Madison’s Transportation Commission met on Wednesday to discuss the possible redesign of the Regent Street corridor between Randall Avenue and South Park Street. Some residents praised the major redesign, while others pointed to flaws.
Right now, Regent Street consists of four lanes, two of which can be used for street parking during off-peak hours. Under the new proposal, the roadway would be reduced to 2 lanes, the sidewalk would be one foot wider for safer pedestrian traffic, there would not be new bike lanes and the city would remove overhead wires to plant trees and add bump outs to allow sidewalk cafe space.
The lack of planned bike lanes was the subject of resident pushback. One resident noted that he was not too keen to hear that a bike lane would be excluded: “And this will be a test of whether traffic engineering can just ignore clear, complete green streets guidance and exclude cyclists from a street altogether for arbitrary reasons.”…