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Project Updates for collection: Bicycle Related Projects

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  1. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was comfortable—both weather-wise and with how busy the shop was. We saw some Build-a-Bikes walk out the door and of note, specifically, was Rafael’s. He’s from Brazil and speaks almost no English. Communication was limited to hand gestures and demonstrating how a bike part is supposed to move or operate. He finished his build on Friday and was so happy to have it done he wanted a photo with the staff.  Not all learning is language-based!

     

    First Visit Free is on a first-come first-serve basis now as we have slowed down enough to be able to accommodate small repairs some of the time.

     

    I spoke with Working Bikes last week. We have a tentative date of 10/16 set for the big shipment. I spent a good hour and a half at the warehouse organizing bikes on Friday. This week and next I’ll schedule more trips out there with Parking to sufficiently prepare for the event. Over 500 bikes will need their pedals removed and handlebars turned. 200 of those will also need their front wheels removed.

     

    Thanks to Todd for picking up scrap over the weekend.

    This week I’ll build bikes and do more warehouse prep.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 114
    Sales: $553.60

    Memberships: 12 for $360
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 18 for $98

     

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  2. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was steadily busy but with more minor repairs than B-a-Bs which kept things flowing nicely.

     

    New hire Hank started on Friday. Unfortunately, he’s tall so this shop won’t be friendly to him, height-wise. He’s been enthusiastic and willing to learn-as-you-go, which has been good.

    Last week I counted all the bikes in the warehouse. We’ve got approximately 504. Working Bikes is still interested but may be doing a full shipment from down here instead of carting the bikes back to Chicago. That will happen sometime next month, I believe. Details are still being ironed out.

    We also had Light The Night 2018! Barry did the counts but we didn’t sell out at Illinois/Lincoln and did at Alma.  

     

    This week I have a TBP meeting tonight and am teaching a Bike Maintenance 101 class tomorrow night from 7 – 8pm. Other than that, business as usual.

     

    Numbers:

    Visitors: 80
    Sales: $773.20
    Memberships: 14 for $420
    tire/tubes: 10 for $51

    Thanks!

     

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  4. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, this past week was comfortably slow. Sold out of bikes.

     

    I reached out to Working Bikes about them coming down to pick up bikes but haven’t heard back yet. Will follow up this week.

     

    I’ll also be picking up bikes from UIPD and processing them. I got a report that the pump at Altgeld/Union is on the fritz. I’ll check that out this week and see if I can get it operational without ordering any new parts. Fingers crossed.

     

    Tuesday morning I’ll be meeting with someone from the Illini Gadget Garage. They do a very similar thing to the Bike Center, except with electronics/small appliances: teaching people how to repair them.  

     

    Thursday is LTN 2018. We’ve got a record number of lights to install this year!

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 116
    Sales: $1,086

    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $97.50
    Memberships: 17 for $510
    Tires/tubes: 23 for $153

     

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  5. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, this past week calmed down a bit. We were still busy but manageably so instead of overwhelmed. Friday’s heavy and constant rain kept visitor number low for that day. Last week I interviewed and will be hiring a new student worker. I reached out to Working Bikes about them taking a lot of our abandoned bikes as in years past but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

     

    I taught a Bike Maintenance 101 class last Monday. It went well, even if there was  low turnout. I picked up 12 bikes or so from UIPD. They’ve got another 10 – 12 for us and I’ll coordinate with them this week on that. I’ll also be finishing up some bikes so we have a few for sale, stripping some of the junkers that we got from UIPD and working on inventory as we look towards fall.

     

    The numbers:

     

    Sales: $1,586.00

    Memberships: 11 for $330
    Bikes (refurb): 4 for $695
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $104.50

    Tires/tubes: 14 for $112

     

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  8. New website launched

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike at Illinois Website and Campaign

    CHAMPAIGN, IL – Whether you need to purchase a new bike while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or are an experienced rider looking to get more involved and volunteer at upcoming bike events, there’s a new website that can help you do it all.

