The updated 2011 Madison and Dane County Bike Map reflects the ever changing landscape of this bicycle friendly county. We’ve updated the trails, changed some routes to reflect changing traffic and bicycle patterns and made important design changes.

We’ve added Sun Prairie to the urban side of the map, making it much easier to follow the connections between this nearby suburb and the urban center. We’ve also cleaned up the graphics, changed some of the map symbols and generally made the map easier to use.

This is the third edition of the Madison and Dane County Bike Map and it keeps evolving to meet the needs of Madison area cyclists. Some things, however, haven’t changed. We’ve kept the popular tear and water resistant paper. It will hold up to the most rugged daily use, stay fresh in your panniers or jersey pocket and show you the way home even in a drenching downpour.

We’ve also maintained the focus on field research and user needs when evaluating bike routes for inclusion in the map. Roads that don’t meet our standards have been eliminated and new routes developed. New and expanded trails have been added. The transitions from the urban side of the map to the rural county roads are easy to follow and every road or trail leads somewhere. The Madison and Dane County Bike map won’t abandon you on a road that suddenly turns ugly.

The new Madison and Dane County Bike Map is available at bike shops and bookstores throughout the county, or you can buy it online here at bikeverywhere.com

The missing 6-mile section of the Badger State Trail through Fitchburg was recently opened. The new sections of the trail is paved, as is the existing trail into downtown Madison). The trail continues south to the Illinois state line, continuing as the Jane Addams trail in Illinois. South of the new section the trail is unpaved but in generally good condition.

A new section of bike trail stretches between the UW campus and Highland Ave. The trail starts just west of Babcock Hall (a great place for ice cream or sandwiches) and roughly runs north of and parallel to the railroad tracks.

Middleton’s Pheasant Branch Trail has recently been paved between Century Blvd on the east and Airport Rd on the west. The trails north of Century Blvd in the Pheasant Branch Conservancy are still mostly unpaved but in good condition for road bikes. West of highway 12, the northern-most branch of the trail becomes unpaved after crossing under Airport Rd, ending at Capital View Rd.

The trail crosses the stream a number of times. The first time I rode the trail, one had to ford the stream at the crossings. Then bridges were added, but adventurous riders can still try the fords.

Two new sections of the Starkweather Creek Trail in Madison were recently opened. The first section connects the Capitol City Trail at Marquette St. with the recently-constructed bicycle bridge over Washington Avenue. The second section includes a bridge over highway 30 to connect two the trail shown on the map north of Washington Avenue with another existing trail to the north.

A new bicycle trail along highway 151 helps link Madison and Sun Prairie. This trail would appear in the upper right-hand corner of the Madison map. Traveling from Madison the trail starts where High Crossing Blvd ends at American Pkwy and follows the southeast side highway 151 to connect with O’Keefe Ave which leads into Sun Prairie.

Maps are dynamic. Bike routes change, new trails get built and old ones extended. Some trails get shut down, temporarily, because of nearby construction or because the trail itself needs an overhaul. Well post the updates here, then provide a permanent, one-top page for all of the posts within each of the metro areas covered. If you want to see what’s chqnged since your copy of a map was printed, click the links below. If you have update information that we should know about, please email us by using the contact form here.

Madison Map Updates

Milwaukee Map Updates

Twin Cities Map Updates

The 2nd edition of the Madison and Dane County Bike Map contains an error north of Paoli. The route identified as County Road PB, then Range Trail Rd, going north from Paoli is Range Trail Rd the entire distance. The heavier black line to the east of Range Trail is County Rd PB.

It didn’t take long for alert readers to notice that I forgot to include the finished part of the Badger State Trail between Belleville and Purcell Rd. No excuses for that oversight. In the process of converting the map into GIS format I overlooked the missing trail. My apologies. Click here for a free pdf file showing the proper location of the trail on the map. Badger State Trail