The Buckeye Road Project

Is Madison hoping to increase its tax base by encouraging development on the city's edge? One can only look at the proposals to expand Old Sauk Road, Femrite Road, Rimrock Road and now Buckeye Road and wonder. Of course one must now wonder if this plan to expand using federally funded road projects won't backfire now that Madison's ability to annex might be undone by the newly formed Regional Planning Commission. However, that's not what this page is about. Simply put, this page is here to provide imformation regarding the Buckeye Road project.

The Buckeye Road project might be counted among one of the great successes of local bike/ped advocacy. What started out as a four-lane sprawl facilitating road project has been changed into a project that will better fit with the surrounding neighborhoods. Of course, that's not to say that the modified project is perfectly suited to the surrounding neighborhood but we're so pleased with the result that we're willing to call it an incremental victory!

22 October 1999, Public Hearing Report

by Michael Barrett

Last night I went to the public hearing on the design of the Buckeye Road project. I am somewhat hesitant to pass positive judgment given the recent maneuverings regarding the Old Sauk Road expansion. I guess what I'm saying is, I kind of liked what I saw of the blueprints and heard in the presentation. It isn't perfect but it shows that we are having an impact. I just fear that the moment we take our attention away from the thing, the hyper-highwaymen will slip in an extra lane or two. And I hope that I'm not missing some critical detail.

So what I saw was this: From the Hwy 51 Service Rd east, a two lane highway (12' lanes) w/bike lanes (5') w/parking along both sides (8') and sidewalks along both sides the entire length. (Again, I am not exactly an expert at deciphering engineering hieroglyphics, so it is possible that I missed something.)

A few (though not every) intersections had pedestrian bulb-outs and medians/ped-refuges. The ped bulb-outs were somewhat reduced in effectiveness as the overall road width was widened as the road approached the intersection from both sides. However, the engineering consultant assured us that the overall roadwidth (curb-to-median, i.e., one half the roadway only) was kept to 19' - not enough to easily & quickly do a lane striping change and create a 4 lane highway (min lane width being 11'). In other words, they would have to break out the bulldozers to create a 4-lane. This is exactly what the neighborhood, bike/ped advocates and the pbmvc demanded. But I would like to see the ped bulb outs come out another couple of feet.

Problems:

  1. Many (but not all) curb-cuts are old fashioned, cheap out, anti-wheel chair/anti-stroller/anti-elderly single 45 degree curb cuts instead of the 2 which intersect the roadways at 90 degrees (this was all called for in the adopted ped plan).

  2. Though this was allowed to go forward by the pbmvc as a 2 lane w/bike lanes, there is a fairly lengthy stretch between Hwy 51 east to the service road which is slated to be essentially a 4 lane. The right lane becomes a right turn only lane onto the service road, but it is entirely too long to be considered a right turn only lane for the entire stretch (it is about a block & a half).

  3. This r-t only lane will put eastbound cyclists in a very vulnerable position as they are a) given only a 3 foot shoulder in this stretch, b) (for the less experienced cyclist) have to contend with right turning traffic across their bow and/or c) (for the more experienced/bold cyclist) have to hold their own out in the left/through lane as cars speed by on both the left and the right. To make matters worse, the right turn onto the service road is designed to facilitate high speed right turns.

I suggested to the consulting engineer that:

  1. an extra foot be sheared off of the 2 car lanes to create a full-fledged bike lane (this still gives them their regulation 11')
  2. the bike lane be shifted over to lie between the right-turn only lane and the through travel lane as it is over at the Mke St underpass of Hwy 51. I added that this transition should somehow be marked with dashed lanes angled across the right turn only lane.

He seemed rather open to these suggestions. We'll see.

In general, I think that the project is still a bit out of scale for the neighborhood, but, it is a massive improvement over the 4-lane monstrosity originally planned. The neighborhood will be taking a bullet instead of the 4-lane 100 megaton nuclear blast. Hopefully it won't hit any vital organs.

There has been a lot of discussion on this list about coalition building with other interested parties. Well, here is an example where it happened. Several cyclists showed up at the initial hearing back in January and added their voices to that of the neighborhood in protest. Many, though not all (there were a few anti-cyclists in the crowd) seemed to appreciate our presence. Several actually huddled w/us after the meeting to strategize and seemed genuinely appreciative of the support from outside the neighborhood. Our presence made it less of a nimby issue. It was our encouragement which made them aware that they needed to make their feelings known to their elected officials, activate their neighborhood assn, and show up to the pbmvc. Kent Palmer, then-candidate for alder, now alder (dist 15) & member of pbmvc, was there and heard the depth of the anger at the scale of the project. BTWW commuter racers and Co. Supes Dave Gawenda & Mark Miller (now representative) were there as well. Each heard bikie concerns that were very congruent with neighborhood concerns.

I would consider this an incremental victory. But I think that it may prove some of the naysaying ('it'll never work untill the masses wake up!') wrong. Stuff's happnin' right now. The more we get involved in these things, the more it will keep right on happnin'.

It looks like the next battle is the Buckeye Rd section West of Hwy 51. This is a classic, quaint, comfy neighborhood scaled thoroughfare right now. The highwaymen acknowledged that they have 4 lanes planned there too. Stay tuned.

-Mike
"yammering on his own behalf since 1962"

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