Washington County’s Bike Plan: D.O.A.

Let’s be honest: the Washington County Bikeway and Trail Network Plan was dead on arrival. Despite approval by a 25-1 vote on June 12, 2019, and despite what appeared to be the support of the county’s professional staff, the plan has not taken a single step forward. I feel confident that it never will.

As noted in the plan, implementation was expected to take 30-40 years. Am I simply being impatient by expecting some progress after only three years? No. The plan recommended that county staff immediately develop a five-year strategic action plan to break that 30- to 40-year goal into more manageable blocks. The initial five-year strategic action plan was expected to “focus on specific actions each year.” We should be three years into the first block, with some accomplishments already behind us. But no five-year plan was ever developed. The county staff member who organized the original planning process has moved on to other projects that have nothing to do with bike infrastructure. And a high-ranking county employee with whom I spoke last Friday confirmed that the plan is “not a priority” and just like “20 other things we’re not doing.”

The cornerstones of the plan were new bike paths that would have functioned like the Eisenbahn State Trail: infrastructure completely separate from motor vehicles. Construction alone would have been prohibitively expensive and land acquisition—you can forget about using the power of eminent domain or trying to string together a network of easements—would have been next to impossible.

So, what about on-road routes, which also were part of the plan? No, you won’t be getting those either. Signs and paint cost money … not as much as miles of new asphalt, but still. The county has no appetite for new expenses. In recent years the county has convinced municipalities like West Bend and Newburg to take over the maintenance of sections of road that the county then has deleted from its highway system. You’re not going to see new bicycle accommodations on a network of roads that is shrinking even for motor vehicles.

With a total cost estimated at $90M, the plan was far too ambitious even before we learned about COVID-19, hyperinflation, and a falling stock market. And the county’s expectation that local governments would share the cost was laughable. But the biggest joke is on Washington County residents, whose government—always eager to tell us how fiscally responsible it is—blew a $90,000 grant on the development of a plan that it will never implement.