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Projects Updates for place: Alma Mater

  2. Bike at Illinois and University Housing contributions to Bike Month activities

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    Bike at Illinois confirmed an allocation of $5,100 for Bike to Work Day and Light the Night events. Following is the breakdown:

    1. $2,000 towards t-shirts
    2. $1,500 towards the purchase of bike lights
    3. $1,250 towards logistics – Tables, chairs, trash, recycling, and hand sanitizing stations for all 9 campus welcoming stations for BTWD and 3 campus locations for LTN
    4. $350 towards the promotion and advertisement of these events (on campus digital advertising)

    University Housing also agreed to donate food and refreshment at all eight or night campus BTWD welcoming stations, in the amount of $1,500.

  4. Eco-Counter set installed and activated at Green and Goodwin

    Associated Project(s): 
    Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts
    Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project (MCORE)
    Bicycle Counts
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    A set of Eco-Counters were installed at the intersection of Green St and Goodwin Ave by Loomis Laboratory on Monday, May 9, 2022. This was a new set of counters with no groundbox, purchased in October 2021. This set of Eco-Counter was purchased using the SSC funding. These counters were activated on May 10, 2022, and they are now collecting and transmitting data. See attached the pictures of these counters.

    Attached Files: 

  5. Eco-Counter set installed and activated at Armory and Sixth

    Associated Project(s): 
    Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts
    Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project (MCORE)
    Bicycle Counts

    A set of Eco-Counters were installed at the intersection of Armory Ave and Sixth St on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. This is the last set of old counters that were purchased in 2019. These counters were activated on April 27, 2022, and they are now collecting and transmitting data. See attached to see the pictures of these counters.

    Attached Files: 

  6. Bike Day presentation at National Bike Summit

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    Sarthak Prasad presented the findings from Bike Day 2021 event to the National Bike Summit on March 29, 2022! Bike Day 2021 was organized on September 14, 2021, with the Bike to Work Day event in the morning from 7-10 am and Light the Night event in the late afternoon/evening from 4-7 pm. Please see attached the presentation.

    Attached Files: 

  8. Weekly Update: Bike to Work Day; Light the Night; Grand Re-opening

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Light the Night
    C-U Bike to Work Day

    All, Heck of a week we just had. Tuesday was Bike To Work Day and Light The Night; both events went well. CBC as a LTN location was not as popular as the other two spots but we are still only in our second year of offering this location; the other two spots have been there for over 10 years and have a lot more passers-by. I do appreciate the convenience of not having to go anywhere for the event, though!

    BTWD was a decent turn out. We had around 30 people stop by to pick up their shirts. iSEE shot some footage for a promo video. I also talked with a few profs/pro staff folks who said this was their first bike commute, which was great. Hopefully they’ll stick with it! It also reminded me I need to brush up on my beginning commuter tips…

    Our Grand Opening event was a success. We got to show off our space to quite a few people who’d never been by before and a handful of regulars that were duly impressed with the upgrade from our old space.

    This week I’ve got a new student worker starting, so that will be a welcomed addition to the team. I’ll also pick up some bikes from TBP for rebuild as we’re flush out of decent Shop Builds. Demand has waned a bit or word is spreading that we’re out of bikes so fewer folks are coming by—either way, we’ll get a few more fixed up this week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: TBD
    Sales: $513.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tire/tubes: 6 for $19.50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  9. Bike Day 2021 held on September 14, 2021

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    Bike Day 2021 was organized on September 14, 2021! Here are some of the numbers from the events from Bike Day 2021.

