Wisconsin To Create Network Of Off-Road Bike Paths

The wheels are turning on a project to create a statewide network of bike routes in Wisconsin.

The project, called the Statewide Bikeways Plan, won’t create any new bike routes — rather, it will look at the gaps in the existing map of off-road cycling paths throughout the state and figure out how to connect them using paved roads.

Wisconsin has more than 1,000 miles of off-road bike trails, the third-highest in the country according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

Dave Schlabowske is the deputy director of the Wisconsin Bike Federation, a nonprofit that’s partnering with the state departments of Transportation and Natural Resources on the project. He said he got the idea for the network while he was looking at a map of off-road trails.

Schlabowske said the plan is simple: “We make a map, we create a website and we put up some signs.”

Those connections would be mostly made up of quiet, concrete-paved country roads. In Wisconsin, such roads are fairly bike-friendly because they’re paved, not gravel like many roads in rural America, thanks to Wisconsin’s dairy industry and the state’s involvement in the progressive roads movement about 100 years ago.

“We feel like we could put together one of the best networks of trails across the state in the United States,” said Schlabowske.

Once a contractor is chosen, the mapping project is scheduled to begin this November and is expected to take about a year to complete.