    Bike at Illinois (bike.illinois.edu) is the campus community’s comprehensive bicycling resource, helping everyone have a safer, more sustainable, and comfortable biking experience on campus. The site’s user-friendly, responsive, and accessible design makes getting information convenient while on the go using smartphones and tablets.

    Facilities & Services (F&S) Active Transportation Coordinator Lily Wilcock said, “Bike at Illinois online was designed to bring all campus bicycle information into one easy-to-find location. The response and feedback to the site have been excellent, and students were very excited about it on Quad Day.”

    The Bike at Illinois website includes detailed sections on registering bikes, campus bike rules, and the campus bike center, plus updates on news and upcoming events. 

    F&S Executive Director Mohamed Attalla said, “I am excited to see us launch this new website to showcase and celebrate the incredible efforts underway for bicycling on campus. The potential for greater outreach and engagement with students, faculty, staff, and community will help support our continued designation as a Bicycle Friendly University.”

    Dockless Bike Sharing Update
    VeoRide, based in West Lafayette, Indiana, is the first company to receive a Concession Agreement with the university for deploying dockless bike share bicycles in this area. The company will offer a fleet of 500 turquoise bikes, the maximum number allowed by the pilot program, throughout Champaign, Urbana, and on campus. The dockless bike sharing program will provide individuals with the ability to rent a bicycle through a smartphone app. Users can park the self-locking bicycles at any bike rack across campus or in the cities. For frequently asked questions about the pilot program go to http://go.fs.illinois.edu/bikeshare.

  9. archived info - previous project background

    Associated Project(s): 
    University Bicycle Ordinance

    The existing Bicycle Code for the University was effective since May 1, 1989, (read the 1989 Bike Code here) although enforcement of the code has varied greatly.  The 2013 draft update of the Bike Code resulted from several conversations about bicycle enforcement and the need for better policies, beginning in the Fall of 2012 and Spring of 2013.

    The updated code is more comprehensive and detailed, and is an important part of aknowledging the rights and responsibilities of cyclists on campus. The draft code was released for public comment in early September. The following timeline outlines the key dates going forward for having the new bike code to officially replace the 1989 version, before enforcement can begin. 

    Timeline: 

    • September, 2013: The new draft bike code is available for public comment/feedback  (submit feedback here)
    • October-November, 2013: The new bike code will be finalized for adoption into the Campus Administration Manual
    • September, 2013-March, 2014: Increased educational efforts will inform campus cyclists about the policy changes before enforcement begins
    • Fall 2014: Enforcement of the new Bicycle Code will begin Fall 2014.

  10. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, busy, busy week, as it always is this time of year. A few members completed their B-a-Bs, sold more memberships due to the suspension of the First Visit Free policy. Very few instances of people scoffing at the price/cost of entry, as most understood that a membership is a darn good deal. At its worst we had 10 people waiting for stand time.  


    One of the student workers, Tovah, gave her 2 weeks’ notice last week, as her class schedule is too demanding for her to also work here. I’ll be interviewing/hiring a replacement ASAP.

     

    Todd helped out with picking up scrap over the weekend and Barry got the sign-in computer up and running (though it could die at any moment). Lucas and Logan (former staffers both) visited the shop on Friday and ended up volunteering, which was super awesome of them. Thanks to all four gentlemen for their help!

     

    This week I’ve got the Bike Maintenance 101 class tonight at the ARC. I’ll be building bikes (2 for sale right now), coordinating with UIPD to pick up some donated bikes they have for us, and reaching out to Working Bikes and the Parking Dept. about our annual Bike Warehouse Clean Out.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 83 (actual number was much higher; sign-in computer was down)

    Sales: $1,891.50

    Memberships: 21 for $630
    Bikes (refurb): 4 for $520
    Bikes (B-a-B): 3 for $246.50
    Tire/tubes: 27 for $136

     

    Thanks!

    - Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  11. e-week notice

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike at Illinois Website and Campaign

    New Bike at Illinois Website Launched

    Bike at Illinois is the campus community’s new, comprehensive bicycling resource, helping everyone have a safer, more sustainable, and comfortable biking experience on campus. Need to register your bike, learn bicycle rules, visit the Campus Bike Center, or volunteer for upcoming events? All that information and more is available in an easy-to-use, responsive, and accessible design.