    Bike to Work Day:

    • Held in the morning from 7 - 10 am
    • Record-breaking event with 16 welcoming stations in Champaign County, including 9 on-campus
    • Record 802 pre-registrations to attend the event and more than 150 walk-in registrations
    • University Housing provided refreshments to all campus welcoming stations
    • iSEE produced a video highlighting the event

    Light the Night:

    • Held in the evening from 4 - 7 pm
    • Three locations: Alma Mater, Hallene Gateway, and Campus Bike Center
    • 40 volunteers for the event
    • installed nearly 750 light sets (front and rear)

    General feedback was very positive from the campus community members. Several mentioned that holding these events in September felt like a welcoming event and gave the returning and new students an opportunity to explore the campus and community on bike and learn about the bike program at the beginning of school year!

    The Bike Month Planning team and Light the Night Planning teams are considering organizing both of these events in the fall semester going forward.

  11. F&S Announcement about Bike Day events!

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    Celebrate CU Bike Day 2021
     
    Be a part of two great upcoming bicycle events on Tuesday, September 14. You can participate, volunteer, or do both! 

    The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign achieved the Silver-level Bicycle Friendly University status in October 2019 because of its ongoing commitment to improving bicycle education, infrastructure, and programs. Visit the Bike at Illinois website to learn more about the many efforts that support bicycling on campus.
     
    Bike to Work Day
    Champaign County Bike to Work Day returns this semester. There will be 17 welcoming stations open between 7 and 10 a.m., with nine on the Urbana campus. Grab a snack and get some free Bike at Illinois merchandise and a T-shirt! To get the free T-shirt, you must register and bring your bicycle! 
     
    Light the Night
    The 14th annual Light the Night, a free bike light giveaway, will be held that evening from 4 to 7 p.m. at three locations:

    • Alma Mater Plaza
    • Hallene Gateway (intersection of Illinois Street and Lincoln Avenue)
    • Campus Bike Center (51. E. Gregory Drive) 

    Participants must bring their bicycles to receive the free light sets; lights will only be installed on bicycles without lights. Volunteers are needed in the afternoon and evening for three shifts. Fill out the volunteer sign-up form to assist. All volunteers will be required to wear face coverings during the event.

  13. Archived description: MCORE porject

    Associated Project(s): 
    Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project (MCORE)

    The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), City of Champaign, City of Urbana, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are partnering to improve mobility in our communities core through a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant. The $35M MCORE Project is unprecedented in our community’s history and will have a transformative impact.

    MCORE Project construction is anticipated to start in September of 2016 and continue into 2019, covering five separate project areas to improve key urban transportation corridors.

    Enhances Mobility Choices


    The goal of MCORE is to provide a balance between all modes of transportation. Transportation choices address pedestrian access routes, bicycle lanes, transit efficiency and vehicle flow; and reduce potential conflict areas.

    Improves Infrastructure


    MCORE will improve the condition of the existing pavement and bring the streets of these core transit corridors into a state of good repair while redesigning them into complete streets to accommodate all users.

    Promotes Sustainability


    MCORE will encourage sustainable development that is located and designed to be compact and contiguous to existing development and have limited environmental impact; provide streetscape improvements for an enriched built environment, sense of place, and quality of life; emphasize all modes of transportation while decreasing the use of single occupancy vehicles, thereby reducing congestion, traffic hazards, and carbon emissions.

    Improves Critical Linkages


    The completion of the MCORE Project will provide better connections between the downtown centers of Champaign and Urbana, the university, the area’s major employers, health, and social service organizations.

  14. Weekly Update: BTWD and LTN dates finalized

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    All, Steadily picking up around here. Had to pull out the folding stands on a couple occasions. Got a new hire in the works. Dates are set for Light The Night and Bike To Work Day for the fall. On Friday we had a volunteer working towards a membership, which was a welcome occurrence.

    This week is business as usual.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 20
    Sales: $1022.10
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Misc: $58.50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  15. Combined Bike to Work Day and Light the Night planning meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    Please watch the meeting recording here: Combined Bike to Work Day and Light the Night meeting on June 8, 2021.

    Also, attached are the meeting notes for Light the Night, agenda for this meeting, and a draft of the sponsorship/fundraising letter from Champaign County Bikes.

