Bill Witte, a 72-year-old teacher in the School of Economics at Indiana University, has been biking since he can remember. Growing up in Pittsburgh, he began working the paper route. His younger brother took over the job when Bill got tired of it but that never stopped him from continuing to spin the pedals. He biked all through elementary and high school. During his college tenure in Madison, Wisconsin he didn’t bike much as an undergraduate, but always had one on campus. He attended Yale University as a graduate student and due to living so far off campus, he didn’t have the opportunity to use the bike. Then it was three years in the Navy, and there isn’t much use for a bike on a ship. Yet in his return to Wisconsin as a graduate assistant, things changed.
“When I got back to Wisconsin for graduate school, I lived about 3-4 miles from campus and I biked everyday,” Witte said. “Then at Penn State as a teacher I biked everyday.”
Witte’s long experience riding bikes in college towns, including the last 42 years here in Bloomington, are important to the story of how and why he was almost struck by a car four weeks ago on March 13th. The story is not only that he got hit, but rather the true effectiveness of the 7-line, a project which cost taxpayers 2.6 million dollars. That’s more than two and a half million dollars to change something that may have been just fine to begin with. He believes they had other options that they should’ve done over the separated bike lanes.
The change is just a step in the direction of creating a bicycle network in Bloomington. Seventh Street has been identified in city plans as a neighborhood greenway since 2001, according to Rosenbarger. While there have been updates in the last 18 years, the latest came in 2019, which called for protected bike lanes on 7th street. There were many goals for 7-line outside of just improving biking and street safety. A huge goal for the department is to contribute to controlling climate change and increasing the use of e-bikes.
Rosenbarger shared with me the city’s 6-year plan which was adopted in 2019.
On page 51 of the PDF is the map of Bloomington with the 1-3 year plans and the 4-6 year plans for the Planning and Transportation Department in the city. As you can see, there are over a dozen bike lanes in the plans for the next three years.
Rosenbarger also alluded to the problems that some users of 7th street have complained about in the recent months after its adoption in Bloomington. Here is a link to a Herald-Times article of bus drivers and motorists alike voicing their opinions.
Rosenbarger provided clarity on some of the decisions made and the reasoning behind them.
While not everyone can be happy, especially when it comes to change, Bloomington is looking to move forward. The 7-Line still has some work to do and because of that, the department is continuing to monitor the progress and have bike counters implanted in the ground to detect activity. As the school year comes to an end there will no doubt be less traffic, both with bikes and cars, so all can hope Bill’s experience will not occur to others this Summer.