I would only expect this in a city that does a terrible job of not putting its money where its mouth is. The Madison Plan Commission decided to forego any attempt to pursue the interests of the city’s bike and pedestrian and mass transit efforts in the interest of the mighty dollar. And Marcus, the developer who will build a large retail and entertainment mall on Madison’s far east side, is just as short-sighted as those on the Plan Commission that voted for it to drop the bike-ped and mass transit requirements.

This is the city that allows businesses to expand and doesn’t do anything for the surrounding infrastructure. We have busy four-lane roads with stop signs at its intersections. We have more traffic in front of our expanded grocery stores and malls than the roads were ever designed to handle. And yet we are supposedly one of the friendliest cities for bikes. Bullsh*t.

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I helped coordinate and participated in Bike to Work Week this past May. The idea is that if you ride a bicycle, you should ride it to work. Coordinated by the League of American Bicyclists and state or local cycling advocacy groups, many communities are offering a number of incentives to ride to work.

Since I ride a road bike, I didn’t think it would be too difficult getting to and from work. However, I did a dry run recently and discovered that my ride is actually much longer than I anticipated (17 miles instead of 12 by car; 1 hour and 20 minutes). But that was nothing compared to what I discovered when I rode the first time to work this week:

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Now here’s a neat concept for bicycle commuting. The City of Portland (Oregon) installed a bicycle signal at one of its dangerous intersections. The purpose is to help bicyclists cross, especially inexperienced riders who are still uncomfortable in traffic. In a way, it also helps drivers to remember to share the road.

The setup includes a sensor and a dedicated traffic light tied into the rest of the traffic lights at the intersection. The traffic light is activated when a bicyclist rides over a marking on the trail to trigger the light. The bike traffic light then turns green; the regular traffic lights in all directions turn red, stopping all motor vehicle traffic and allowing the bicyclist to go through.

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