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A first of its kind at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a 14’x63’ covered Bike Shelter has been installed and is ready for use in the Ikenberry Commons area between Flagg Hall and Noble Hall. It can accommodate up to 96 bicycles at a time utilizing side stage (vertical) bike racks.
See attached the pictures from first week of August!
We have installed a set of Eco-Counter's pedestrian and bicycle counter at the intersection of Wright St and Healey St on August 31, 2021. This counter location is now active and collecting data!
All, No mistaking it now. We’re busy, busy, busy. We’ve sold out of all our regular-sized bikes and only have 3 left that fill out the extreme ends of the size-spectrum: two very small and one very large bike.
We’ve been very vocal about hiring here while we’re open and have had some verbal interest but nothing that has actually translated to applications—yet. I did interview and am in the hiring process for one new employee, so that’s a start.
On Friday, Jeff Yockey stopped by and grabbed a handful of Grand Opening flyers to hand out at the Habitat Bicycle Sale. Habitat sells some of their bikes in As Is condition meaning folks might need somewhere or some parts to get their bikes rolling a little better and we’d be just the place. Always nice to get our name out to the larger community.
On Saturday, I participated in LAB’s Traffic Skills 101 course. Despite 13 years of regular commuting, not all of the maneuvers and handling came naturally to me. Always more to learn. Up next is the official LCI training seminar in September.
This week I’ll be fielding more applications and building bikes to attempt to meet demand.
The numbers:
Visitors: 141
Sales: $2,100.50
Memberships: 17 for $510
Bikes: 8 for $1,190
Tires/tubes: 12 for $39
U-locks: 6 for $136
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Purchase request to procure a pair of Eco-Counter bicycle and pedestrian counter has been approved. PO# P2196145.
All, Last week was absolutely bonkers busy. We sold out of most of our bikes, handed out bike registration stickers, and taken in some drop-off repairs. We were closed on Friday for a staff training so we did all that in two days. We’re really getting to see how our new space handles the crush of people this time of year. Only downside is we’re only able to be open M/W/F since we’re critically low on staffing. Once we hire and onboard more folks, we’ll be able to bump up our hours some more.
Over the weekend we had the Illini Frenzy event which was a great outreach opportunity. We handed out lots of Bike Center stickers, slap bracelets and flyers.
This week will likely be as busy or busier than last. Buckle up!
The numbers:
Sales: $1,848
Bikes: 9 for $1,410
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tire/tubes: 17 for $66
U-locks: 10 for $215
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
On 6/8/2021, the Student Sustainability Committee released a semesterly report on the Bicycle Registration and RFID Tracking Program. The report is attached.
All, We’re getting legitimately busy nowadays! We’ll be keeping an eye on overall capacity and having to limit some visitors soon.
I’m scrambling to finish more bikes to capitalize on the surging demand but we’ll likely sell out this week or next.
Over the weekend we’ve gotten over 50 bike registration notifications so it’s likely we’ll see an uptick in registration pick-ups here.
We had a patron come in on Friday who’s an RA at LAR and took all of our rack card flyers to hand out to his students—hopefully that’ll bump up our applications.
The numbers:
Visitors: 41
Sales: $1,362.60
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $940
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 8 for $42
U-locks: 6 or $126
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Light the Night - free bike light giveaway event, is scheduled for September 14, 2021 from 4-7 pm
All, This update is a day late as I was out of the office on Monday.
Last week I was out on Thursday and Friday as well. Student staff covered Bike Center hours in my absence. On Monday last week we received a bike from Housing which we were able to quickly fix up and put out for sale.
This week we have a couple drop off repairs to catch up on, a few more bikes to fix up for sale, and some donations to process.
The numbers:
Visitors: 26
Sales: $1,167
Memberships: 6 for $180
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500
U-locks: 5 for $105
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Please see attached the final bicycle registration sign design in JPEG and PDF formats. We have received approvals from Housing to put up these signs in the major high traffic bicycle parking locations, mainly in the SDRP, LAR, FAR/PAR, and Busey Evans bicycle parking areas. We are also looking at Illini Union and ARC for these signs in this cycle, but dependent on funding.
Sarthak Prasad has submitted a work order to fabricate and install the bike registration signs at these locations (as mentioned in previous project updates). The Work Order number is 10885468.