    Lily Wilcock . Facilities & Services

  12. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, busy times have arrived! We’ve mostly sold out of bikes (4 left), and been registering bikes like crazy. With a dearth of for sale bikes, we’ve got an uptick of B-a-Bs, for better or worse. The tail end of last week I officially suspended the First Visit Free option for the Campus Bike Center. Just too busy to accommodate freebies. I’ll reinstate FVF when it calms down, usually in October. I’ll add that info to the website today.

    Last week featured a lot of stern talking-tos with members about the concept of not being allowed to work on your bike without a stand. There’s a lot of pushback on it and I’ll attempt this week to emphasis the safety aspect and maybe that’ll help.

     

    Over the weekend were two outreach events: Quad Day and Illini Frenzy. Both were well-attending and well-received! I handed out a lot of registration forms and TBP hours pages.

    This week I’ll be interviewing for a potential new hire, building bikes, attending the Bike Project monthly meeting, and stripping the junk bikes we got donated last week to keep the shop as clean as I can during the busy times.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 123

    Sales: $1,677.00

    Bikes (refurb): 6 for $960
    Memberships: 8 for $240
    Tires/tubes: 19 for $83

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  14. Veoride is coming to town

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike Share with Veo

    "URBANA — With agreements almost finalized, VeoRide is set to become the first dockless-bike-share service in Champaign-Urbana.

    Lily Wilcock, active transportation coordinator at the University of Illinois, said the Indiana-based company gave her serial numbers for 500 bicycles — the biggest fleet size allowed. The goal, she said, is to roll them out around the start of the semester...."

    http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-08-16/c-us-first-shareable-b...

  15. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All,

    Last week was a whirlwind of cleaning and reorganizing. On Monday afternoon a large dumpster was dropped off and on Tuesday a bunch of new furniture and cabinets came. The old furniture and cabinets went into the dumpster and the new stuff has been put in its place. On Friday a new big metal work table was dropped off to replace the smaller, broken, and less effective one. Overall, the shop is still in progress but will look a lot better shortly. Unfortunately, on Friday and over the weekend, we got 4 more bike donations, which is counterproductive as far as a clean shop is concerned but they’re good bikes that we can get

    In moving some of the computer stuff to the new desk some cables got plugged in incorrectly and this caused a major headache for the IT dept and the Bike Project. A large thanks to Barry and the two guys from F&S IT who helped right the ship.  

     

    Despite the continued construction on Pennsylvania, we were jam-packed for an hour on Thursday. We still haven’t been so busy as to require the suspension of the Free Visit policy. I’ll gauge how busy it is today and go from there.

     

    Last week I ordered the lights for LTN 2018. They should be here Wednesday.

     

    This week I will finish up the dumpster-required work and spiffy up some more. We’re starting to sell bikes on the regular and thusly stock is starting to dwindle (this is good!)  so I’ll finish up a few more shop builds this week, too.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 65

    Sales: $1,056.25

    Memberships: 7 for $210
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $455
    Tire/tubes: 12 for $73

    Thanks!

     

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  16. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week seemed to pick up towards the end of the week. We had to herd people out of the shop at 5:30. Even with the street closure, people are managing to find us. I’ve taken the sandwich board sign off the trike and placed it next to the garage door facing east since most of our traffic is coming from that side nowadays. I’ll reconstruct the trike and start using it again once Pennsylvania is reopened.

     

    This week I’ll be bringing the student staff in during the mornings to help clean and purge since we’ll be getting a pan dumpster and some new furniture. The disruption won’t affect open hours, as most of the cleaning will be in the back end of the shop anyway. We’ve got a dumpster here until Friday, so the staff and I should be able to concentrate all the cleaning to the mornings and have things back to functional order in time for open hours.

