After discussions internally at F&S (in the Sustainability and Transportation Demand Management departments) and then discussions with iSEE, it was agreed that the F&S TDM department will conduct the Mode Choice Survey in 2022 and every 3 years going forward.

The F&S Space Management Plan 2021 – 2030 documents how space is used on campus. F&S works with the Office of the Provost and other campus units and committees to manage and improve the use of space on campus, which occupies over 23 million gross square feet of facilities in more than 750 owned and leased buildings.

Properly managing the space is essential, as more than 57,000 people enrolled or employed by the university live and learn on campus. Additionally, the plan notes that “people enrolled or employed on campus has been steadily increasing since 2000, growing by over 4% from 2017 to 2018 alone.”

Over the past decade, balancing campus growth and sustainability goals of the Net Zero Space Growth policy, part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), has required an innovative approach to analyzing campus density and opportunities for greater square footage efficiency. In-depth planning and procedures have included renovating existing space, improving utilization of existing space, and increasing the ability to share space and resources between units and across campus. The modest change to the campus footprint in recent years, despite additional enrollment, demonstrates the value of these actions.

“With enormous capital investments required to build, operate, and maintain our campus infrastructure, space is a critical asset that must be managed effectively to ensure the continued success of our university,” the plan reads. Net Zero Space Growth is essential to the university achieving strategic goals and is a crucial challenge of the ongoing project planning efforts in F&S Capital Programs.

Attached are the meeting minutes from the 24 October Transportation SWATeam meeting.

Stacey DeLorenzo was able to join us in order to provide insight to the Road Management Objectives the SWATeam discussed earlier, and to answer questions. She also was able to take a look at other objectives and provide input on potential objective ideas.

The SWATeam confirmed submittal of Road Management, Active Transportation, and Business Travel Emissions objectives and added a new objective under Reducing Business Travel emissions.

The next meeting is 31 October 2019.

The mode share survey email went out this afternoon.

Meeting Minutes 4/21/17

In attendance:

Ximing Cai

Pete Varney

Brian Farber

Yanfeng Ouyang

Summary:

This meeting serve to continue discussion on campus fleet, bike parking, and campus parking. Also, Ximing Cai was introduced to the team.

Topics:

Discussion on Campus Fleet

Pete led a discussion on campus fleet efforts. He stated that converting campus fleet to EVs and CNG vehicles would have a large effect on campus emissions, and that campus utility is interested in learning about electric vehicles, but there are certain obstacles to converting campus fleet. First it would cost about half a million dollars or more. These costs are largely attribute to building infrastructure for CNG refueling systems. In addition, campus fleet vehicles for Facilities and Services as well as housing do not drive very far, so the fuel savings would be small. However, converting campus fleet would be practical as the vehicles do not travel off campus, meaning there will be no inconvenience in refueling the vehicles.

Bike Parking

We continued our discussion on bike parking from the last meeting. One of our concerns, given the cost of the permits, is security. Anyone who is paying for a permit must be certain that there bike is secure. We might want to have security cameras.

Parking

We discussed efforts to encourage less driving through parking incentives. Pete suggested having a passenger-car-free campus zone by placing parking outside of certain zones of campus. This idea was well received by the group and generally liked. However, we discussed challenges to any parking changes. We discussed specific proposals to adjust parking prices, shown here:

-          Try to price people out of parking and mitigate this by reducing the price at other locations

-          Allow flexible payment in percentage of salary

-          Have and “auction” in which whoever pays the largest percent of their salary gets the closest location.

-          Remove or lift parking cap so that wealthier parkers pay more and thus provide more revenue

-          Have a private company raise rates on parking

Then, we discussed challenges to these proposals:

-          Parking is important to unions – any changes may result in strikes or political conflict

-          The sentiment of Parking and Campus master plan does not necessarily agree with people parking farther away – an objective that would be achieved through a passenger-car-free zone

-          Hiring private company likely not a good idea – their primary motivation is profit

-          City of Champaign changed parking ordinances so that spaces at churches, fraternities, etc, decrease

Our next meeting is TBD.