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Projects Updates for key objective: 3.4 Reduce Driving on Campus

  1. Transportation iCAP Team February Meeting

    The Transportation iCAP team met on Thursday, 2/25/2022 at 4:00 P.M. and discussed the following topics:

    • Scoring for the upcoming walkability audit
    • Questions for an upcoming mode choice survey

    Further details are in attached documents.

    Attached Files: 
  2. Mode Choice Survey 2022

    Associated Project(s): 

    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.

  3. Transportation iCAP Team September 2021 Meeting

    The Transportation iCAP team met via zoom from 9:00 A.M.-10:30 A.M. on Wednesday, September 29th. This meeting featured an update on proposed telecommuting policies from Doctor James Gallaher, discussions on the iCAP Objectives Assessment and iCAP celebration, and a general review of the goals and projects of the committee.

  4. Summary: F&S Space Management Plan 2021-2030

    Associated Project(s): 

    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.

  5. Car Culture and Climate Change: A Student Op-Ed

    Associated Project(s): 

     

    ui-parking.png

    Student Op-Ed: Car Culture and Climate Change

    In this opinion piece, undergraduate Shelby Job uses the U of I as a case study to examine the impact of efforts to limit automobile use and enourage biking, walking and public transit on America's "car culture" — especially in lower- and middle-class communities. 

    "Although the campus’ lack of accessibility by automobile might feel like a constraint on individual freedom, using infrastructure to encourage active modes of transportation may be the way forward as we search for solutions to the climate crisis," Job writes.

    But higher parking rates and the scarcity of parking overall raise the question of whether manipulating road systems will lead to a car culture that is only accessible to socioeconomic elites, she writes. "If municipalities begin to restrict auto travel by cutting down on the amount of affordable parking, then the face of an area's car culture is likely to change in a way that excludes those of lower socioeconomic standing."

    The op-ed was originally written for a course in iSEE's Certificate in Environmental Writing (CEW

  6. Trans010 Mode Switch Survey - Successful

    The Transportation SWATeam made the recommendation below, which was transmitted to iSEE and approved at an iSEE Management Meeting. Meredith Moore is in communication with Julie Cidell regarding moving forward with this initiative. 

    "The Transportation SWATeam kindly requests the creation of a survey which would question faculty and staff who travel out of town for conferences or other university-sponsored activities on their decided mode of transportation. This survey would be voluntary and facilitated by the Transportation SWATeam. An example of a question would be something like: 'In the past year, what has been the main reason for the travel you selected?'"

    See the submittal of Trans010 Mode Switch Survey here.

    See the recommendation for the Trans010 Mode Switch Survey here. 

    For future updates, see the Reduce Driving on Campus project here.

  7. Transportation SWATeam Meeting 24 October 2019

    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.

    Attached Files: 
  8. 2019 Mode Share results - Faculty/Staff and Students

    Associated Project(s): 

    The mode share for campus employees driving alone is down from an original figure of 74% to only 60%!  There is more work to be done to reach our FY20 goal of only 55%, but this is great progress! Check out the graph at 4.4 Reduce Single Occupancy Vehicle Usage, or read the attached files for more details.

     

     

  9. Trans008 Mode Share Survey recommendation - Successful

    The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment has agreed to administer a mode-share survey helmed by Micah Kenfield, Sustainability Programs Coordinator.

    See iWG assessment Trans008 Mode Share Survey here.

    See SWATeam recommendation Trans008 Mode Share Survey here.

    For future updates, please refer to Reduce Cars (Vehicle Miles Traveled) on Campus.

  10. SSC and F&S to host Free to Ride film screening

    Free To Ride, a documentary produced by The Ohio State University's Kirwan Institute, highlights the relentless spirit of community leaders from across Dayton, Ohio who overcame a suburban contingent fearfully opposed to the expansion of public transit along a commercial corridor, and the system of checks and balances that allowed justice and reason to prevail.

    Trailer: https://vimeo.com/95444875

    This event is free and open to the public. Join us on March 7th at 4pm in room 112 at the Transportation Building.

    Event Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1554444197965701/

    Attached Files: 
  11. April 21st, 2017 Meeting

    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.

     

  12. September 9th, 2016 Meeting

    9/09/16

     

    Summary: This meeting was our inaugural meeting for the year. On the agenda today was the creation of a team description, a review of ongoing projects, and planning for future meetings.

     

    In attendance:

        Josh Feldman

        Claire Dondival

    Ankit Singhai

    Yangfeng Ouyang

    Pete Varney

    Lily Wilcox - Active Transportation Coordinator

    Olivia Webb - Sustainability Programs Coordinator

     

    Topics Covered:

     

    Team Description

    We collectively crafted our team description for the iCAP portal, which can be found at:  https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/transportation-swateam.

     

    Project Slides

    Renewable Fleet Study:

    Claire and Petehelped foster a discussion about the current types of alternative fuels for campus fleet vehicles. Currently, natural gas is the only type of fuel seriously looked at. One concern was that the gas CNG, while possible to implement, would be somewhat costly and have little payback unless driven many miles. Electric vehicles were brought up, but are currently not part of the market. Biodiesel was also mentioned, but its performance in cold weather is a concern.

     

    Staff Mode Shift:

    Lily discussed the ways that this project will reduce single occupancy vehicles. One idea looked at was bike sharing, which has been tried by Purdue but does not have much payback economically. Lily also discussed “It’s your MTD too”, which features social bus-riding trips which introduce MTD to campus employees.

     

    Bike Plan:

    This was a summary of effort to make campus more bike-friendly. This would include having more, and better, bike parking. UIUC was recently recognized as a bronze-level Bike Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.

     

    Future Meetings

    We decided that every other Friday at 1pm is a good time to hold meetings. We will be holding meetings in the National Soybean Research Laboratory. Our clerk Josh will send out reminders.

  13. Trans002 Parking Survey recommendation - Assessment with comments

    The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on April 2, 2015, to discuss and start the assessment of the SWATeam recommendation, Trans002 Parking Survey. The iWG's recommendation was:

    "The iWG endorses this recommendation with the stipulation that survey questions should be vetted by the Transportation SWATeam and/or the iWG before the survey is performed."

    See attached the iWG assessment complete with official comments from all the SWATeam members.

    See SWATeam recommendation Trans002 Parking Survey here.

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