Workshop Invite

The public is invited to participate in a workshop for the near Westside Transportation Study, on Tuesday, March 12th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM in the cafeteria at Madison West High School. There will be an informal needs and goals workshop at 7:00 PM with participation from attendees requested. People can also drop in and fill out a comment sheet or chat about the University Avenue corridor and transportation within the wider area with the study team at any time.

Project Description

City of Madison, the Village of Shorewood Hills, and the UW-Wisconsin Madison are undertaking a transportation study of the Near Westside including the University Avenue Corridor and select nearby neighborhood streets.

The near Westside, served by University Avenue, an important primary arterial street carrying in excess of 50,000 vehicles per average weekday. This can result in sometimes severe congestion, crashes and delay to motorists, public transit riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists. As a result, some drivers may use nearby residential streets in both Madison and Shorewood Hills to avoid traffic delays and congestion related problems. The residential streets serving this cut through traffic are not intended for this use, and this traffic can have a negative impact on quality of life and is resulting in increased concerns for pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

The pattern of the streets and development in this area do not lend themselves to good alternative routes. This results in challenges to accommodating continued growth and maintaining residential neighborhoods while providing for modes of travel including bike, pedestrian and transit. Along with Regional growth, the City, University, and Village continue to grow and generate additional traffic, and have active major redevelopment projects pending which require community and intergovernmental review and input.

The purpose of the Study is to:

• Evaluate the transportation impacts for proposed and future development including development opportunities within existing neighborhoods, using adopted neighborhood plans, where present, as a basis for future redevelopment scenarios;
• Identify pros and cons of potential solutions and solicit and organize feedback from area stakeholders;
• Develop a set of stakeholder-integrated transportation strategies and projects;
• Inform decision-making related to further growth and land use applications in the study area, particularly related to UW Hospital projects, Village of Shorewood Hills redevelopment, and City of Madison redevelopment and neighborhood livability interests; and
• Develop an implementation plan based on study recommendations.

The study includes standard transportation planning and engineering efforts intended to identify and vet short and long-term street and transportation recommendations. The study is intended to develop and incorporate recommendations to reduce the incidence of vehicles using neighborhood streets to avoid University Avenue traffic congestion and improve neighborhood livability.