Fitchburg-to-Madison bike trail won't get paved for 2 years

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

From an article by Maureen Backman in The Capital Times:

FITCHBURG - Due to minimal funding for bicycle projects in Wisconsin's Transportation Enhancement budget, a six-mile stretch of the Badger State Trail between Madison and Fitchburg will not be paved for two years.

"We feel left high and dry in the state transportation budget," said Fitchburg Ald. Steve Arnold.

Arnold - along with Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts, D-Verona, and Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin Executive Director Dar Ward - expressed concern over lack of state funding for bicycle projects at a press conference Monday.

Black said the 2005-07 budget for the Department of Transportation was an "unfortunate decision" by the state Legislature that devastated the state's bicycle projects. The budget totaled $5.8 billion, but Transportation Enhancements amounted to less than 0.2 percent of that budget. Black said the Legislature agreed to take away 70 percent from the bicycle fund, leaving 92 projects in the state unfunded.