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Projects Updates for theme: Transportation

  1. CNG notes from Pete Varney

    Associated Project(s): 
    Develop Scenarios for Converting the UI Fleet to Renewable Fuels

    1.    Would the University be willing to convert some of their vehicle fleet to CNG? If so, how many?
    a.    The fleet is managed at the department/college level. Each unit purchases their own vehicles. F&S would be a prime entity willing to acquire CNG vehicles as part of a normal replacement cycle. Perhaps 8-12 vehicles annually.
    2.    What are the pros and cons of using CNG in campus trucks vs cars?
    a.    The use of CNG is more focused on how the vehicle is used rather than type. Most “cars” are used for travel out of the local area where CNG fueling would pose challenges. Most F&S “trucks” are exclusively used on campus where CNG fueling would be centralized
     

  2. Weekly Update - Build-a-Bike

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Business as usual last week. The Scottish dude finished his build-a-bike. He only came in, too, because his German friend did a B-a-B as well and talked it up. Nothing beats good word of mouth. He was positively giddy about the whole thing and never got discouraged or frustrated by the process. The highlight for me was bending back a canti brake boss using the hole in the end of a crescent wrench. It’s not perfect but it’s functional enough. That’d make a good motto for us.
    I’ll head to the warehouse this week to grab a few more bikes. I’ll also schedule a couple training sessions with my staff to refresh on some repair basics .

    The numbers:
    Sales: $428.50
    Bike (refurb): 1 for $180
    Bike (B-a-B): 1 for $30
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $17

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  4. Kent Seminar Series- Kontou

    Associated Project(s): 
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

    The next Kent Seminar is set for Thursday, Feb. 13, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the Illinois Center for Transportation, 1611 Titan Dr., Rantoul.  Eleftheria Kontou will present “Data-driven modeling of electric vehicle charging pricing and worth.” Pizza and soft drinks will be provided at noon. You can also watch the seminar live via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ukx7meG90

     

    1611 Titan Drive Rantoul, IL 61866

     

    Noelle Arbulu • Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  5. Weekly Update - Fix-a-flat, B-a-B

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Really slow last week as the weather got rainy and snowy—sure fire ways to keep people off their bikes. Although a nice Scottish gentleman studying here came by to claim one of the remaining bikes as a B-a-B. He repeatedly mentioned wishing there was something like this back home in Scotland, so we’re basically cooler than Scotland.

    We had our first Fix-a-Flat class on Friday but that was a no-show, sadly.
    I picked up some bikes from the warehouse to keep my staff busy while we wait for the real moving to commence. We’ve built up just about every bike in the shop, save some old 3 speeds. A good amount of inventory has been boxed up and moved to the Urbana shop or stored here for use at our new space.
    This week I’ll be meeting with marketing and IT folks to discuss how the new bike center will look from those respective areas.

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 46
    Sales: $261
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $26

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  6. Bicycle Registration discussion - Finalizing Project 529

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Registration

    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.

    Attached Files: 

  9. Weekly Update - Fix-a-Flat

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Slow and steady for the week on the whole. Anecdotally busy again for this time of year. Still gearing up and/or down for moving shop, depending on how you think of it.
    We’ve got our first fix-a-flat class of the semester coming up this Friday from 11am – 12p.  Today’s warm weather projects a busy shop this afternoon but I’ve given up trying to predict how busy it’ll be. I’ll also be hiring two new student staffers this week with a third interview to schedule.
    The numbers:
    Visitors: 61
    Sales: $651
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $430
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Tires/tubes: 8 for $31

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  11. Meeting at NCSA

    Associated Project(s): 
    It's Your MTD Too!

    Sarthak Prasad and Stacey DeLorenzo met with Katie Henning at NCSA to discuss the It's Your MTD Too event. This event would be open to faculty and staff at NCSA and nearby departments/units. Katie was very interested in the event, and asked us for some dates. We decided to host this event from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Sarthak would finalize a date and time for the event with Evan Alvarez.

  12. Weekly Update - New semester, B-a-B

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, First week of the semester is in the books! We were busy at times, and characteristically slow for the majority of the week. Sold a few bikes.

    This week I’ve got another interview and hopefully it’ll work out so we can get our staff numbers back up. I’ll probably make a run to the warehouse to pick up a few more bikes since we’re out of B-a-B candidates/shop builds and a run to Urbana to drop off excess stock in advance of moving.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 56

    Sales: $478.50

    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $305

    Memberships: 1 for $30

    Tire/tubes: 3 for $11

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  13. From Plants to Energy - DI article about IBI

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illinois Biodiesel Initiative (IBI)
    Support the Illinois Biodiesel Initiative [ARCHIVED]

    https://dailyillini.com/features/2020/01/21/sustainability-biodiesel-soy...

