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Projects Updates for theme: Transportation

  3. Weekly Update: Closed for Juneteenth, Donations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Short week with the observed Juneteenth holiday on Friday. We’ve steadily been receiving donations but most of them are doomed for the scrap pile. But at least we’ll get some decent parts off them.

    Got a few bikes in the queue that should make the sales floor by end of week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 22
    Sales: $568.19
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $215
    Memberships: 7 for $210

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  4. Weekly Update: Donations, Closed on Friday for Juneteenth

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, We’re still working our way through our donations windfall. Open hours have been steadily busy, but it’ll be interesting to see how the extreme heat of the next couple weeks impacts visit numbers.

    We are selling bikes about as fast as we can build them, especially since we’ve been too busy to build much during shop hours.

    This week we will only be open Monday/Wednesday and closed Friday for Juneteenth (observed).

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 31
    Sales: $915.30
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Bikes: 3 for $595
    Tires/tubes: 7 for $60

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  6. Weekly Update: Bicycle Donations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, We were closed Monday for Memorial Day and so were only open W/F last week.

    Thanks to the generosity of a local bike shop, we were absolutely inundated with donations—something to the tune of 15-20 bikes. Then two community folks dropped off even more donations. Needless to say, I’ll be processing these all week.

    I dropped off flyers with WRC last week, too, in the hopes of expanding our reach to folks that haven’t already come into CBC.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 15
    Sales: $557.95
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Build-a-bike: 1 for $30

    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes (new/used): 12 for $76

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  7. Map My Emissions link

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Emissions from Transportation

    "Transportation of all kinds accounts for nearly a quarter of global CO2 emissions(Opens in a new window). Commuters often have little choice about how they can get to work. But even if they make a concerted effort by using tools like Map My Emissions(Opens in a new window), which calculates how much CO2 commuting options generate, it’s hard to beat the zero emissions generated by walking from one room to another." per https://www.pcmag.com/news/remote-work-will-never-be-the-same-and-thats-...

  8. Weekly Update: Grabbing scraps; Safety Checking bikes

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I was out most of last week and my staff ably handled running the shop in my absence. This week we’ll only be open W/F due to the Memorial Day holiday.

    Thanks to Todd for grabbing scrap over the weekend as we were getting quite full on that. Still have a few more bikes to strip.

    This week I am meeting with a prospective new hire, a U of I dad who is involved with a similar non-profit group in Boise, ID (of all places), and safety-checking a few bikes that’ll help us build our for-sale inventory back up.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 21
    Sales: $1,043.00
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $550
    Memberships: 6 for $180
    Tire/tubes (new/used): 10 for $77

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  9. Sarthak met with Gabe Lewis to talk about Electric Vehicles and EV charging

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase use of EVs and other Alternative Service Vehicles
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

    On May 24, Sarthak Prasad met with Gabe Lewis to talk about EVs. Gabe is the Transportation Planner at the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) and he currently leads the RPC Tech Committee which consists of 7 members – Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, Rantoul, St. Joseph, Mahomet, and Champaign County. Most recently, they had been talking about the feasibility of EVs in urban as well as the rural areas in the county.

    We talked about the US DOT's Charging Forward, an EV toolkit, that is primarily focused on EV Charging in the rural areas: https://www.transportation.gov/rural/ev/toolkit

    We also talked about Clean City Coalition. State of Illinois does not have a coalition, but Chicago has one and we could potentially reach out to them: https://cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/

    https://cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/chicago

    Also discussed the federal funding available through National EV Infrastructure (NEVI), Carbon Reduction Program (CRP), State and Local Planning for Energy (https://maps.nrel.gov/slope/), and EV Pro Lite (https://afdc.energy.gov/evi-pro-lite)

  10. Weekly Update: Very busy last week, Reduced hours for summer, bike donations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, The semester is over, and the students have left. For summer we’re down to just a couple of folks. And of course, Friday was super busy all day but we were lucky to be well-staff for the last day of the semester as staff report that it remained ASF (All Stands Full) until after close. We’ll see how busy we are this week.

