State Sen. Fred Risser is not what you would call “anti-bicyclist.” The 88-year-old Democrat from Madison was featured last summer in a Wisconsin Bike Fed Magazine article, which noted that Risser logs about 2,400 miles a year on his bike. A typical ride for Risser is at least 30 miles long, the article added.
Nevertheless, Risser voted with every other member on a state committee to nix a proposal to build a contra-flow bike lane on part of Capitol Square.
Risser simply thinks it’s a dumb idea.
“It’s just not safe,” he says. “The bikes now go around the Square. I bike around the Square, what’s wrong with that?”
Madison traffic engineers had come up with the plan as a way to help cyclists move from west to east around the Square. It would have created a bike-only lane running along Mifflin Street, on the Capitol side of the Square next to a lane of parking. The lane would have been installed during the reconstruction of the northern section of Capitol Square, expected to begin in April.
Ald. Mike Verveer, whose district includes the Square, says the idea would also help alleviate conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists, who often ride on the Mifflin Street sidewalk, rather than go around the Square (and up an incline).
The state Department of Administration had given initial approval for the project, Verveer says. But the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board, which includes seven private citizens, six legislators (including Risser) and four state staff members, voted unanimously against the idea at its Jan. 11 meeting.
Risser says the committee didn’t think the proposal was safe, since it would require bikes to cross traffic at the top of State Street, and then ride against traffic and cars trying to park along the Square.
“The bike aims at the car, the car aims at the bike,” he says. “Crossing traffic to get to a lane, aiming at cars, it just doesn’t make sense.”
He adds that bicyclists already have ways of traveling west to east downtown, and this lane would only be for two blocks. He also worries about “dooring,” when motorists parking along the Square might open a door into a cyclist.
“Why do bikes have to go against traffic?” he adds. “I don’t see why we have to develop a procedure to exempt bikes from going with the traffic.”
Verveer says he’s disappointed by the decision, but “can appreciate the misgivings of detractors.”
“I thought the city was being responsive to bicyclists, but also pedestrians who complain regularly about the illegal biking on sidewalks,” he says. “But at this point, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to do it any time soon.”
