West Bend Bike Route Proposal Fails

Bike Friendly West Bend suffered a resounding defeat at last night’s meeting of the Common Council. The advocacy group hoped to get approval for its Orange Loop, the first of four proposed bike routes in the city. Alderman Roger Kist made a motion to approve but there was no second, so the proposal died without a vote. Aldermen Adam Williquette and Chris Jenkins spoke in opposition to the plan on financial grounds. BFWB was prepared to cover much of the installation cost—estimated at almost $24,000—but not the ongoing maintenance of about $5,500 per year. As a point of policy, BFWB believes ongoing maintenance for on-street bike routes is properly a function of general street maintenance.

Implementing all four routes—expected to take 5 years or more—would require almost $100,000 initially and more than $23,000 per year in ongoing maintenance. All of the costs were presented on Monday, so maybe “sticker shock” played a factor as the Council contemplated the total price tag for the BFWB plan.

Whatever the case, the future of bike routes in West Bend is very much in doubt. But early this morning, BFWB signaled that it wouldn’t go away quietly. The group will ask the city to make the bike route plan part of a larger street maintenance referendum, to be conducted in early 2018. The Common Council has authorized a referendum in response to widespread criticism of the current condition of city streets. Asking that the entire electorate be given a chance to vote on bike routes is an interesting maneuver by BFWB. Strong public support would be hard for the aldermen to ignore, while strong public opposition would simply leave the topic where it stands today. It’s a nothing-to-lose moment for BFWB … and probably the last chance for the group to realize its primary objective without a major shift in the composition of the Common Council.