Nasty weather literally rained on Madison’s parade Sunday morning, causing Ride the Drive to close two hours early.
By 12:30 p.m., approximately 1,000 people had turned up for the free family biking event, said Anne Whisner, who helped coordinate this fall’s Ride the Drive.
“Usually we have closer to 20,000,” she said. The last Ride the Drive in June drew a crowd of almost 25,000.
Whisner said the rainy, cold weather was to blame for the drop in attendance.
She said Madison Police, in coordination with the event planners and city traffic engineers, decided to call the event two hours early at 1 p.m. because of the threat of severe weather and opened up the roads at that time.
But the on-and-off rain didn’t keep everyone off their bikes.
Amy Horton, a Madison resident, said Sunday marked the second time she had attended Ride the Drive, which is in its third year.
She and her two children, Annie and Izzy, said they had come up East Washington Avenue and had planned to bike around to the other stations at Olin Avenue and Brittingham Park, only to find the event was wrapping up.
Horton said while the weather dampened her family’s general mood, it was nice to have the streets to themselves.
“I like going off the bumps,” Izzy said, referring to hilly East Washington Avenue.
If bicyclists were to start down State Street toward campus, the route would wind to Lake Monona through John Nolen Drive, and then turn back into the isthmus to East Washington Avenue, which would pour riders back into the Capitol Square, according to a map of the route.
Those streets were closed to car traffic, but despite the closures, Mary Carbine, director of Madison’s Business Improvement District, said businesses in the area generally welcomed the bike outing.
The fifth Ride the Drive saw some changes allowing for more car traffic, Whisner said.
The inbound lane of East Washington Avenue was open all the way up to the Capitol, according to a statement from the City of Madison. Butler Street was also open to traffic.
Carbine said this weekend was “visitor intensive” with other events, including the Badger football game, drawing people to the city. The changes to the route made it easier for people traveling around the city.
“It was a little disappointing [to] not have quite as many roads open,” said Joel Gratz, a Madison resident who has participated in at least three Ride the Drive events.
Gratz said the dreary weather was a departure from the past rides he went on, when the weather set the perfect stage for the free community bike ride.
Those who came early had an array of activities to choose from if they were brave enough to ride on the puddle-ridden streets. The station at the Capitol had live music and local bike and food vendors open, Brittingham Park on Lake Monona had some diversions for families and Olin Park on John Nolen Drive had a rock wall, Whisner said.
