3/3/17

Summary: This meeting served to update and refocus the team, as well as to further discuss Lily Wilcox’s suggestion for her bike-cage recommendation.

In attendance:

Josh Feldman

Morgan Johnston

Brian Farber

Pete Varney

Lily Wilcox - Active Transportation Coordinator

Topics Covered:

New IWG chair – Ximing Cai

Ben McCall has stepped down as the iCAP working group chair and will be replaced by Ximing Cai, who will start on March 1st. Morgan Johnston will serve as the interim chair until then. Ximing wants to tie iSEE to other campus sustainability programs better, and wants faculty outside of iSEE more involved.

IWG wants recommendations

The iCAP working group is asking for feedback as to how well recommendations are working from our perspective. They hope to have a summary for recommendations by May. For instance, you might note that it is hard to have faculty engagement, or that the SWATeam isn’t getting enough feedback. If you have suggestions you would like IWG to hear, email Morgan Johnston.

Bike Parking Cage proposal

Last semester, Lily Wilcox introduced a suggestion to have secure cages for bike storage in all new parking structures. Those who would like to use these structures would pay for a permit. The team has not yet decided to agree completely on the proposal as we are still working out how to address some specific concerns.

The most important concern is cost. These cages are expected to cost approximately $60,000, and will be in use for the 30-50 year lifespan of the parking structure. Morgan noted that these cages would likely be in high demand, so we could charge upwards of $85-$100 per year for a permit, similar to universities like Ohio State and Minnesota.

Additionally, we discussed who the primary customers would be. Likely, the primary buyers would be day-riders and some students. Morgan suggested that we talk to campus recreation about the idea as well.

Finally, we discussed some of the implementation challenges of the proposal. Brian mentioned that having bike riders in a parking garage create a safety hazard as cars may not be aware of or expect bike riders. Furthermore, any malfunction of the card-swipe system would be a huge inconvenience for anyone who needs to retrieve their bike.

Overall, we have not yet formally agreed to go ahead with the recommendation but will continue to discuss it until we work out these issues.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Thursday, March 16 at 1pm. This meeting will take place on Thursday so as to not be right before spring break.