    "An IBRL truck makes a half-mile drive to Ikenberry to pick up barrels of the leftover cooking oil from Ikenberry. Once at the lab, the team goes through pre-processing, processing and purification of the soon-to- be biodiesel.

    Since last summer, IBI has been in the midst of a major rehaul. The former 50-gallon batch processor is being upgraded to a 500-gallon processor. Over the past two semesters, the team has only picked up twice from Ikenberry strictly for testing purposes on the new processor. The project is expected to be completed this fall.

    One of the unique qualities of the RSO is the diversity of the work. IBI includes a production, soap and quality control team with other executive positions as well."

  15. Weekly Update - Reopened for 2020, shop clean up, Build-a-bike

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last week we reopened for 2020! Although, by the count of visitors and sales, you’d hardly know it. The junky weather never helps. This week projects to be a little warmer today and tomorrow, at least. We’ll see what happens next week when school starts back up.
    We currently have 2 – 3 bikes left in the shop that are not either for sale, being built up, earmarked for other projects, or junk not worth keeping.

    This week I’ll be working on scheduling my student staff for open hours shifts as well as our extracurricular events/programs like our fix-a-flat classes, etc. I’ll also be coordinating with Parking to get at least a few potential Build-a-Bikes in here for next week in case anybody wants to give that a whirl. And, of course, throwing old junk out.

    Numbers:
    Visitors: 17
    Sales: $12

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  16. Weekly Update - Winter break, testing Refurbished bikes

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, This report is for the week of December 16 – 20.

    Not much to report as this time of year is always slow. Still had a decent number of visitors. We are not reopening until the 6th, so today and tomorrow I’ll just work solo in the shop. The weather will be nice today so I’ll be able to concentrate on test riding and final tune ups on our collection of refurbed bikes. As it stands, most of our stock of bikes are ready and for sale or in-progress builds.
    The numbers:
    Visitors: 36
    Sales: $324.90
    Bike (B-a-B): 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 5 for $33

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  17. Initial contact at NCSA

    Associated Project(s): 
    It's Your MTD Too!

    Reached out to Katie Henning at National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on December 17, 2019 to host the event at NCSA for faculty and staff. NCSA has a "Green Team", and Katie said that this event fits the agenda for this initiative at NCSA. Katie connected me with the Associate Director of Facilities at NCSA, Tedra Tuttle. Sarthak Prasad would set up a meeting with Katie, Tedra, and Stacey to discuss the event in more detail.

  18. Weekly Update - Winter break, Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, It felt surprisingly busy in the shop at times last week. Our staff is dwindling with the end of the semester. We’ve reached the time of year where people bring their bikes in to the shop simply to thaw out. This week will be worse yet with the snow today.

    This week’ll be more of the regular: building bikes, piling stuff up to throw away or donate to the Urbana shop. We’re closing this Friday, the 20th and will reopen on the 6th of January.
    Thanks to Todd for picking up scrap over the weekend.

    Numbers:
    Visitors: 49
    Sales: $231.50
    Memberships: 2 for $60

    Tires/tubes: 9 for $63

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  19. Weekly Update - BFU celebration meeting, CBC visitis

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Pretty slow over here as per usual for this time of year. On Thursday and Friday of last week we had a few CBC alums stop in so that was a welcomed surprise. Always nice to see former student staff.

    We’re on the radar and a regular contact for the UI claims office when they’ve got damaged bicycles. Diversifying our donation stream is always welcome—especially when it’s in-house here with the University.
    This week we’ve got a BFU celebration at 2p on Wednesday at F&S. I’ll notify staff to cover open hours while I attend that. I like our BFU silver status and cupcakes, too. Win-win! We’ll continue building bikes and culling parts this week. I’ll be getting the final count on staff availability for next week as it’s nearing finals. Our team will be leaner and meaner, as the expression goes, as we approach the holiday break.
    The numbers:

    Visitors: 57
    Sales: $231.50
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 9 for $63

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  20. Weekly Update - Thanksgiving break, Fix-a-flat

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Looking back to the week before Thanksgiving break, it was about average for this time of year. Not a whole lot to report. Still throwing stuff away as we see fit. Bikes are getting built. One of the student staff put in her resignation as she’s received an internship with iSEE. Always nice to see success for the students here!

    This week we’ll host our Fix-a-Flat class on Friday, Dec 6th at 11am here at the Bike Center. Likely to be poorly attended since it’s December. Otherwise, it’s more of the same: building bikes, cleaning shop, throwing stuff away.
    The numbers:


    Visitors: 66

    Sales: $231.50
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 9 for $75

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

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