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Projects Updates for theme: Transportation

  1. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week I was sick and missed work on Wednesday. Other than that, it was uneventful. I’ve kept one student worker on per day to help, as it’s been busy enough to warrant it. That has been a pleasant turn of events—being this busy—but will likely end this week with finals happening and all.

    This week projects to be slow and I should be able to make some real headway with building up bikes for the Spring rush. I’ve got 14 for sale right now but will hopefully have about 20 by end of week.

    I have staff training from 11-4 tomorrow, so the shop will be closed as I cannot guarantee that I’ll be done in a timely manner. I’ll post on the website about it.

    The numbers:
    Sales: 281.25
    Memberships: 6 for $180

    Tubes: 3 for $14

    visitors: 41 for the week

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

     

  3. Kick off meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike at Illinois Website and Campaign

    Creative Services hosted a kick-off meeting for the Bike at Illinois website.  Lily Wilcock is now working with them to schedule interviews with various stakeholders. She is using the following message:

    In efforts to improve the experience and safety of our programs, we will be reimagining the Bike at Illinois website. Our first step involves learning about our key audiences so we can determine how we can best serve them online. We’re asking for participants who are willing to give 1 hour interview to our creative team, who will be asking a series of questions and collecting some key insights. This will help us determine what services and information is available, how to best present these in a website, and how we can improve your experience with us in the future.

  5. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was predictably slow. I cut back almost entirely on student staff since long stretches of open hours were completely vacant of visitors. Thankfully a few student staffers wanted to work on their own bicycle projects and were able to jump in and help out when it got too busy for me to handle everyone on my own. Those instances were rare and brief, presenting a problem from a staffing prospective: not busy enough to keep someone there the whole day but busy enough that a second person is needed. Something to consider for the future is having something like an on-call staffer for the winter months to pitch in the very few times it gets busy.

    Last week we had a TBP/UIUC/CBC meeting that went well. We discussed the forthcoming Bike@illinois website and brainstormed other participants for their research/interviews. Barry and I talked afterwards about potentially implementing some better inventory-tracking ideas to get a better handle on sales/stock.

    This week I only work today (Monday) and then the shop will be closed until Tuesday, Nov. 28th.  I’ll post on the door and on the Bike Project website (and social media pages).

    Numbers:

    Visitors: 55
    Sales: $396.49
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $70
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $105
    Memberships: 1 for $30

    Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  6. ECS Bike Share Completed

    Associated Project(s): 
    Departmental Bike Sharing
    Campus Bike Center
    Provide Working Bikes for University Employees

    Facilities and Services division Engineering and Construction Services (ECS) has three bikes for employees to share for campus business. Check out is easy and the same as checking out a department car or truck. Two helmets are available for borrowing and lock keys are color coded to the bike they go to.

    Two of the three bikes were purchased through the Campus Bike Center, with locks and front baskets. The helmets came from Neutral Cycle. The whole project cost less than $750 and will have minimum maintenance each year.

    For questions about use please contact Lily Wilcock, lwilco2@illinois.edu.

     

  7. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was surprisingly busy. On Friday we had all the stands full and it was something like 35° outside. That’s encouraging! We even had one person in here in shorts! Our number of for-sale bikes is slowly creeping upward as demand wanes and we have time to build during open hours. From Wednesday to Friday Michael Merriman from Campus Rec borrowed the Bluebird cargo bike for trips between ARC and CRCE (due to construction, there is a lack of car/truck parking) and reported back that he loves it.

    This week I’ll continue to reduce hours for the student workers as well as cull a number of decrepit bikes and pull out the abandoned B-a-Bs. I’ll also begin looking at which student workers are graduating and how many positions I’ll have to fill come spring/summer when it gets busy again. Additionally, I’ll begin designing some new storage and stock solutions to help facilitate ease-of-use for newcomers. More and more I am tucking things away and stacking things upon other things and soon enough I am the only person who knows where anything is. That is bad and quite problematic to the mission and usability of the Campus Bike Center. If people can’t find anything they can’t use the space effectively. I’ll work on labeling/organizing and making things visible this week.

    On to the numbers!

    Visitors: 74
    Overall sales: $493.80
    Memberships: 3 for $90
    Refurb/B-a-B’s: 0 for $0
    Tubes/Wheels/Small Parts: 30 for $179.40

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  9. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, last week was pretty uneventful. Visitor numbers are declining with the weather getting cooler. I’ve begun cutting back on the student staff as we get fewer and fewer visitors. We’ve got 9 refurbished bikes for sale. With fall coming on strong, I suspect we’ll see a lot of the in-progress build-a-bikes abandoned which can then be flipped for sale quicker than usual.

    This week I will coordinate with Parking to pick up the salvageable bikes from the warehouse as well as build bikes and take stock of inventory.

