[mcs_madison]

Can someone tell me why we spent all that money to build a pedestrian bridge, that no one uses?

I was at that light this morning and watched 5 or 6 people cross under the bridge, where there is no crosswalk anymore mind you, against oncoming traffic, to get to the bus stop. While I only saw one lone woman walking her dog over the bridge.

I guess the bridge engineers didn't understand the concept that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line. People won't use something, if they have to go out of thier way to do it.

[Bwis53]

It's a shame, they can't pick it up and plop it onto that hellish intersection of N.Midvale and University!

[Kenneth Burns]

As I understand it, the bridge is part of a planned series of paths that eventually will connect the Lake Monona loop and the path to MATC-Truax. Which is exciting.

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/art ... icle=22561

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/307162

[mcs_madison]

As I understand it, the bridge is part of a planned series of paths that eventually will connect the Lake Monona loop and the path to MATC-Truax. Which is exciting.

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/art ... icle=22561

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/307162

I get that, but how were they planning on making people use them? The whole idea of a bridge over traffic is to get pedestrians to avoid the traffic, thereby minimizing accidents and like, no? There is no fence, like there is up by the High School to help keep them from crossing illegally.

I have a real issue if we spent all that money for 10% of the people that will acutally use it to get to MATC, et al, but we'll still have traffic and accident problems, same as we did before.

[meowzamusic]

I've never walked across that bridge but I have taken my bike on it many many times. I think they went a bit overboard on the width as you could easily drive a truck across it.

[Jattpw]

I don't think you can drive a truck across it but you can drive a honda civic.

I am not willing to go into details.

[Elliot]

At this point it's a bridge to nowhere. Once they build the bridge over Aberg Avenue I'll consider using it to get to the far east side.

[crevice beatle]

I haven't been out that way in quite a while but I think I know one thing they could've done to make it more likely people would use the thing...really not sure how much more they would have had to budget for it though,

The pedestrian bridge going across University Ave to the Stock Pavillion (campus) has very long curling decent on the north end to make it handicap accesible, much like the new bridge on East Washington. But what it also has is an alternate staircase route that travels up the center of the curl. This way you have the alternative to going up or down a staircase which is much quicker than walking the big loop. I really am not sure this would solve the issue, but I think it would help.

I'm trying to find an image online of what I am talking about - perhaps someone can help?

[Dust Mite Rodeo]

I have heard that they paint their kayaks differently on the other side of the "Bridge to Nowhere". Some here are willing to smoke the pipe with them.

[narcoleptish]

As said earlier, the bridge is meant more as a piece in the bigger picture of expanding the bike paths, not as a means of crossing E. Wash. The people who cross to the bus stop wouldn't use it even if it didn't have the curly ramps and either would I. You can't put up a fence across the intersection so people are still going to take the shortest route, especially when there is a light there. It's just one of those spots where you have to put your call on hold and be a little more alert.

I believe we got federal money for the bridge. It's still our money, just a little more diluted.

[mrak]

I believe we got federal money for the bridge. It's still our money, just a little more diluted.

That's the rationale I've always heard for it. It always feels like kind of a weak excuse to me, because I hear most people (though not you, narco) talk about federal money as if it isn't our tax money, but money that magically comes from a faraway place.

When reminded that it is our money, the refrain goes, "if we don't request it for ourselves, another state/community will just end up taking it for their projects, and we'll still end up paying the same taxes." And that may be true, but if it is, that just means there's a lot of unnecessary stuff being built with federal money all over the country.

Full disclosure: I use and like the bridge, but when cycling or walking, I got along perfectly well without it before it was completed, and I cross E. Washington a lot more often (and more quickly) at street intersections.

[drinkinblackcoffee]

I remember a little girl got hit and killed right underneath where the bridge now is. There seems to be a lot of unsupervised, young kids from the neighborhood constantly crossing right there which has to have something to do with the location decision. There is a bike tunnel already in place on Fair Oaks for getting across East Wash, so I don't get the whole "completing the loop" thing

That being said it certainly looks like a cumbersome, sloppy design. And none of the kids use it. If the parents were dumb enough to let their 8 year old run back and forth across East Wash, they're not really going to now tell them to use the bridge.

[snoqueen]

That being said it certainly looks like a cumbersome, sloppy design....

I'm not sure how it fits with the overall bike-routes plan yet. What is missing now, on the east side, is a good way to get from the bike path/Fair Oaks crossing north to the new E. Wash bridge or the tunnel. I do not like riding up Fair Oaks through the Blooming Grove section and under Hy 30 where it's narrow, badly paved and marked, and dark.

However, I think the E Wash bridge looks pretty good! I'm sorry other people don't like it. It sure beats the skinny, crumbling one over Hy 51 by Woodmans, which gives me the creeps because the supports completely lack redundancy and if one gets hit by a semi, the show is over.

The original idea was to unify the appearance of E. Wash (Hy 151) from the Interstate to Blair St. They're part way done, and are trying to use consistent lighting, signage, and pavement variations. The major public landmarks so far are the new bike bridge and the highway bridge over the Yahara. Both have the same motif of rectangular concrete elements and green-painted, branchy ornaments somewhat reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright themes. In a civil-engineering way, they match and they're not unattractive. Not the Golden Gate Bridge, but OK.

The prettiest bridge in town is the little steel footbridge, the one with the arches, over the Yahara in Tenney Park. That has not been equaled, but it's a whole different esthetic from another decade. Today it's big concrete stuff. I think it may be easier to design.

[narcoleptish]

What is missing now, on the east side, is a good way to get from the bike path/Fair Oaks crossing north to the new E. Wash bridge or the tunnel.

From what I can tell you will go off the path at Marquette st, going through Wirth park, turning right on St. Paul, and then going through the Dixon Greenway (where a path has been built) between Dixon st. and Milwaukee st. You then will have to cross Milwaukee st. to pick up the new path along Starkweather creek that leads to the new bridge, which I also happen to think is a pretty good-looking bridge.

[galfrommadison]

I walk over the bridge every morning to get to the bus and almost always meet a different person who's either on bike or on foot. It takes about a minute longer than walking across with the light, but I don't have to worry about the people coming into town who don't stop their cars at the stoplight or are driving 50 mph on East Washington. (You go Super Traffic Cop, you're my hero!)

I know neighbors who now walk or bike the bridge and use the path to more easily get to Copps. Once the path is completed between Darbo and Milwaukee Streets, I am sure bike traffic will increase into town. And when they build the bridge over Aberg, it will be a superhighway!