     

    I think either this week or next I will be suspending First Visit Free. This past week it was already affecting usage/stand availability for members. I’ll put a bulletin on the Bike Project website alerting people to that fact when I institute it.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 79

    Sales: $468.00

    Memberships: 2 for $60.
    Bikes (Refurb): 1 for $170
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $56
    Tire/tubes: 10 for $50

     

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  18. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, had a strong and busy finish to the end of last week. I think the student population is making its way back in advance of the new academic year.

     

    Last week I ordered the light sets for Light The Night, although a snag has just been brought to my attention. I spoke to the customer service representative at Dero on Friday and beyond his giddy reaction to the squirrel problem, he told me that they have on-order a new all-metal pump head that will withstand all the abuse (and squirrels) that our campus can muster.

     

    This week is a TBP Members’ Meeting. I’ll also work on resolving the issue with the Light The Night order, scrap more bikes in advance of the Big Clean as well as begin rounding up some volunteers to help out for the event.

     

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 87

    Memberships: 5 for $150

    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $330
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $105
    Tire/tubes: 6 for $29

     

    Sincerely,

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  19. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was slow, for the most part. Felt like we got a lot of donations. Trained a new staffer, waiting on clearance to train one more. Still building and scrapping bikes on the regular. My checklist sheet for shop builds is working—for the most part. There are still detail things that the staff don’t really notice, a slack chain on a single-speed for example, or cable ends are too long. Overall, I think it’s helping but the details matter and very much can still result in an unsafe bicycle. I’ll look at revising it a bit this w eek.

    This will be Dennis’s last week here (I think, will check on this). He has been a great staffer and we’ll miss him!

     

    This week I will begin prep for our big clean out/purge at the beginning of August. I’ll poll the staff for availability and iron out the details for how many days we’ll be closed (best-case scenario: one day). We’ll begin August 6th. We’ll be pulling all the bikes out and moving furniture around to give a solid, deep clean, and toss out the junk that has accumulated. We haven’t ever done a big clean like this during my tenure here and it’s wholly overdue. While we might lose a day or two of open hours, the end result will be a better functioning and cleaner/easier to navigate space.

     

    This week I will also be getting in touch with Lexco about ordering PB Blinky lights for LTN 2018!

    Numbers:

    Visitors: 75
    Sales: $724
    Memberships: 7 for $210

    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $220
    Tire/tubes: 11 for $88

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  20. archived info - previous project description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike Sharing

    The University has been approached many times by students and others about the possibility of implementing a bike sharing program, and the 2010 iCAP included a goal to create a bike sharing program by 2012.

    The University conducted a feasibility study in 2011 and 2012 (attached below) to assess whether the campus could truly sustain a bicycle sharing program. That study recommended the Campus Bike Plan be implemented first, in order to improve the conditions of bicycle infrastructure across campus, before a public bike sharing system be considered.  In Fall 2013, it was decided that there have been improvements made on the bicycle network so bike sharing was reopened for discussion.  A graduate student was hired to work with departments in trying to implement a bike share within the University, while creating discussion within the local community about a community wide system.

    In addition, the study also suggests a few interim programs to serve known needs of providing bicycles to University employees for work-related trips on an hourly basis, and providing bikes to visitors, conferences and classes for daily rentals for group tours, etc. The University is working to develop both of these programs now, and will continue to explore options for making communal bicycles available to students and potentially to the general public. 

    Background

    Although the community bike sharing costs too much, which means community bike sharing is not feasible in the recent years; some departments have developed their own bike sharing programs, staffs and students can rent a bike daily, monthly, even yearly. It is really convenient and increases the usage rate of bike around the campus. Now, a promotional campaign is being conducted to encourage more departments to participate, with the goal of increasing the number of departmental shared bikes from the current level of 15 to a goal of 60 by FY20. Additionally, campus still continue to work with community partners to explore the implementation of a communitywide public bike-sharing program.

    Minnesota has a nice ride which sharing bike among all people. It started from 2012 and since 2014, the cumulative trip exceeds 500,000 per year, whose net assets are $62,469 in 2015, which means with the contract, sponsor and rental fee, there is not much economic stress. Maybe in the next several years, it will work for us, too.

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