    The numbers:

    Visitors for the week: 62

    Sales: $187.35
    Refurbished bikes: 0 for $0
    Build-a-bikes: 0 for $0
    Memberships: 0 for $0 (Reinstated our First Visit Free policy, which has hurt these numbers.)
    Tires/tubes: 7 for $42

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  10. SWATeam Meeting - 10/18/17

    Associated Project(s): 
    Recycled-Content Paper Policy in CAM
    EPA SmartWay Affiliate
    Install Appropriate Waste Collection Infrastructure
    Adopt Environmental Indicators to Guide Purchasing Standards
    Green Cleaning Products and Practices
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    The PWR SWATeam met to discuss objectives and goals for the year, as well as provide feedback on the proposed Campus Administrative Manual policy on purchasing paper of recycled content. The team discussed a broad range of projects and delegated next steps for moving forward on each.

    Attached Files: 

  11. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I was out of town yesterday, so this report is a day late.

    Last week was surprisingly busy despite the cooler weather. I thought for sure that the drop in temps would dissuade a lot of people but we still had full stands a few days of the week. More winter commuters, I hope!

    Wednesday afternoon was the Campus Sustainability Celebration that was a lot of fun and very informative. I met quite a few people involved elsewhere in the sustainability world on campus and was able to learn about some of the larger scale work being implemented. Good stuff!

    We’ve outpaced sales in Build-a-Bikes vs. refurbished bikes in the month of October, something that I think bodes well for the CBC. It definitely imparts a larger sense of ownership at the least and certainly more mechanical skill versus  buying our cheaper-than-retail bikes. I noticed this year a few of the bikes that we’ve sold as refurbs made it back in the warehouse after being abandoned; I haven’t found any B-a-Bs there. Obviously that is anecdotal evidence but I think it holds true.

    Last week I was able to rebuild the hanging bike racks in the back to accommodate better the bikes we have. I was interviewed for the New-Gazette story that ran on Sunday to positive reviews, I believe. Bikes are being built faster than they’re being sold now, and that bodes well for the Spring.

    Over the weekend I traveled to Austin, TX and was able to visit a bike cooperative space there and see some of the similarities and differences in their space and model of operation.

    The numbers:
    65 visitors last week
    Sales: $510.20
    Bikes (refurb): 0 for $0
    Bikes (B-a-b): 3 for $185
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 4 for $19


    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  12. UIUC's answer to MSU regarding EV charging at UIUC

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

    MSU asked the following questions of the Big Ten schools.  Here are the UIUC answers, provided by Professor Scott Willenbrock:

     

    Ann,

    Here is information on UIUC.  Most of this infrastructure was put in 3 years ago.  We are now starting to think about where to go from here, so we would appreciate your sharing what you learn from other Big Ten partners.

    Scott

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    BIG10 Sustainability Friends,

    I am looking for case study information on campus EV charging stations. MSU has several but are looking to expand the service. I have a few questions.

    • How many stations/spaces do have installed on campus? Level 2: 8 spaces.  Level 1: 14
    • How do you charge for use? Level 2: 6 spaces have Chargepoint chargers.  Price is $2/hr for the first 4 hours, $8/hr thereafter.  2 of the spaces are free to visitors of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.  Level 1: Six are free to permit holders, eight are pay spaces ($0.75/hr).
    • How is the cost structured? See above.
    • How do incentivize use? Or regulate use so that only EVs can access? We do not incentive use per se.  The six Level 1 chargers that are free to permit holders are all used daily.   In all spots (Level 1 and Level 2) there is signage that says “EV charging only”, and these are generally respected.
    • Are you measuring how much each station gets used? Level 2 Chargepoint: Yes (see below).  As mentioned above, the six Level 1 that are free to permit holders are used daily.  All other chargers are seldom used.
    • Do you have business model to understand payback on the infrastructure/equipment costs?  No. The installation of the Level 2 chargers was expensive, several tens of thousands of dollars.  We are getting about $100/month of income from them.  Clearly this does not make economic sense.  The Level 1 chargers are free, but the cost of the electricity we are providing is so small as to be negligible.  This may change if we expand access to Level 1 charging.

     

    The last question is the most important.

     

    Thank you,

    Ann

     

    Ann Erhardt, MM, ISSP-SA

    Director of Sustainability

    Strategic Initiatives

    Infrastructure Planning and Facilities

    Michigan State University

  13. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, with warm temps last week the shop remained busy. Friday there was even a line for stand time. Wednesday morning was the bike census. It was wonderful weather for it and I think it went well! One CBC student staffer and a CBC volunteer extraordinaire volunteered for the event, which I was happy to see. Thanks, Leah and Rick!

    On Friday, a Bike Project Volunteer came and picked up all the scrap we’d accumulated in the last few weeks, which will help immensely in organizing and storage.

    Programming alerts: This week is the Campus Sustainability Celebration on Wednesday so the shop will be closed for that; and next Monday (30th) I will be out of town. I will post on the website and Facebook for both closings. (And of course, signage on the door.)

