Joe Tarr
Allen Burger sits on his BMX bike in front of the skatepark where he is unable to ride.
Allen Burger feels taunted.
Every time he leaves or returns to his house on East Wilson Street, he can see it: the city’s brand-new skatepark in Central Park.
It’s the kind of place that would be perfect for Burger to unwind after a long day at work or hang out with his buddies. There’s just one problem: The city doesn’t allow BMX bikes to use the Irwin A. and Robert D. Goodman Skatepark.
“I go out my door on my way to work and see this thing; I pass it every day,” says Burger, a machinist who has been riding BMX bikes for 15 years. “If [the rules don’t] change, I just want to move. It’s like having the love of your life dangled in front of you.”
Burger isn’t the only biker feeling excluded. Earlier this month, Burger’s girlfriend Mandy Erb started a change.org petition seeking “Equal Treatment for BMX riders in Madison Skatepark.” As of Monday, 354 people had signed it.
Madison’s Parks Division says the park was never intended to be used by BMX bicycles and that skaters led the effort to create it. The city also allows in-line and roller skaters to use it.
“The Madison Skatepark Fund has advocated for a destination skating facility within the city for over a decade,” writes parks spokesperson Ann Shea in an email.
Patrick Hasburgh is one of the organizers behind the Madison Skatepark Fund, which raised more than $500,000 to build the park. He says that effort was led by skaters, not bikers. Burger says he did try to get involved, but because he’s not part of the skaking community, didn’t always hear about meetings.
Hasburgh is sympathetic to the bikers (and didn’t make the decision to exclude them), but says the park wasn’t designed for them. “I do feel bad,” he says. “It’s a strange thing as a skateboarder to have to exclude someone after being excluded as a skateboarder. But really, the park isn’t designed for that.”
There are concerns that BMX bikes might damage the new park, he says. Similar to skateboarding, BMX bikes are often used for freestyle stunt riding. For some stunts, riders install pegs on their wheel hubs.
The park’s ramps, railings, stairs and bowls include two “polished granite ledges.” Skateboarders will slowly wear these down, Hasburgh says, but a biker can “take chunks out of that.”
Others contend the potential for damage is exaggerated. Ryan Harris, a BMX rider who helped design a park in Lake Geneva, says that many parks require BMX bikes to use plastic instead of metal pegs, to minimize damage.
But Hasburgh also argues the park is too small for both uses. Parks that allow both groups “typically have larger transition areas,” he says. “The obstacles are farther apart.”
Bikers have counter-arguments for this too. The petition notes that bikes “are equipped with brakes and are highly maneuverable, making them at least as safe as the skateboards and/or inline skates.”
Burger says that when he lived in Portland, Ore., one of the parks there prohibited bikes in the afternoon, to avoid conflicts between users. “So I got used to riding in the morning,” he says.
For now, Burger will have to continue driving to other parks or riding on the street. However, he confesses that he’s been riding a lot less since the park opened.
“This is so upsetting to have a park right there,” he says. “I’ve totally lost motivation.”
