Bicycle Friendly Community

Shorewood, WI | Bronze Level

Community Highlights: Shorewood’s scenic location between majestic Lake Michigan and the beautiful Milwaukee River, its close proximity to downtown Milwaukee (just 3 flat miles), and its thoughtful design and compact size makes the community an ideal place to live and ride. A cyclist is never less than a mile from water, a park, a coffee shop, a bar, or frozen custard and a cyclist can ride all the way from the heart of Shorewood to the World Famous Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum, without ever crossing a busy street. The Shorewood School District promotes cycling and bike safety in many ways, including a Bike Unit in physical education class in 7th and 8th grade and promo announcements that the weather is good for walking and biking particularly in fall and spring. Individual teachers lead by example by arriving at school by bike on most days.

Most Significant Recent Accomplishment: Shorewood recently demolition an old rail road bridge that was used by the Oak Leaf Trail (a world class bike/ped trail) and constructed a state-of-the-art and highly popular bike bridge. The new bridge is used by the Oak Leaf Trail to cross Capitol Drive, the Village's busiest street. The bridge project cost in excess of $1 million, including bike access ramps and landscaping. The new, well-designed, and beautifully landscaped bridge is now the gateway to the Village. The bridge project also involved giving bikers and pedestrians on Capitol Drive better access to the Oak Leaf Trail, through the creation of new access ramps. The Capitol Drive street reconstruction also added dedicated bike lanes along Capitol Drive, west of Oakland Avenue and bike accommodations east of Oakland Avenue.