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"
Yeah, like bikers are going to cure all the ill's of Milwaukee and the modern age. Get real. They used to have bus shelters on the 16th, 27th, and 35th street viaducts too, in the good old days when people used to get off the bus and use the stairs to get to work in the Menominee valley. Show me how many people still walk up and down the stairways there (if they even still exist) and don't drive a car to work.
In any event, it's well worth spending an extra $1 million or $3, aina hey? Ask OZAUKEE COUNTY how much the 415-foot-long bridge and slightly more than a half-mile of new paved trail on each end of it cost-- ($1.76 million). I'm sure that THAT was taxpayer money well spent. And that was only with the federally mandated 17 foot clearance recommendations using the Military Traffic Management Command Transportation Engineering Agency (MTMCTEA) of the DOD. And if they don't take up a lane on top, what do you think the costs will be to clear the 120 foot requirement for passing ships if they "suspended" one underneath the present structure like some of you have suggested?
tabitha1 Oct 18, 2011 7:02 AM
tabitha1 Oct 18, 2011 7:12 AM
Yes democracy at its best, build a bike lane because 5 out of 100 want it so for what 1/10 of their trip to work they won't be in car/cell phone traffic. You do realize there will be bikers with cell phones that will be site seeing and ruining "your" commute.
kgetti Oct 18, 2011 7:19 AM
tabitha1 Oct 18, 2011 7:29 AM
tabitha1 Oct 18, 2011 7:34 AM
artattack Oct 18, 2011 7:39 AM
U.S...fuel would not be a problem...thank goodness North Dakota gets it.
that is where people are going to move...high paying industry jobs.
artattack Oct 18, 2011 7:43 AM
SMCMAC32 Oct 18, 2011 7:49 AM
tabitha1 Oct 18, 2011 7:50 AM
SMCMAC32 Oct 18, 2011 7:50 AM
Badger68 Oct 18, 2011 7:51 AM
PJMagnum Oct 18, 2011 7:53 AM