By Heather Gates

Quoting Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” In October, the sidewalk width for Phase Two of the Monona Drive reconstruction will again be before the city council.

A quick summary: To create safer distances between bicyclists and pedestrians, the sidewalk on the west side of the north end of the Drive was set at eight feet by the Monona Drive Advisory Committee. Many bicyclists, especially those riding with children, in tow or on their own bikes, consider Monona Drive too perilous to ride in the street. Even with a bike lane, some will still choose the sidewalk. Planning for that scenario calls for a wider sidewalk so cyclists won’t run into pedestrians or one another.

In July, a resolution to reduce the sidewalk to six and one-half feet, favored by some Monona Drive property owners, was before the council. The mayor broke a tie vote; the eight-foot width was retained.

Those property owners are asking for the same thing again – six and one-half feet. Their arguments are about conflict between car drivers and bicyclists, with the main concern being their ability to drive out of their properties and onto Monona Drive in a way that is safe for all.

On September 8, Tom Stolper told the council that leaving the sidewalk at eight feet “will encourage bike-riding at high speeds on the sidewalk, and I’m a biker and I ride around it, and I’m not going to ride my bike in the street, even with a bike lane because cars are an awful lot bigger than I am.” I think he argued for both sides of the issue with that statement.

This debate is just a symptom of a much larger problem. Monona is a car-centric city with few transportation choices. Our bus system is great if you are a nine-to-five commuter to downtown Madison, a senior citizen, or disabled. But if you aren’t, it doesn’t deliver.

Area bike routes are circuitous and often poorly marked, a patchwork of segments – some fair, some great. Bike parking is poor. There’s not even a bike rack at city hall.

Walking is an option for those living close to their destinations, but without integrated mixed-use neighborhoods, most Mononans have no nearby shops or services. With few sidewalks, the only choice for most Mononans is walking in the street, which makes walking potentially hazardous. Pedestrian-friendly design encourages walking as daily transportation and creates thoroughfares that work for children and the elderly, motorists and cyclists, pedestrians and the wheelchair-bound.

One result of not having a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly city is that many of our children are chauffeured, instead of self-propelled. They miss out on what many of us had as children – the learning opportunities, independence, and physical fitness gained from getting ourselves where we needed to go by ourselves.

According to the EPA, in 1969, approximately half of all schoolchildren walked or bicycled to or from school. Eighty-seven percent of those living within one mile of school walked or biked. Today, fewer than 15% of children and adolescents do. The EPA concluded this is largely due to “poor walking environments,” meaning “low densities, little mixing of land uses, long blocks, incomplete sidewalks, and other hallmarks of our current patterns of development.”

Melissa Zietz, mother of two, says, “I wish that my kids could walk to school instead of take the bus every day. We live less than a mile away, but there is no safe route there!” 

The “Safe Routes to School” program championed by former Alder Chad Speight seems to have disappeared from committee agendas this summer. The program seeks to make walking and bicycling to school safe and appealing for children. With the number of overweight or obese children nearly tripling between 1980 and 2004 in the U.S., and with asthma and diabetes rising, too, programs like this can help solve multiple problems.

Our city is missing out on opportunities to dramatically reduce pollution, traffic congestion, bussing costs, health care costs, the crime rate, and more. There isn’t enough space in this paper to describe the host of other benefits, including increased freedom, civic involvement, and tax base.

David Suzuki, the award-winning scientist and broadcaster, said something that has resonated with me of late. In describing the current state of the world and our response to the crises we are facing, Suzuki said “We’re in a giant car heading toward a brick wall, and everyone is arguing over where they’re going to sit.” Slowing down can give us a little time, but we’re still going to hit the brick wall. What we need to do is choose a new destination and turn the car around.

In creating a smart, livable community, we don’t need to put on the brakes and make incremental change. We need to turn around the way we design our city, and create a future with fewer cars, more bikes, more feet, and more robust public transportation. We need walkable public spaces, where people can dine, work, shop, and play. We need neighborhood centers for education and civic life. We need to support and advocate for an RTA that improves Monona. And we need to enhance our interaction with the natural environment. These are fundamental changes. These changes help keep us from hitting the brick wall.

So, while we can debate the merits and potential consequences of changing one section of sidewalk, we should also be looking at our community from a systems perspective. What we do in one area affects all others. The reconstruction of Monona Drive isn’t just about transportation. It is about climate change, reducing resource use of all kinds, economic competitiveness, energy security, housing and community development, and more.

If “Monona Drive” were renamed “Monona Walk, Bike, and Drive,” perhaps we could see that perspective more easily.