Roads in Mad-Town 2015: Madison Road Meet - April 18, 2015

[bandit957]

Thanks everyone for coming in to Madtown.  Things went good minus the hiccups at the end.  I diverted to the abandoned Burke Road instead of taking Stoughton Road (US 51) south after the blank Interstate trailblazer. However, I forgot to mention it to two cars - one of which managed to find their way there after the driver kept going the wrong way, the other of which followed the rest of the itinerary I planned.

I included Burke Road in my walking tour on Sunday!

Also, I did detect a couple of bunker blasts during the meet. No meet would be complete without it!

[GeekJedi]

Lilja, not Lijia.
The _____? is Chris Tarr's son.

That would be Nathan Tarr.

[SSOWorld]

Lilja, not Lijia.
The _____? is Chris Tarr's son.

That would be Nathan Tarr.

Thanks, I wasn't sure
EDIT: original post FIXED!! 

[Brandon]

Yep, it was a good meet.

Rare WisDOT leftover at the I-94 Welcome Center.



WisDOT goes all MTO in the Zoo Interchange construction zone.



Lunch was good.



Bipping signage.



Abandoned signage.

[SSOWorld]

Yep, it was a good meet.

Rare WisDOT leftover at the I-94 Welcome Center.

rare indeed for "hide yo evidence" WisDOT!

WisDOT goes all MTO in the Zoo Interchange construction zone.

I really hate this diversion from the norm despite the circumstance!

Abandoned signage.

Business definitely went under.

[jpi]

Looked like a great turn out and loads of fun as always :-) Now it is all about Denver! :-)

[Brandon]

Looked like a great turn out and loads of fun as always :-) Now it is all about Denver! :-)

Yes, time for a Rocky Mountain High. 

[Highway63]

Not enough for a full-fledged trip report so I will just share the highlights. I wound my way up to Lansing, then down to Beloit overnight, then to Madison, then directly returned to Cedar Rapids.

-Back into Allamakee County for the first time since 2010. I spent an hour in Lansing at the Black Hawk Bridge and an overlook for the first pictures there since 2006, and may end up going back again this summer.
-Too early for things to be in bloom yet (the weekend was right on the cusp of "roadgeek season" for me)
-Covered US 14 between US 61 and Janesville
-My GPS got caught off guard by two interchanges, WI 11 at I-90 (cloverleaf to double roundabout) and Fish Hatchery Road at the Beltline (now a left instead of a loop).
-Finished the "Star Wars Minute" podcasts for "The Empire Strikes Back" 15 minutes from the end of the trip.

[DaBigE]

Abandoned signage.

Business definitely went under.

If you look at the historic Street View, you can see what the buildings on that plot looked like (2007) and then see the subsequent deconstruction of them (2011).

[bandit957]

I posted 77 photos from the event, but they also include Chicago and other goodies...

http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15a.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15b.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15c.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15d.html

[A.J. Bertin]

I posted 77 photos from the event, but they also include Chicago and other goodies...

http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15a.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15b.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15c.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15d.html

Great pictures, Tim!

[algorerhythms]

I posted 77 photos from the event, but they also include Chicago and other goodies...

http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15a.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15b.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15c.html
http://www.bunkerblast.info/roadpics/mad15d.html

One minor nitpick: the bike lane on University Ave. is one-way eastbound, not two-way (unless it changes somewhere between Charter Ave. and where you crossed it).

And it's interesting that you found Ronald Reagan in Madison. I didn't think there were any Republicans left here.

[bandit957]

One minor nitpick: the bike lane on University Ave. is one-way eastbound, not two-way (unless it changes somewhere between Charter Ave. and where you crossed it).

I think they have one on the other side that's westbound.

[Big John]

One minor nitpick: the bike lane on University Ave. is one-way eastbound, not two-way (unless it changes somewhere between Charter Ave. and where you crossed it).

I think they have one on the other side that's westbound.

Yes, between the through and right-turn lanes

[DaBigE]

One minor nitpick: the bike lane on University Ave. is one-way eastbound, not two-way (unless it changes somewhere between Charter Ave. and where you crossed it).

I think they have one on the other side that's westbound.

Yes, between the through and bus/right-turn lanes

Fixed.

The WB bike lane begins as an exclusive bike lane at Bassett St and "ends" where peels off at Babock with an option to cut across and continue up University Ave, at the split at Campus Dr. Before it reaches the downtown area, the bike lane exists as a shared parking/bike lane along Gorham St (Gorham St turns into University Ave at the curve at Bassett St).

The EB bike lane starts at the Campus Dr/University Ave split follows Campus Dr to just east of the railroad, where it splits off and becomes a contra-flow lane along WB University Ave. the EB bike lane is separated by a concrete curb its full length until it peels off at Basset St, where it will eventually find its way to the Lake Monona Loop path.

When University Ave was reconstructed into its current WB one-way format, the contra-flow bike lane was considered revolutionary and to some extent a big experiment. IIRC, ITE Journal (or some other civil engineering periodical of the time) did a story about the corridor shortly after it opened after reconstruction (late 70s, early/mid 80s?).

[JREwing78]

That contraflow bike lane can catch drivers off guard; you don't typically think to look for oncoming bike traffic on an otherwise one-way street.

[Brandon]

That contraflow bike lane can catch drivers off guard; you don't typically think to look for oncoming bike traffic on an otherwise one-way street.

IMHO, contraflow bicycle lanes should not be allowed.  All non-sidewalk traffic should go the same direction for predictability.  When all traffic is predictable by all road users, you have fewer potential opportunities for crashes.

[DaBigE]

While it may not be "predictable", that bike traffic is right in the field of vision (unless you suffer from severe tunnel vision). Like I said earlier, it was (and apparently still is) a controversial design, but it works. Having ridden that bike lane many times in college, the only ones that seemed to be caught off-guard were the pedestrians crossing University Ave (against the lights), heading northbound on the cross street, as they would typically only look one way, towards the vehicular traffic.

[Brandon]

While it may not be "predictable", that bike traffic is right in the field of vision (unless you suffer from severe tunnel vision). Like I said earlier, it was (and apparently still is) a controversial design, but it works. Having ridden that bike lane many times in college, the only ones that seemed to be caught off-guard were the pedestrians crossing University Ave (against the lights), heading northbound on the cross street, as they would typically only look one way, towards the vehicular traffic.

Like I said, predictability for all road users.  That includes the often forgotten pedestrian.

[froggie]

That may have more to do with bicycles not being looked for by drivers and pedestrians than any inherent "lack of predictability".  It's obvious from DaBigE's description that pedestrians weren't looking for bicycles...just for cars, even though there's this wide curb-separated space from other traffic that also has its own signals.  Of course, if pedestrians are crossing against the signals (as DaBigE asserts), there are other issues present as well.

[SSOWorld]

And the second question is how often do bikers go against the green on that contraflow? 

[DaBigE]

And the second question is how often do bikers go against the green on that contraflow?

Just as often as when they're going with the normal flow of vehicular traffic or as often as their pedestrian counterparts. Just because they're mostly college students doesn't mean they're any smarter.   Numerous times while in downtown Madison I've encountered cyclists creating their own contra flow "lane" on other one way streets.