Sarthak Prasad worked with Rachel Hull in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement to create a campaign story on With Illinois to request donations towards the Campus Bicycle Plan Implementation and Mission Fund. This is a community funding campaign and Sarthak will be promoting it to the Bike at Illinois social media and community partners. The current goal is to raise $500 before September 14, 2021.
Read how you can "Help Bike at Illinois improve your bicycle experience on campus!" Please share this campaign story and make a donation ($1 minimum) to help us achieve this goal.
On August 2, 2021, SSC approved the scope change for the Bike and Ped Counters project as requested on July 21, 2021. Sarthak Prasad will make a purchase request to procure a new set of Eco-Counter bicycle and pedestrian counters.
See the project update for Scope Change requested: Bike and Ped Counters.
All, Busy week! Sold bikes, stripped bikes, helped people fix bikes. We had especially good volunteer turnout on Friday. One frequent visitor even donated his neighbor’s old bike that was headed for the dumpster before he intercepted. Another person said they’ll be here to volunteer on Monday.
Donations, thankfully, have hit a little bit of a lull, so we’ll be able to spend this week catching up on that. On Friday alone—see aforementioned volunteer levels—we started 4 new shop builds that will be finished this week.
We also sold a bike to someone from Housing who works specifically in promoting healthy and environmental lifestyles in the dorms. He seemed really jazzed about our programming and operations. Hopefully that’ll be a future partnership.
The numbers:
Visitors: 28
Sales: $1,307.10
Memberships: 2 for $60
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $1,040
Tires/tubes: 5 for $26
U locks: 3 for $63
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Please see attached the ridership information for July 2021.
All, Continuing in our lucky streak of donations, we got a few bikes donated last week that we’ve already fixed up and sold. It is really an ideal situation when donations need minimal work like that and then the ideal person shows up the next day to purchase the bike. On the flipside, I counted 16 bikes that we moved out to the racks just to clear enough space for the bike center to be functional.
Big thanks to Todd who picked up our heaping pile of scrap. I’ll spend some time this week starting a new heaping pile.
The numbers:
Visitors: 16
Sales: $1,386.50
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $905
Memberships: 6 for $180
U locks: 4 for $84
Tire/tubes: 2 for $9
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Below are the 12 locations we can put up the signs. Additionally, after looking at you map, I agree with all the location for the signs.
Today we discussed the 10-12 location we are ready to place the bike signs once they are made. Once the work order is submitted soon, the signs will take around two weeks to produce and we are hoping to have everything, including the placement of the signs, done by early September. Currently, the cost of each sign ranges from $60-$75 with an additional $200 for installation of all signs. We hope to complete 12 signs and make more if our budget allows.
Sarthak Prasad requested a scope change for the Bicycle Registration and RFID Tracking Program project on July 23, 2021. This scope change request includes changes to the following:
Please see attached the scope change document from 2020 as well as 2021.
Please see attached the ridership information for June 2021.
All, Slow-ish week on the whole. Some rainy weather kept it quiet for a day or two. We’re holding steady with 20 – 25 bikes for sale as we’ve been able to keep up with the pace of sales. We got two donations late on Friday, one of which had nearly nothing wrong with it, and thusly was fixed up and on the sales floor within an hour.
We had a few visitors express interest in employment at the Bike Center so I will follow up with them this week to help bolster our roster.
Sarthak came by on Friday and explained a great time-saver for doing on-the-spot 529 bike registrations. This will be a great help in about a month when we’re deluged with incoming students.
The numbers:
Visitors: 20
Sales: $450.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $280
Tires/tubes: 5 for $21
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
All, Bit of a busy week in the books. Still getting regular and steady donations that are a challenge to keep on top of, but it is much preferable to NOT having any donations.
I had a new hire start on Friday, who did a great job on his first day, considering it was a bit of a trial by fire with how busy we were. He’ll be a welcome addition around here!
We had our first completed Build-a-Bike since the pandemic, which was also our first semi-fixed B-a-B. I think the person took 2-3 days, or 8-12 hours of labor to finish the bike.
A planning meeting for Bike Month is on the calendar for this week. Other than that, it is business as usual.
The numbers:
Visitors: 23
Sales: $787.10
Bikes (refurb): $390
Memberships: 5 for $150
Tires/tubes: 14 for $67
Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center
