Tearing up downtown La Crosse from storefront to storefront for bike lanes, extended sidewalks, a roundabout and more is the plan. Michelle Howe, major study supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, joins the show to help break it down, along with two other projects underway in La Crosse.

Howe, the major studies supervisor for the DOT Southwest Region, discusses their "hybrid" recommendation for the Highway 53 corridor — a compromise designed to keep all on-street parking between King and Vine streets while introducing sidewalk-level bike lanes from Vine to La Crosse Street. These would be the first sidewalk-level bike lanes ever featured on a Wisconsin state highway.

The plan also includes a new roundabout at the Highway 53-La Crosse Street intersection to serve as a traffic-calming "gateway" to downtown. With a planning horizon looking out to the year 2050, the downtown work is currently slated to begin in 2030.

Sticking with downtown, we also threw a couple of random thoughts at Howe, including the feasibility of adding EV infrastructure when everything is torn up and if the DOT has ever considered turning downtown back into two-way traffic.

Howe also provides updates on the preliminary design for the WIS 35 (George Street/Lang Drive) plan, plus the early-stage study for the Highway 16 corridor.

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