.

Larson said he expects the report will say a bike and pedestrian path could be added to the Hoan safely and affordably.

Clarke made his comments about the bike lane proposal while discussing the death of Bobby E. Jiles, 39, who was hit by a car while tending to his disabled vehicle in a southbound traffic lane. The collision knocked Jiles off the bridge.

The roadway on the Hoan has been severely restricted during work to repair crumbling concrete on the roadway. With the emergency lane closed and the traffic tightened, motorists have little room to maneuver or check their vehicles if necessary.

48 Comments for "Sheriff Clarke makes it clear: no bike lane on the Hoan Bridge"

  1. Your right, I don't want tax money going to this because it's something that will not be used other than a couple months out of the year. I think the 80,000 people study is BS.

    MU / Panther Oct 05, 2011 2:59 PM

  2. Typical response. Because you don't use a bike path, you can't understand that many people do. You continue to state things as fact, as opposed to just your opinion. People like you like to ignore facts, such as a well-funded study that shows how many people use the bike paths, but then you state as fact that it will not get used, as opposed to just stating your uniformed opinion. If you don't want to believe an actual study, then look at the usage of other similar bike paths over bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, contrary to the uninformed posters on here, there are bike paths like this all over the world and they get used frequently. Of course the bridge will get used more in the summer than in the winter, but many bikers will bike year round, especially if they decided to plow the bike path. Oh wait, if they plow the bike path that will be coming out of tax payer money and since you aren't planning on taking advantage of it, that is a waste. Try to get it through your head that many things that tax payers pay for are not used by everyone. I pay taxes for many things that I have no interest in, but I realize it is for the good of the community and I don't have to benefit directly to realize it can be a good thing. The world doesn't revolve around me. Again, do some research about bike paths on other bridges arund the country and world and you will realize this is not a waste of money.

    MU82 Oct 05, 2011 3:14 PM

  3. It's called I see with my eyes. Just like these studies say over 100,000 people downtown for the circus.

    MU / Panther Oct 05, 2011 3:42 PM

  4. Clarke's own comments make it clear he doesn't know ANYTHING about this proposal. Or the success in incorporating bike and pedestrian traffic on urban bridges other places.

    You'd think a "just the facts" type of cop would make well informed statements but that's clearly not what came out of Clarke's mouth.

    AtomicIsBack Oct 05, 2011 3:53 PM

  5. Wow impressive. I am curious as to how you are able to post on these blogs so often when you are on both ends of the bike paths on each end of the Hoan Bridge for 24 hours a day for a full month. You are a piece of work. Differences in opinions are great. The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same things and thought the same way. The problem with someone like you is you make up your mind about something and no matter how many facts, studies, figures, etc. are thrown your way, you will ignore them and cling to your misinformed beliefs. If you would read the link that I posted with an open mind, you would realize that maybe the bike path would be a good thing for our community. Getting someone like you to even read something like that is probably not likely and even if you did, you would refuse to believe the FACTS that are presented to you.

    MU82 Oct 05, 2011 4:18 PM

  6. "Clarke called it the "dumbest thing I ever heard" during a news conference."
    He has shown so many times that he is the "dumbest guy I ever heard" - and this happened once again here. Skipping an emergency lane during a bridge repair may have been pretty dumb - but it certainly has nothing to do with a bike lane.

    sharpie Oct 05, 2011 4:33 PM

  7. Ok, we will put up your bike path. If it doesn't work, like most think it will not, I want you to pay for it when it fails.

    MU / Panther Oct 05, 2011 4:55 PM

  8. Do you mean most as in people like yourself or Sheriff Clarke. I think I am going to listen to the people who have actually researched this; gone to other cities with similar bike paths on bridges, looked at past usage of bike paths in the area, ridden their bikes across the bridge, etc. I am not too worried about what someone like yourself thinks, who refuses to believe the studies that show how people actually do run and bike on the bike paths and who thinks the tragic accident recently on the Hoan Bridge has anything to do with a bike path guarded by a barrier. Yes, those are the same situations. Let's see, ride my bike across the Hoan Bridge with a barrier and no stop lights or ride my bike through city traffic and stop lights with people rushing to get to work while talking on their cell phones, smoking and drinking coffee. I wonder which route will be safer and used more often. Just try to think logically for just a few minutes.

    MU82 Oct 05, 2011 5:13 PM

  9. I like how you said nothing about you paying for it when it fails. It's a waste of money and you know it!!!

    MU / Panther Oct 05, 2011 5:32 PM

  10. Yes, because I would have a couple of million dollars to pay for it. I don't think so. I am not too worried about it failing however, if it actually gets done. Do you know why? Because if it does get done, there will have been enough RESEARCH put into this to have a very good idea of how this will or won't benefit our community. Nobody making the final decision is going to listen to what you or I have to say, because it is all just opinion. The nice thing is that contrary to what many of the posters believe, there are so many bridges similar to this project to compare to and that will be more important than what any of us think.

    It is obvious that you feel the need to have the last word, so this will be my last post on this subject. I look forward to seeing how this plays out over the next year or so. I feel confident that logic and fact finding will win out over name calling and misinformation.

    MU82 Oct 05, 2011 6:18 PM

  11. any adult with a bike pays the same road taxes and anybody who bikes more than drives is actually saving you money because they won't wear the road out nearly as fast as cars and trucks do. If everyone biked frequently to commute, you'd pay a fraction of your so called "road tax." You really think it's economical to be "taxed" with the upkeep of your car compared to a bike or train? You pay several times as much to have your so-called "freedom" of your own vehicle both in real taxes and the tax of keeping it running with your own money.

    MilkweedHummingbird Oct 05, 2011 11:12 PM

  12. I wish people would realize this is just a knee-jerk reaction by Clarke, using a tragic incident for a political purpose. Clarke shows no respect for the family of this man who was just killed. The accident had nothing to do with bikes yet he makes it into his political game to show how ignorant and idiodic his politics are.

    And the argument about "winds" is ridiculous. Any one of the many thousands who has ridden the Ride for the Arts knows that bridge is easily manageable to ride on and would actually be a major asset to the city if it were made accessible to bikes. There are long-standing examples in a wide range of cities where highways and bikes can work great together and where bridges and bikes are even greater. You don't have to go far to see an incredible greenway- just check out the Twin Cities greenway.

    MilkweedHummingbird Oct 05, 2011 11:17 PM

  13. how many drivers have driven drunk and killed others? Each year, drivers kill more people than the entire U.S. casualty count of the Vietnam War (drunk or sober, the total is 20,000 or more each year). Keep that in mind when you think bikes are the problem.

    MilkweedHummingbird Oct 05, 2011 11:19 PM

  14. even the most basic physics equation will show you that even the most wreckless of biker won't cause more harm than the wreckless, raging drivers that are out there. Force = Mass X Acceleration (F=MA). So if your mass on the bike is even as high as 250 pounds, and you can only go 20-30 MPH, it's not going to cause the destruction of the weight and increased acceleration of a motor vehicle.

    MilkweedHummingbird Oct 05, 2011 11:22 PM

  15. If the bike trail were already in place the man would not have been pushed off the bridge. I haven't heard the autopsy results so I don't know if he hadn't fallen but at least his chances of survival would have been better.

    Bike paths have been built on bigger and windier bridges without any safety issues. (I've been on the bike path on the Golden Gate Bridge recently myself.) It's not rocket science.

    The sheriff is not a civil engineer. He was speaking beyond his expertise when he said that a bike path on the Hoan Bridge would not be safe.

    turbo253 Oct 07, 2011 2:28 PM

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