Description:

Bicycle registration is primarily a method to assist with returning stolen or lost bikes when they are recovered by Public Safety or Facilities & Services.  Bicycle registration is offered for free to faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois, and can conveniently be completed online at http://go.illinois.edu/mybike.

In September 2013, the University will be adopting new stickers for bicycle registration, and all registered bike owners will be contacted with instructions on how to receive their new sticker. 

To register your bicycle, visit http://go.illinois.edu/mybike

Background:

The benefits of registering your bicycle include:

• It deters theft
• It helps the UIPD reconnect bicycle owners with their lost or stolen bikes
• You can be contacted if your bicycle is impounded or mistaken for abandoned
• It helps the University to better plan for bicycles and bicycle infrastructure
• It allows the University to communicate with bicyclists for important bicycle-related announcements

Bicycle Registration was open for public on July 20, 2020. Currently due to the pandemic, all Shield pick-up locations are closed, so for those who register and want the 529 Shield now, they must contact bike@illinois.edu to arrange for a time and place to collect the Shield. Otherwise, Sarthak Prasad would reach out to them when the Shield pick-up locations are open.

The bicycle registration page on the Bike at Illinois (bike.illinois.edu) to reflect the new changes. The new system will be available to the public from July 20, 2020. This page now contains information about the importance of registration, new bicycle registration system, how to register, and the 529 Shield (registration tag) pick up locations. Due to the pandemic, all the Shield pick-up locations were closed.

Learn more and how to Register Your Bicycle here.

Learn about the Benefits of registering your bicycle here.

SSC funded the Bike Maintenance Instructor project with $1,000 in FY17. Please see attached the final report for this project.

See the project update for the funding letter for this project here.

Following the CTAC meeting on March 27, 2020, the Committee approved the proposal of adding a one-time $10 bicycle registration fee per bicycle.

Attended by: Sarthak Prasad (organizer, F&S), Morgan White (F&S), Stacey DeLorenzo (F&S), Marty Paulins (Parking), Gary Williamson (Parking), Bryan Johnson (Housing), Barbara Robbins (UIPD), Tara Hurless (UIPD), Jake Benjamin (Campus Bike Center), Alana Harris (called in, Campus Rec), John Lantz (called-in, Office of the Dean of Students), Ben LeRoy (City of Champaign), Lily Wilcock (City of Urbana), Jeff Yockey (Champaign County Bikes), Donna Williams (Called-in, Project 529)

Sarthak Prasad organized this meeting on January 31st from 2-3 pm to discuss Bicycle Registration using Project 529. We started off with the introductions, and Sarthak briefly explained the agenda for this meeting.

We talked about the current bicycle registration system for the University and both the cities, and the need to bring a new registration system to the university and the community. City of Urbana has a paper based bicycle registration system and City of Champaign does not currently have a bicycle registration program. We discussed the potential benfits for having Project 529 as the national bike registry vendor. Some of these benefits include:

• Project 529 is a National Bike Registry with nearly 1.5 million bicycles registered
• Bike theft recovery
• Consolidated system - one system for all
• Bicycle safety and enforcement
• Gather numbers
• Ability to send push notification - information on street/sidewalk/bike path closure, information on bicycle events in the community
• Information on any group rides in the community
• Project 529 will help enter the serial numbers in their system for the impounded bicycles or during bicycle round-up
• Admins can contact the users using the unique Shield number

Following this, Sarthak talked about the costs that will be incurred to bring this system, and went over the Quote (attached) with the group. We (university) have started the Purchase Order process, and is in progress. To start with, the University will pay the entire quoted amount (including the Secondary accounts) to bring the system here. Sarthak has asked the Cities to contribute the Secondary Account funds. This system will also include the Village of Savoy, but since the population is much less compared to the University and the cities, Project 529 will not charge a Secondary Account fee for Savoy. This will mean that there can be administrators from the University, Urbana, Champaign, and Savoy. These admins will have access to the program (not separarte programs for each unit).

