Biking the Hoan would be better, riders conclude after trip downtown
Biking over the Hoan would be better, three dozen bicyclists concluded Monday after dodging traffic on a purposeful ride from Humboldt Park to the Discovery World Museum.
The result was no surprise.
State Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) and his legislative neighbor Rep. Jon Richards set up the lunch-time trip to show the dangers and inconvenience of the Bay View-to-downtown bike route the Wisconsin Department of Transportation chose 10 years ago. Then, the DOT rejected a proposal to add a bike and pedestrian lane to the bridge that connects the south side neighborhood to the lakeshore near Veterans Park.
Richards called it a “bitter conclusion.”
Almost the entire route is on busy streets, and bicyclists have no protection from motor vehicles. Richards called the experience pedaling on S. Kinnickinnic Ave. and S. 2nd St. “unnerving.”
Add in nearly 20 intersections, and the confusing route is clearly inferior to the alternative: a bike and pedestrian pathway on the 2.5-mile Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge, Larson said.
“It would be so much easier to say go over the most beautiful bridge you see, and that’s going to connect you,” Larson said.
The ride was part of the current campaign to change the yet-to-be-completed path chosen in 2002.
Larson, Richards and cycling advocates have a window of opportunity to make their case, while the DOT again studies the feasibility of a bike lane as part of the planning for a reconstruction of the bridge scheduled to start in 2013.
A report on the cost and engineering challenges of adding a bike route, separated by a safety barrier, is set to be released later this year.
“This is a 40-year opportunity; a generational opportunity,” Larson said, as he gathered the group outside the Humboldt Park Pavilion.
The ride reinforced the impressions the bikers brought to the street.
“I prefer not to have all the stop signs and traffic,” said Debra Tuckwood, a member of the Bay View Bicycle Club. “I probably wouldn’t want to do it by myself.”
Tuckwood was one of the thousands who took the opportunity to ride the Hoan during the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts in June. That experience convinced her that the slope and wind would be easily overcome.
“I was surprised it was as easy as it was,” Tuckwood said.
Larson urged the riders, a mix of old and young, some on clunky mountain bikes and others on recumbents, to press business owners and state officials to see the benefits of opening the Hoan to bikers and walkers.
Their task is to convince opponents like Sheriff David Clarke and Gov. Scott Walker, who have called a bike lane on the Hoan too costly and too dangerous.
The group that traveled down S. 2nd St. doesn’t need further persuasion.
279 Comments for "Biking the Hoan would be better, riders conclude after trip downtown"
At current current traffic & tax levels, it will take over 250 years of Hoan bridge "user fees" (gas tax & registration fees--including City Wheel Tax) to cover the Hoan's new deck--a deck that will last at best 30-50 years.
Milwaukee bus riders pay a little over 30% of costs via the farebox; Hoan Bridge drivers don't even pay that much and now demand that others kick in to keep it "uncluttered".
TransitRider Oct 18, 2011 7:02 PM
MkeEagle2 Oct 18, 2011 7:04 PM
Yeah, didn't think so. . .
MkeEagle2 Oct 18, 2011 7:06 PM
MkeEagle2 Oct 18, 2011 7:09 PM
MkeEagle2 Oct 18, 2011 7:12 PM
Portland has LOTS more bus routes than train routes and it is likely that some bus would take you closer to wherever you needed to go.
I'll bet you didn't take a bus because it seemed too hard figure out all the ins and outs of a big bus system. On the other hand, a limited rail system was MUCH easier to comprehend, and so you took it.
Most visitors react the same way. The bus system's complexity & size scares them off; rail is limited and MUCH easier to understand.
That is one VERY BIG reason why Milwaukee's streetcar would do much more to get people into transit than expanded downtown bus service ever would.
TransitRider Oct 18, 2011 7:25 PM
Not a major problem, just take the adjacent traffic lane, pull over on the shoulder and climb over the waist-high concrete barrier separating the bike & traffic lanes.
It would be far easier to reach an injured cyclist on the Hoan bike path than it would on some existing rural bike trails that are far from roads.
TransitRider Oct 18, 2011 7:33 PM
SMCMAC32 Oct 18, 2011 7:34 PM
I can see it for south siders who bike-commute to work downtown and for hardcore riders, but the notion that Joe & Mary Average (and their kids) would bike the Hoan for entertainment -- or the notion that tourists would be unable to resist the temptation to do the same -- is patently absurd.
In other words, we're looking at a huge expenditure that will benefit an incredibly small percentage of the population. And in this day & age, with tax dollars at a premium, if we're not looking primarily at the cost-benefit side of the equation instead of allowing ourselves to get wrapped up in fuzzy feel-good crapola like "world class image" and "promoting wellness", we're fools.
BigJim Oct 18, 2011 7:38 PM
If there were 4 traffic lanes and 2 bike lanes (instead of 6 traffic lanes like they now plan to rebuild), the bike lanes could be manufactured cheaper. After all they wouldn't need to support a semi-trailer.
TransitRider Oct 18, 2011 7:42 PM
But a tipping semi will probably kill whoever it falls on--biker, or even an SUV driver.
TransitRider Oct 18, 2011 7:48 PM
But a tipping semi will probably kill whoever it falls on--biker, or even an SUV driver.
TransitRider Oct 18, 2011 7:48 PM
It's not a matter of how much tax revenue bike riding generates IN GENERAL, it's a matter of how much tax revenue a bike lane on the Hoan would generate SPECIFICALLY.
In other words - how much additional bicycle-related revenue would be generated if a bike lane were installed on the Hoan? What would be the return on that multi million-dollar investment?
And the answer to that is none...or very, very little.
I would go out of my way to bike across the Golden Gate -- just so I could stop a few times and take in one of the most beautiful sights in this country (and try to absorb the engineerng feat of the bridge itself) -- but the Hoan is not the Golden Gate and never will be.
BigJim Oct 18, 2011 7:52 PM
If you intend to make common sense comments, please find a different forum. :D
BigJim Oct 18, 2011 7:56 PM