Gearing up to Gold: University of Wisconsin- Madison

Last week, the League announced its latest round of Bicycle Friendly University awards, including the rise of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from Silver to Gold designation. In this post, Chuck Strawser shares some of the most notable developments on campus.

As a recently awarded Gold-level Bicycle Friendly University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has completed a number of notable developments on campus.

Perhaps most importantly, we’ve installed so many new bike racks that we can now accommodate more bikes parked on campus than cars. Despite the fact that many of our very old historic buildings are built right up to the sidewalk, we’ve gone from about 8,900 bike parking spaces campus-wide in 2009 to about 13,500 bike parking spaces this year.

And we’re not done yet. Our goal is to provide racks to accommodate 14,500 bikes by the end of the next fiscal year, and we are on track to accomplish that.

Some of our other recent accomplishments for bicyclists include:

• The installation of a bike-specific signal head for a major path crossing of an arterial road

• Contraflow bike lanes on campus streets that are one-way for cars — and bike boxes to facilitate bike’s turning movements

Contraflow bike lane

• A new and improved University Bicycle Resource Center that serves as a hub for educating riders about cycling safely in traffic, as well as bike maintenance

Bike maintenance class at the University Bicycle Resource Center

• A dozen self-service outdoor “air and repair” stations for bicyclists

Fixit stand in use!

• A third of all Madison B-cycle (bike share) stations installed on our campus

B-cycle riders in the protected bike lane on University Avenue

We also have plans to extend the existing Campus Drive Bike Path to the University Ave protected bike lane (pictured above), which would provide a connection on separated bike facilities all the way from the suburb on Madison’s west side through campus and into downtown Madison.

Chuck Strawser is a Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner, Commuter Solutions, for UW-Madison Transportation Services.