    Attached Files: 

  16. Bike Month planning meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Independent Student Projects

    The Bike Month planning team met today, with representatives from several areas across Champaign County.

    1) CU Safe Routes to School - planned for May 5 - Urban Planning student is an intern for CU-SRTS. They are also working on a safe routes to parks program.

    2) Champaign County Bikes - Charlie Smyth is the chair of CCB this year.  They will have a new website in a few days.  They still need one more board member for this year.  They talked with Amelia Neptune at the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), and Charlie shared several points about the national outlook.

    3) This group will plan virtual events for the spring, and meet again in February.

  18. Final numbers from Light the Night 2020

    Associated Project(s): 
    Light the Night

    This year, Light the Night event was hosted at three locations: Alma Mater Plaza, Hallene Gateway, and Campus Bike Center (new location). Overall, the volunteers installed bicycle lights to nearly 450 bikes at these locations.

    Leftover lights:

    Red lights: 806

    White lights: 779

    The remaining lights are stored in Room 143 at F&S. They will be distributed among the four funding agencies.

  19. Light the Night 2020 - post event meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Light the Night

    The Light the Night 2020 organizing team met on September 29th, 2020 to discuss the event and lessons learned. Gabe Lewis said that he was in contact with City of Urbana to publish a final report for LTN 2020 in their upcoming newsletter. Sarthak Prasad would do the final count after the meeting so that Gabe can send the report to City of Urbana.

    The team noted that there were several students who needed repairs on their bicycles, so they were given the informtion about Campus Bike Center. Jeff Yockey was also doing minor repairs at the Hallene Gatway location. Next year, we could maybe advertize the event so that those needing minor bike repairs can go to the CBC location. Jake Benjamin said that we could have a repair station at the end of the volunteer line at the CBC location for anyone needing immediate repair. We all thought it was a great idea!

    The team also noted that since the light installation took minimal time, the attendees were more interested in learning more about the bicycle information, Census, and Wellness this year. We should also have the Bike at Illinois merchandize and other handouts at the exit rather than at the entry point.

    Finally, we all thought that the presence of UIPD was very encouraging, the officers helped out a lot with handing out information, and they were happy to help!

    The event was considered a success, considering the pandemic and concerns of having a distribution event. All volunteers were very careful and abided by the Safety Plan in place and helped keep the line of attendees moving (attendees were in and out within 2 minutes).

    Stacey DeLorenzo, Chantelle Hicks, Sinead Soltis, and Sarthak Prasad took several pictures for the event and posted them to social media.

  20. Final Check

    Associated Project(s): 
    Light the Night

    On September 18th, the organizing team met to finalize the tasks before the event. We discussed the bike rack on bus demonstration, volunteer update, and some remaining tasks in the to-do list in the LTN google drive. We decided to meet once more before the meeting on Wednesday.

    Confirmed 37 Volunteer  submissions, 6 police officers will be present for the duration of the event (2 at each location), and 2 Wellness Ambassadors at each locations to talk about the current situation and the need for precaution (they will also handout safety information packets including masks). Gabe confirmed that 2 representatives from Census 2020 could join each location as well.

    Campus Rec and iSEE will provide some water bottles to be handed out to the volunteers who dont have one. DIA will provide 6 Gatorade containers for water refills for volunteers only. Stacey and Sarthak will fill them up with ice and water and deliver them to the three locations.

    We discussed the table setup, how to organize the lines, and the assignments for the volunteers. All volunteers were sent the Safety Plan and Warning and Waiver Form on Wednesday, September 23, 2020. Sarthak and Stacey will drop off the lights and merchandize at each location by 3 pm.

    All tables and chairs will be delivered by 3 pm. Sarthak and Stacey will arrange the tables at 3 pm at Hallene Gateway and Alma Mater location. Sarthak will print out numbers for each table/volunteer station, list of volunteers for each location, etc.

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