The site summarizes state laws restricting driving while on the phone or texting. Wisconsin recently passed a law banning texting while driving, although talking on the phone appears essentially unrestricted.

For example, when a bicycle lane was proposed for Milwaukee’s Hoan bridge, there were a number of letters that insisted the bridge was too steep and too windy for bikes. Yet when the bridge was closed one morning last summer to allow the UPAF Ride for the Arts to cross, it proved very popular and much less steep than many of the hills that bicyclists often ride.

I have run into several other examples in the past month. A proposal to extend the Lake Parkway south with a parallel bike path resulted in several letters saying that the idea was folly since the letter writers would never use it. A proposal to add shoulders to a road reconstruction in Pewaukee also apparently prompted letters that insisted bicyclists did not want shoulders.

The notion that bicyclists can project from their own preferences to what all bicyclists want seems like a stretch to me (although I am also skeptical as to whether some of the letter writers are the avid bicyclists they claim to be). In my experience bicyclists vary widely in what they look for in a route. Some just want to get from one place to another as quickly as possible and have considerable faith that drivers will look out for them. Others put much greater weight on scenery and protection from traffic.

Still no evident progress along the Milwaukee trails, however.

In contrast to older National Wildlife Refuges that consist primarily of federally owned property, the new refuge would be a patchwork offering a variety of environments for wildlife, particularly birds that could move from site to site. This does seem to fit in with current thinking about conservation: rather than concentrating on preserving completely wild areas, find ways to support both wildlife and a variety of human activities.

Brookfield’s Greenway page lists three projects scheduled for 2011-12. The current version of its map shows all three as presently existing. Late last fall, after printing the map, I decided to try all three, only to discover they didn’t exist.

Not to be outdone, Milwaukee’s bike plan shows existing and planned trails. Two of the “existing” trails run south from downtown along former railroad rights of way, one from Washington to Maple and the other along the Kinnickinnic River south of Lincoln. With the unseasonably warm weather last weekend, I decided to check them out. No sign of either although I spotted some construction that may be an early sign of conversion of the latter.

Let me also make a pitch for joining the Rails to Trails organization that advocates for bike trails and worked hard to head off proposals to end federal funding of bike facilities.

I continued south into Illinois along the Robert McClory trail to Waukegan. It is still unpaved but seems considerably improved. The last time I rode it (probably ten years ago) I came away with the impression it had been all but abandoned, until it crossed Sheriden Drive and became paved. The road crossings had been upgraded, the surface was good, and there was fresh paving in several sections, presumably those that were sandy or muddy.

This facility would close a gap in Milwaukee’s Oak Leaf Trail. It would also close a gap in the series of trails that run from Chicago through Milwaukee towards Door county along Lake Michigan.

The challenge is that the lowest-cost alternative would take one of the north-bound traffic lanes, reducing vehicle traffic to two lanes from three.  Alternative that do not take a traffic lane are considerably more expensive.