All, [Ed. note: Apologies for getting this in late.] We’ve finalized our Kid’s Bike Giveaway date/time with the Bike Project and have been working through our supply of donated bikes. Serendipitously we got nearly a half dozen kids bikes donated last week, even before we put the word out on the giveaway event.

This week we kept working through that supply. I was out on Tuesday/Wednesday but visits have been lower since the cooler weather hit.

While we’re working on the kids bikes we’ve also been able to fix up a few for-sale bikes, sitting at about 6 done and ready to go. Still have a large supply at the warehouse, which I’ll have more time to tackle after the 17th (date of the Kids Bike Event).

Next week I’ll move over the finished kids bike to Urbana as we’re running out of space for them here.

The numbers:

Visitors: 25
Sales: $185.50
Memberships: 2 for $60
Misc. parts: 19 for $95.50

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

The next steps for the project progress would be to review the past BFU applications from 2011 - 2019 to understand the stage we as a university are at currently and would help to identify, compare and contrast the work across these timelines to improve the status and make recommendations after reviewing the feedback. 

[11.7.22] All, Last week we completed the bike donation event with Working Bikes. Thanks to some Bike Project volunteers we were able to pack their truck full of bikes in about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, they were unable to take all of the abandoned bikes as there are about 50 left. I’ll work with TBP to deal with the remaining junk bikes as well as the ~200 we’ll keep for refurbishment.

Last Thursday we were donated another pull-behind trailer, upping our count to 3 of them now. I will discuss with TBP ideas to make better use of these, as they take up a lot of space and we have zero demand for them.

This week we will reinstate the First Visit Free policy as the cooler weather sets in.

The numbers:

Visitors: 47

Sales: $508
Bike (refurbished): 1 for $225
Memberships: 1 for $30
Tires/tubes: 12 for $61

[11.14.22]

All, I was out sick for a portion of the non-open hours, but we were still able to get a few bikes on the sales floor and strip some bikes. This week I’ll grab some more of the good bikes from the barn and we’ll get to fixing those. We reinstated First Visit Free and were able to help folks get rolling.

I had an interview last Friday with a potential new hire and we’ll be having a staff meeting this week to get some of our new staff up to speed as well as provide a refresher for the returning staffers.

Next week we will be closed for Thanksgiving break. We’ll reopen Monday, 11/28/22.

The numbers:

Visitors: 45
Sales: $434
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $100
Memberships: 4 for $120
Tires/tubes: 8 for $103

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

The transportation iCAP Team met on Friday, November 4th, to discuss long-term and short-term bicycle storage at UIUC.

This week Aparna got in touch with the staff of transit services from Arizona State University to understand their approach to achieving the Gold BFU certification. 

Sarthak and Aparna also had a quick overview of the materials shared and brainstormed ideas/recommendations to raise awareness in the campus community as well as keep bike thefts in mind. 

The next steps would be to familiarize with the topic better, collect all the research materials and make notes/highlight the existing implementation, and make comments on these.

All, Last week was a busy one. We had Strong Towns talk on Tuesday and the Illinois Bike Summit on Wednesday. Got in some good networking, heard some interesting talks/discussions, and got buzzed by two MTD buses on my bike commute there and then one car on my ride back to the Bike Center. Oh, the irony.

The cooler weather has curtailed our visitors, but we’ve had a few volunteers, too—always nice.

Grabbed some bikes from the warehouse last week and will continue to do so as I can this week. I have jury duty potentially all this week and next week, which majorly mucks up my plans for setting up with Working Bikes since I can’t plan past day-to-day. Likely will have to bump that to early November unless circumstances change.

The numbers:

Visitors: 42
Sales: $266
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 3 for $20

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

Questions and doubts regarding the literature review done in the past week were discussed including a capstone report outline highlighting the main topics of research. More research work to follow in the coming week to help familiarize with the project's background. Aparna got contact information from the transportation department of UCLA and Arizona State University to discuss the project with their transportation team as the 2 universities have achieved the Gold BFU status and hoping to get a sense of direction or any leads on this. She is also in touch with Prof. Lindsay Braun who is her capstone advisor, and Briana Barr, Thomas Valencia, and Lily Wilcock from the City of Urbana who are working on similar projects.

The idea was to bring more concepts and recommendations for a bike-friendly university to the table. We might also try to involve the Student Sustainability Committee, which uses a comprehensive evaluative process to fund a project that incorporates student involvement and an ability to spark change on campus. Aparna would help identify a cause as a part of the bike-friendly project which would also serve as a student-led project to apply for the SSC funding. An excel sheet that charts out the current status of the project were shared by Sarthak for better clarity, which also includes feedback from BFU to help plan for the future and achieve the desired goal.

Three main objectives of the proposal would be -

1. To get the BFU application drafted and ready to submit by the month of May
2. Ideas for SSC funding for the Bike Friendly University Project
3. Educate students and create a plan for bike thefts so that incoming students are aware of how to protect their bikes and encourage them to use this mode of transportation.

An overall capstone proposal that outlines the said objectives and a work plan will be shared in the upcoming week. Access to the iCAP portal will be granted soon to chart out real-time updates and minutes of meetings.

All, Big week of events! On Tuesday, Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns is speaking at the Illinois Terminal and I’ll attend to see how our work as bike advocates and a non-profit can help bolster a strong and vibrant community. And Wednesday is the Illinois Bike Summit at the I-hotel. I’ll be there all day and reducing hours at the Bike Center to account for that. Accordingly, we’ll be open 4 – 6p on that day. I never fail to learn something at this yearly event and am happy to see it back here on campus.

I’ll be counting/organizing bikes for donation as well this week. Hope to have the Donation Day set by end of the week and so we can begin rallying for some support/help. WB has already agreed to pay for Manolo’s!

The numbers:

Visitors: 51

Sales: $1,214.50

Memberships: 17 for $510
Tire/tubes: 8 for $94

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator