Distance isn't necessarily a good proxy for easier/faster/more convenient
for transit vs bike. Ease and convenience are pretty relative and
subjective terms, but biking is probably faster than transit for a lot of
people. I live 8.5 miles away from my work (Dempsey/Cottage Grove Rd to
Todd Dr./Frontage Rd.) and have a bus stop right outside my front door and
relatively close to my workplace. Google maps estimates my time by bike to
be 43 minutes (real world time for me is ~35 minutes during most of the
year and closer to 45 minutes in the winter). Google puts my trip by bus at
1:04 minutes. I actually need to leave by 6:51 in order to get to work by
8:00, so there's also that wait time as compared to a bike. If I worked at
UW Hospital it would take me 1:05 by bus vs. 39 minutes by bike. It'd be
cool if someone could do a visualization of trip times for transit vs. bike
in Madison and I bet a lot of people would be surprised at how quick biking
is, especially when compared to transit.

If you live and work in Madison, it's hard to beat a bike to get you where
you need to be.



On Fri Feb 13 2015 at 2:43:46 PM Robbie Webber <[email protected]>
wrote:

> I was actually sort of impressed that so many people mentioned the need
> for improved and more bike parking (and showers, locker rooms, etc.) What
> that shows, along with the very high mode split among people making >
> $55,000, is that people who likely have a transportation choice are opting
> to bike. We have excellent facilities as far as the average American city
> or workplace goes. I wonder how many other workplaces with over 15,000
> employees  and 40,000+ other daily commuters have parking as good as ours.
>
> But I was also very surprised that biking was so far ahead of transit.
> Obviously, that's for good weather. Do people in that income category live
> significantly closer so that biking is easier/faster/more convenient than
> bus?
>
> And the attitudes and mode splits at the Hospital just seemed to be so
> radically different. Some of it is surely due to scheduling, but it can't
> all be that.
>
> Robbie Webber
> Transportation Policy Analyst
> 608-263-9984 (o)
> 608-225-0002 (c)
> [email protected]
> All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of
> my employer or any other group with which I am affiliated.
>
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 1:58 PM, STRAWSER, Charles <[email protected]
> > wrote:
>
>>  “Also mentioned is better/more bike parking”
>>
>>
>>
>> Yep. Working on that. And we passed a milestone in fall 2014 – we now
>> have more free bike parking spaces on campus than we spaces for cars.
>>
>> Roughly 13,100 bike parking spaces vs about 13,000 car spaces.
>>
>>
>>
>> And we have already replaced all but about 600 of the old, awful bike
>> racks on campus (you know, the wheelbenders, and the “wave” racks that are
>> so popular with architects because they look pretty when empty).
>>
>>
>>
>> Most dorms now have 1 bike parking space for every 2 residents (Sellery
>> and Witte are notable exceptions, but there’s a $40 million project there
>> that should improve bike parking there).
>>
>>
>>
>> And we’re not done yet. Our goal is 14,500 spaces that all meet campus
>> standards by 2017.
>>
>> And we are on track to do that.
>>
>>
>>
>> I’ve started working on UW-Madison’s reapplication to League of American
>> Bicyclists for a better Bicycle Friendly University status (we were named
>> silver in 2011), and honestly, more and better bike parking is the main
>> obstacle to gold (or perhaps even platinum) status, imo.
>>
>>
>>
>> But I’d welcome your comments here , or directly to me, about that.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> chuck
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Bikies [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of 
>> *Robbie
>> Webber
>> *Sent:* Friday, February 13, 2015 1:27 PM
>> *To:* Bikies
>> *Subject:* [Bikies] Survey of UW transportation issues
>>
>>
>>
>> Very interesting responses. There are actually two documents: one
>> <http://transportation.wisc.edu/files/SurveyReports/2014SurveyReportMain.pdf>
>> is just the percentages of people that answered questions in a certain way,
>> and the appendices
>> <http://transportation.wisc.edu/files/SurveyReports/2014SurveyReportAppendices.pdf>
>> include comments verbatim.
>>
>>
>>
>> I found several things especially interesting.
>>
>>
>>
>> Biking to campus is the second highest mode after driving alone for
>> faculty and staff making over $55,000/yr
>>
>>
>>
>> The comments section was especially interesting and had a number of
>> strong themes:
>>
>>    - Faculty/staff that drive part way into the city and then either
>>    bike or take the bus,
>>    - Faculty/staff that love the bus pass program,
>>    - Faculty/staff complaining about the cost of parking on campus,
>>    - Hospital employees overwhelmingly complained about parking, but
>>    many more issues than just the cost, although that was also the top
>>    complaint. Schedules or the bus and work not matching are significant
>>    problems.
>>    - Hospital employees are much more outright hostile to UW Parking and
>>    Transportation Services than other groups. Many m ore comments that said,
>>    "We shouldn't have to pay to come to work."
>>    - Faculty/staff that would like better transit options to allow them
>>    to drive less. These include longer hours of service/more frequency,
>>    service to areas that don't have it now, and more direct connections to
>>    campus from some areas. Also mentioned is better/more bike parking and
>>    showers.
>>    - Students complaining about overcrowded buses. Faculty/staff too,
>>    but the #80 seems to be the biggest problem.
>>    - Very few faculty, staff, or students use Monona Transit. More UW
>>    Hospital employees use Monona Transit.
>>
>>  I have a bit more sympathy for the hospital employees that work off
>> hours, have to go to multiple locations of UW Clinics, or are "on call," so
>> may not be able to plan travel easily.
>>
>>
>>
>> But there also seem to be a significant number of people in both
>> professional categories (I'm leaving out students) who need to be a little
>> more creative about using more than one mode to get to work. Except for
>> maybe living somewhere car-dependent (which is a different subject), there
>> is nothing wrong with driving in from your home in the 'burbs or farther
>> reaches of Madison, parking for free on the street, and then jumping on the
>> bus or your bike for the rest of the journey. Many people have obviously
>> figured that out, but many more just can't wrap their head around the idea
>> that the journey to work can involve more than one mode.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    Robbie Webber
>> Transportation Policy Analyst
>> 608-263-9984 (o)
>>
>> 608-225-0002 (c)
>>
>> [email protected]
>>
>> All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of
>> my employer or any other group with which I am affiliated.
>>
>
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