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Madison’s Campus Drive Pedestrian and Bicycle Path is a short trail linking the city’s west side with the University of Wisconsin’s agricultural facilities. Both the heart of the university and the downtown area of Madison are just a short trek east along campus streets from the trail’s eastern endpoint.
In the west, the path provides direct access to the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. While the trail parallels Campus Drive for its entire distance, it is actually separated from the road by an active Wisconsin and Southern Railroad line. Solar-powered lights line the trail's route, allowing for active transportation or recreation at night.
While people certainly ride this trail for fun, it's mostly an important transportation link for thousands of daily or occasional bicyclists trying to get from place to place. The trail itself is fairly short, but it connects several other longer trails. The trail is paved, and it is plowed in winter, so you will see lots of people riding all year.
Traveling east, the Campus Dr Path takes you from the eastern edge of Village of Shorewood Hills past the VA and UW Hospitals, and into the heart of the UW campus. From there, you can connect to the beautiful (unpaved, but hard-pack) Lakeshore Path that runs along Lake Mendota. The campus itself is extremely bikeable, if you either don't mind or avoid the hills in the center.
On the western end, there is currently (spring 2016) a gap that take you onto local streets before connecting with another piece of the path and then onto the Blackhawk Trail (also paved) to continue west. This gap will be filled by an extension of the Campus Dr Path when construction of several buildings is completely.
There are a couple of tricky road crossings of busy streets coming out of either side of the hospital campus, but there will be plenty of other bicyclists to show you how to navigate. the local traffic engineers have installed lights on Highland Ave that create a gap in cross traffic, and in off-peak hours you can usually find a sufficient gap without the light.
You will have lots of company on the path, so just remember to stay right regardless of if you are walking, running, or biking, and look over your shoulder before making a lateral move or turning.
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