Sun Prairie – The Star – Opinion in support of improving bicycling

If you don’t read The Star, Sun Prairie’s local newspaper, you might have missed this “Opinion” piece in support of “Implementing bicycle-related changes in Sun Prairie.”

We couldn’t agree more with the assessment, that improving bicycling infrastructure and developing an 5-year plan to implement them, is something that we must see in Sun Prairie. Residents have shown continued support bicycling infrastructure improvements in surveys, town hall meetings, and public forums (social media).

Here are some highlights from the article:

• Amend zoning ordinance to require bicycle parking in development plans
• City to show leadership by installing bike lockers and other facilities on civic building (think West Side Building renovations, Public Works re-location, city hall,…)
• Update city snow plowing and maintenance standards to give bike lanes and multi-user paths the same priority as all other streets
• Traffic law enforcement, to hold people who drive cars and people who ride bikes to the same standard
• Develop an “Adopt the bike path” program
• Develop a “Safe streets” policy and apply it to all new construction and major re-construction (this was not in the article, but we feel this is an important piece that is currently missing in Sun Prairie)!