The University is also considering adding a $10 registration fee, but we trying to get approvals on that. The funds from this registration fee will go towards the bicycle programs in the university and community. Sarthak, Morgan, and Stacey will discuss with the Cities on how to distribute the funds.

Facilites & Services Transportation Demand Management (F&S TDM) at the University is purchasing the Community Plan from Project 529, and will lead this project. We would appreciate the support from all of departments involved.

Sarthak briefly explained the implementation plan, which is to launch a Pilot program immediately after the Spring Break, look for what works and what needs work, right up a report by the end of June, and launch the program to the public starting in July 2020. Following this, Donna from Project 529 briefly explained how the system works and some of the existing features. We also discussed how to add new features as well.

In the final 15 minutes, we asked Project 529 some questions about their system.

Ben LeRoy and Lily Wilcock will get back to Sarthak Prasad about funding the Secondary Accounts fee.

The Campus Bike Center held Fix-a-flat classes every week on Fridays from March 29, 2019 (from 11 am - 12 pm) till the end of semester (May 3, 2019).

Description for the Fix-a-Flat class:
“Tired of getting flat tires on your bike? Come to this 1 hour informational hands-on class to learn how to solve one of the most common bicycle repair problems! We’ll cover the basics of removing a wheel and tire, replacing the tube, and reinstalling the wheel on the bicycle. All tools and parts will be provided.”

All, Big but also kind of micro news is that there’s been a noticeable uptick in donations here at the Bike Center. While I’d love to attribute that to our awesome Bike Abandonment Prevention program, it’s really just been local community members who’re cleaning out their garages--most prominently two white bearded men, not the graduating seniors that we’re hoping to attract.

But that’s a good segue into what our Bike Abandonment Prevention is trying to do: reduce and abate the number of abandoned bikes left by students leaving campus around this time of year. In turn we hope Parking will have to collect fewer bikes that’ll end up in our hands in the end anyway. We’ve got signage and a bike rack set up outside the Bike Center to allow students to donate their bikes and, to incentivize the donation,  in return they can get a water bottle (but the water bottles are only available during open hours). We’ll track how many students are donating and obviously won’t be turning away community donations. There’s already been a social media push and advertising done by Campus Rec to help promote and get the word out!
We’ve got our Fix-a-Flat class this Friday and of course Bike To Work Day on Wednesday. The weather isn’t looking great but we’ll get the dedicated folks come through, I’m sure. Jeff Yockey dropped off the BTWD shirt last week and we’ve been hanging it by the register to showcase the event. Over the upcoming weekend we’ve got our Bike Rodeo event which will also double as a drop-off spot for the Bike Abandonment Prevention program. May is looking busy but it is Bike Month!

Numbers:

Visitors: 73
Sales: $812.50
Memberships: 6 for $180
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500

Thanks!

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

All, Apologies for the delay. I was out of town Monday and Tuesday.

Last week was busy. Hovered around 20 people in per day. Warm weather always helps. We had our third Fix-a-Flat class and again no attendees, unfortunately. The students hosted their Friday Ride and one person showed up (former employee). I tabled at the Health Fair last Tuesday and got to chat with the UIPD officer stationed next to me. He referred me to the METCAD phone # in the event of cyclists witnessing or experiencing unsafe car/truck drivers on campus.

This week was obviously truncated with me being out of town. The student staff operated the shop in my absence. I’ll check in with them this week and see how that went. Tomorrow evening is the Bike Maintenance info session/class in the winter garden from 7 – 8pm. Friday is the first Full Moon Ride, a community bicycling event here in town, so I’ll talk that up. It is easily our most popular cycling-related event in the warmer months here in town.
Numbers:

Visitors: 96
Sales: $717.50
Memberships: 4 for $120
Bike (refurb): 2 for $350
Tire/tube: 11 for $55

Thanks!

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager