The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has completed and approved the 2014 Campus Bike Plan, a master plan to direct our efforts for future bicycle infrastructure improvements and program development. The 2014 Campus Bike Plan outlines the various ways in which the University should improve for bicycles in the coming years.

To better understand the demand for bicycle infrastructure, programming, and services, as well as to better track the impact of past improvements, regular bicycle counts are recommended for the University to know exactly how many bikes are on campus at any given time throughout each school year. 

The university currently has roughly 5,000 bicycle parking spaces on campus. There is a need to upgrade some of this to current standards, to add additional, new bike parking, to develop covered bike parking to protect bikes from incelment weather, and to identify opportunities for long-term storage of bikes during off-seasons. 

In order to help ensure that students, employees, and visitors who choose to bicycle on campus are following the rules of the road and acting in a safe, predictable manner, the University works with outside partners to offer bicycle safety classes on campus and in the surrounding community. In the future, we also hope to develop courses and educational opportunities specifically catered to the unique campus audiences, such as incoming freshmen and transfer students, international students, and so on. 

One simple and frequent method for spreading safety information related to bicycles is a printed or digital poster.  As campus transitions to more and more digital signs, the bicycle education materials are transitioning to digital displays.  This reduces paper waste, with a minimal increase in energy use.

Bike Lockers are designed to hold an entire bicycle, within an enclosed locker.  These can be very convenient for bicycle commuters who want to have extra security for their bicycle.  They provide shelter from the elements and there is usually additional storage for books, bags, and such, within the space for the bicycle.  The University does not currently have any bike lockers on campus.

The Sustainability Living Learning Community (LLC) and Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall (LAR) is starting a bike sharing program for the LLC residents.  The program will start with about six bikes for approximately 120 residents.  Bikes can be checked out for up to a day, and LLC community members will help maintain the bikes through membership at The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign.

Bicycle Shelter is an enclosed structure where bicycles may be stored. This Bike Shelter is 14' x 63' utilizing Side Stage (vertical) bike racks, and it can accommodate up to 73 bicycles in two tiers. The bike shelter was installed in June 2021 and is ready for use. This project will help the University to improve its Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) status.

The Campus Bicycle Center — a collaboration between the University of Illinois and The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign — is dedicated to empowering individuals with knowledge about how to repair and maintain bicycles and encouraging mode-shift away from single-occupancy vehicles.  This educational center offers hands-on experiential learning that students can’t get in a classroom.  By empowering people with the ability to fix a bicycle and providing a connection between the campus and the community, the Bicycle Center promotes bicycling, collaboration, and community spirit.

Champaign County Bikes works with the League of Illinois Bicyclists to produce a Champaign-Urbana Bicycle Map, and the Office of the Dean of Students funds and distributes thousands of these bike maps on campus each year.  

The map includes comfort rating for various roads in town and it notes the difficult intersections from a cycling perspective.  It includes a call out section focusing on the campus area, and the back of the map features a number of safety tips and resources.

The cities of Urbana and Champaign worked together to produce a bicycle education video to introduce the public to the bicycle infrastructure that is being installed around both cities and to teach motorists and bicyclists how to interact with each other on the road.

This 14 minute video, entitled C-U Sharing the Road was filmed on local C-U streets and features many local C-U bicyclists. The video was filmed, edited, and produced by Urbana Public Television.

  Topics covered in the program include:  

Departmental Bike Sharing is a concept where University Departments would purchase a small number of bicycles to be made available to staff, faculty and graduate students for on-campus use during working hours.

Want to discuss options or interest in departmental bike share? Email bike@illinois.edu to get information and talk to a staff member that can give you more information.

Further developing and encouraging the use of active transportation modes that promote walking, bicycling, and public transit is one of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s strategic initiatives.

The University aims to foster a safe environment for bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists on campus. To ensure that bicyclists are abiding by the appropriate rules, the University will enforce the Illinois Vehicle Code and the University Bike Code, and also encourage cyclists to register their bikes. 

Continued evaluation and planning are needed to ensure that the efforts of the university relating to bicycles continue to address current needs. With ongoing evaluation and planning of bicycle improvement efforts, the university will also be able to assess whether those efforts are indeed achieving stated goals and objectives. The following steps are important in continuing to understand the issues facing bikes on campus, and will help ensure that the progress toward developing a more bicycle friendly campus are able to continue.

