Transportation Commission votes 5-3 to add buffered bike lanes on Midvale Boulevard, launches parallel Safe Streets work on Owen and Seagull

The Madison Transportation Commission on Wednesday voted 5-3 to move forward with a resurfacing design for Midvale Boulevard that adds buffered bike lanes and removes some on‑street parking, and requested staff pursue complementary Safe Streets projects on Owen Drive and Seagull Road.

Tom Moore, a traffic engineer with the city, told the commission the Midvale resurfacing covers the segment between Mineral Point Road and University Avenue and is intended as a limited resurfacing (no major utility work) that would preserve the roadway for roughly 10–12 years until a full reconstruction. The preferred resurfacing design presented to the public would install a 7‑foot bike lane with a 3‑foot buffer adjacent to travel lanes and remove on‑street parking on some blocks where the corridor is too narrow to accommodate parking plus bike lanes.

The city collected parking‑utilization counts in 2023 and ran an online survey in July that drew more than 2,000 responses. Moore said option 1 (bike lanes along Midvale) produced roughly 53 percent “support plus acceptable” citywide and the most “do not support” responses (44 percent). Option 2 (partial Midvale treatment) had about…