    We’ve reduced hours to M/W/F in accordance with projected diminished demand and staff availability. As we get more staff hired/onboarded and demand is there, we’ll bump hours back up.

    We received 10 direct donations last week with I’d guess about half being students.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 38

    Sales: $854.60
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $370
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tire/tubes: 7 for $61

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  11. Meeting between Sarthak Prasad, Morgan White, and Robert O'Daniell

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase use of EVs and other Alternative Service Vehicles
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

    Robert O'Daniell met with Morgan and me on Friday, May 13, 2022. We talked about the following topics:

    • The University's upcoming task force for EVs. There will be two task forces -
      • On-campus
      • Community
    • Reserve List for new EVs - backlog of about 18 months. Ford is not putting more people on this list now.
    • How much EVs/Hybrids save over time
      • With the Tax credits and saving on fuel, the cost is very comparable and sometimes cheaper than gasoline car
      • Maintenance cost of EVs are very low
    • EV Town initiative at Bloomington/Normal area
    • QwikTrip chargers
      • None currently in Champaign
    • We talked about possibly adding Solar Arc at Lincoln & Florida parking lot
      • I will look at the product and possibly ask SSC for funding in the future
    • We also talked about the people Robert has reached out to so far
    • EV-Go
    • Electrify America
    • Where to place a Fast Charger in Champaign-Urbana?
    • I will connect Robert with Gabe Lewis at CCRPC.

    Robert also provided some documents that were updated from last meeting with me (Introductory meeting with Robert O'Daniell)

    Attached Files: 

  14. 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: 

  16. Weekly Update: Summer is coming

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Had some rainy weather last week that kept our visitor numbers low. We also had a few staff bow out for the summer.

    This week will be summer-like and judging by the first half hour of open shop time today, we’ll be nice and busy all week. From there it’s on to the summer sessions. We’ll likely reduce hours as demand and staffing availability dictate.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 24
    Sales: $605.60
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Memberships: 2 for $60

    Wheels (used/alloy): 5 for $75
    Tire/tubes: 7 for $47

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  19. Introductory conversation with Prairie Research Institute (PRI)

    Associated Project(s): 
    Fleet Replacement Plans
    Transportation iCAP Team

    On May 2, 2022, F&S staff and the Transportation iCAP Team representatives met with Prairie Research Institute (PRI) to provide a background to the iCAP objective of Fleet Replacement Plans. The PRI team was very interested in this project, and confirmed that they will have discussions internally about how to move forward. Sarthak Prasad will follow up with PRI in July for any update.

    Here is the recording from this meeting: https://uillinoisedu-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/sprasad9_illinois_...

    Also attached is the F&S Fleet plan and the transcript from this meeting.

    This meeting was attended by:

    Sarthak Prasad (host), Morgan White (F&S), Pete Varney (F&S), Ria Kontou (CEE, Transportation iCAP Team co-chair), Jeff Stein (PRI), Shari Effert-Fanta (PRI), Alan Dudley (PRI), Adam Deany (PRI).

    Attached Files: 

  20. Weekly Update: New staffer, Friday Rides

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Friday—warm weather and a Friday—meant a busy day. Rest of the week was slower. A new staffer started last week, which was a great help.

    This week looks warmer so we’ll be busier, likely. Will get some bikes finished and do some more onboarding with new staff. We have a weather radio and a regular radio here now to communicate with DCR staff as needed.

    Our Friday Ride events concluded last Friday with a decent showing and a ride to Meadowbrook and back. I’ll gauge staff interest in keeping them going this summer and we’ll definitely look to restart them in Aug/Sept when students are back full-time.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 53
    Sales: $866
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $340
    Memberships: 7 for $210
    Tubes/tires: 23 for $141

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

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