The goal of this project is to provide standard bicycle parking at three locations on campus: Freer Hall, the Undergraduate Library, and the Agricultural Engineering Sciences Building.  This will encourage bicycle riding and support the Campus Area Transportation Study (CATS) mission “to better accommodate pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and vehicle movements in a more user-friendly environment.”  This is also one of the amenities recommended by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Multi-Modal Transportation Study recommendation to “provide other amenities to accommodate existing bi

After the success of the first SSC funded bike parking upgrade, F&S requested additional funding for more bike parking, two air pumps, and partial funding for a bicycle path at Hazelwood from Orchard Downs to the UI Research Park.

The UIUC Pilot Bike Share program is a proposal for a two year pilot bike share program. This pilot program will be a 50 bike fleet. It will be using a new approach to bike sharing through smart locks. Smart locks contain all the technology for the bike-sharing program linked to a smart phone. The smart locks will allow for versatility in the type of bikes to use within the system and where the bikes could be located. iSEE is exploring a collaboration with BitLock for the smart locks and Neutral Cycle for the bikes.

There are many metrics that the University needs to evaluate the success of bicycle programming efforts. The University aims to improve and increase the rate of reporting on bike thefts and crashes to better understand changing trends for safety and security of bicycles on campus. Bicycle theft or crash or indecent driving behavior should be reported to the UIPD at the non-emergency number (217) 333-1216

The 2015 iCAP, chapter 4, objective 5, is "Implement the Campus Bike Plan on the schedule noted in that plan. Notable deadlines include full implementation of new bikeway facilities by FY25, bike parking within 150 feet of every building in the core of campus by FY20, and bike rentals by FY20." The campus is home to an estimated 10,000 cyclists, including students, staff, and faculty.

In addition to out-of-classroom educational opportunities promoting bicycle safety, there are growing academic opportunities to engage students in bicycle planning and promotion within the classroom. 

Lock Your Bike Right is a project to increase bicycle safety awareness among students. The idea for this event was developed by AdBuzz students and Sarthak Prasad (at F&S). This event is specifically focused towards students.

The Bicycle Coordinator should partner with local police enforcement, safety educators, and advocacy groups to produce an educational pamphlet for motorists about how to drive safely with bikes.  Many of the 'share the road' principals and concepts can be included, as well as technical legal requirements (like 3' passing laws) and helpful explanations, perhaps in a Q&A format.

In 2007, the University hired a consultant to review the campus multi-modal transportation and make recommendations for improved campus safety.  The study included recommendations for improved campus transportation for all modes, many of which have been implemented.  The results of the study helped inform the transportation section of the 2010 iCAP.

The Multimodal Corridor Enhancement (MCORE) project requires the Champaign-Urbana Urbanized Active Transportation Study (CUUATS) partners to monitor the pedestrian and bicycle counts following the completion of the project. This requirement is to understand the increased waking and bicycling activities at the twelve predetermined corridors. Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) collected pedestrian and cycling counts at these locations before the MCORE project. These twelve corridors/intersections are

This project  involves encouraging more bicycle uses for employees. Packages can be sent out and delivered through the use of a bicycle. Bicycles can also be used for hauling objects to specific locations with the help of special equipment built by the Campus Bike Center.  Student and Staff employees will be involved in the process. 

Anyone that might want to recieve more information or want to see the bicycle in person, contact Lily Wilcock, Active Transportation Coordinator at F&S.

The iCAP 2020 objective 3.4 is to "Reduce driving on campus and report the percentage of staff trips made using single-occupancy vehicles from 60% to 50% by FY25 and 45% by FY30." The r

TakeTheBike.com is a mobile website created by Professor Ming Kuo’s Fall 2012 environmental psychology class. The website is meant to help cyclists in Champaign-Urbana get around more safely and efficiently, and to encourage more people to bike.

Features of the site includes resources for repairing your bike, resources about safety, information and tips from cyclists in Champaign-Urbana, and an interactive Google map that shows resources for cyclists.

Each semester, Facilities & Services works with the Learning in Community (LINC) program as a project partner for the UI Bikes course section. Working closely with the Campus Bicycle Coordinator, students learn about cycling issues on campus including planning, infrastructure, safety, education, and enforcement. 

The existing bicycle parking on campus has some areas that are in top-notch condition, some areas that are so worn-down that they are no longer functional, and some areas that are underserved.  Bicyclists often park on railings, trees, parking meters, or light poles.  In order to provide appropriate bicycle parking and eliminate the use of unapproved or illegal bike parking locations, the University needs to bring existing bike parking areas up to current standards and identify locations where additional bike parking is needed. 

In 2011, the University applied for and was granted Bronze-level certification as a Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) from the League of American Bicyclists. The University retained its Bronze-level BFU certification in 2015. The University has filed an application in August 2019 to renew the BFU status. The U of I was promoted to the Silver-Level BFU status on October 17th, 2019.