Mr. Krueger, I want to thank you for the time you spent with Donna Magdalina recently regarding the RR crossing of N Sherman Ave in the Village of Maple Bluff, and to point to an excellent example of how to accommodate bicyclists crossing RR tracks at such an acute angle across a bike lane.
The city of Madison built an excellent example in the westbound bike lane on Dayton Street across from the Charter St Heating plant's new boilers just east of N Mills St. see Google maps street view: http://goo.gl/maps/4prHq You can see just past the RR crossing barricades that the curb line cuts into the terrace almost all the way to the sidewalk, providing a way for cyclists to veer to the right and "square up" to the RR tracks in advance of crossing them much closer to a right angle than they would without this design. I'd be happy to show you the facility in person at your convenience, but since it's in the city of Madison ROW, I've cc'd Tony Fernandez, who was probably the engineer who designed it for city of Madison Engineering, and Arthur Ross, the City of Madison Traffic Engineering's bicycle & pedestrian coordinator. Thanks, Chuck Strawser Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner Commuter Solutions Transportation Services UW-Madison Room 124 WARF 610 Walnut St Madison WI 53726 608-263-2969 www.wisc.edu/trans From: Donna Magdalina Sent: Friday, August 09, 2013 6:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Bikies] Good news regarding N Sherman RR crossing I stopped at the Maple Bluff Town Hall and spoke to Police Chief/Village Administrator Tim Krueger to thank him for implementing the bike lanes on North Sherman and to ask if he would do something to make it easier for bikes to cross the RR at a right angle in the bike lanes. Riding southbound, I have to actually stop and walk my bike over those tracks with my skinny tires when there is a car in the lane next to me. He was incredibly kind and gracious and wanted to walk out and look at it with me to fully understand the problem and necessary solution. I demonstrated the issue and he asked how much asphalt extension I thought was needed to make a safe crossing. He said he would add asphalt the next time there was asphalt used in the village, which would be awhile. Since the sidewalk was due to being replaced soon, he thought they might put sidewalk there. Tim wasn't sure if the east side of the road was his jurisdiction but was happy to contact Madison and figure that out. He was very receptive and considered it an important safety issue to take action on. Donna
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