    On to the numbers:

    Visitors: 99
    Sales: $1,066.45
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $159
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $210
    Memberships: 10 for $300
    Tires/tubes: 24 for $124

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  15. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    All, last Monday we had the bike warehouse move out event on Monday. As I mentioned last week, we moved out about 317 bikes. Some of the bikes we kept and moved back to the CBC have already been claimed as build-a-bikes, which is great. The rest will be cleared out at a TBD date.

    Belatedly announcing this but: Lily and I and Amy tabled at an event at the Union on October 5th.  It was a University employee expo of sorts. The very first person I spoke with was misinformed about safe passing distance for cars, something I was able to correct. It was a welcomed change and challenge to inform a lot of vehicular road users about how to interact with bicyclists and pedestrians, considering all the gripes I heard from employees about walkers and bikers—as most employees drive to work from out of town (or at least the ones I spoke with do). I was also pleased to see a lot of familiar faces of people that have visited the Campus Bike Center.

    This week is the bike census, happening on Wednesday. Hopefully we’ll get good weather and a good snapshot of the state of bicycle parking on campus.

    The numbers:

    Sales: $635.50

    Memberships: 13 for $390
    Bikes (Refurb): 0 for $0
    Bikes (B-a-b): 0 for $0
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $54

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  16. Thanks UIUC for all the wonderful bicycles

    Associated Project(s): 
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    Friends,

    Thanks for all the wonderful bicycles that UIUC donated to Working Bikes programs.  We estimate that we received over 330 bicycles from the 2017 collection last week.

    99% of the bikes will be repaired and given away locally or internationally for free.  The other three or four bikes out of the 330 will be fixed and sold to support our mission.

    Most of the bicycles will be sent the Lesotho with Bikes for Lesotho.  These will be loaded tomorrow and Wednesday.

    We also have many local partner organizations that receive free bikes.

     

    Sincerely,

    Lee Ravenscroft

    workingbikes.org

  17. bike census postponed one week

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Counts

    The campus bicycle census encountered a hiccup today with the weather. Out of worries of a low count due to rain we are going to push the census back one week. Next week’s forecast is sunny and same temperature.

  18. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Bicycle Counts

    All, nothing major to report last week. Shop was open, people came in, same as usual. I coordinated with Working Bikes for our shipping event that happened yesterday. We packed up 317 bikes to go back to their warehouse in Chicago and then onto South Africa. There are still 67 bikes left that WB said they will return for later this fall. There is also a collection of the good bikes we are saving for ourselves. Those total about 50 or so.

    Our new policy of allowing for free used tubes hasn’t caused any problems. Maybe 5-10 people have taken us up on it. Surprisingly one person insisted on patching despite the free tube. That might change next Spring/Summer. It will also help to expedite peoples’ stand time, as it’s obviously quicker to grab a used tube than mess with patching.

    Tomorrow is the Bike Census. I will be helping Lily with that. I will also be shuttling the good bikes from the warehouse back to CBC and moving some over to the Urbana shop as well. CBC is currently packed to the gills with bikes.

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 91
    Sales (overall): $1,221.50

    Memberships: 11 for $330
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $555
    Bikes (B-a-B): 0 for $0
    Tires/tubes: 18 for $132

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  19. Bicycle Census 2017

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Counts

    Hello all!

    Tomorrow morning is the bike census and it is going to be a blast! The weather looks great and the campus will be very seasonally fall like.

    Tomorrow’s event starts at 10 AM and ends at 11 AM. You can finish early! But please finish your whole block or let me know! Training for the event is crucial, because as you start you might start asking some questions about what counts and other questions. Attached is the instructions we will be going over in training tomorrow. Event training starts at 9 AM-9:05-ish. I will have print maps for notes or problems.

     

    REMEMBER TO CHARGE YOUR PHONE TONIGHT!

    Download the app Collector by ESRI sometime today from your respective app store. It is free. There is a log in to the bike census. It is here:

    Username: BikeCensus

    Password: bikecensus2017

     

    Timeline for Tomorrow:

    9 AM to 9:45 AM will be training and answering all questions at the Illini Union, South Patio

    10 AM to 11 AM will be counting.

    11 AM – 11:45 AM if you can, please drop off paper maps for any racks that were not on the map and need to be hand entered. If you can’t, just scan or take a picture and email it to lwilco2@illinois.edu or jvwhit@illinois.edu

     

    Map Block Assignment

    Map link is here: http://goo.gl/Cbq9Fj

    1

    Greg Briggs

    2

    Aki Akhauri

    3

    Aaron Hoyle-Katz

    4

    Audrey

    5

    Rand Hartsell

    6

    Jeff Yockey

    7

    Lily Wilcock

    8

    Tom McGreary

    9

    Marcus Ricci

    10

    Kevin Garcia

    11

    Ari Wolfe

    12

    Daniel Dodinval

    13

    Yazen Kashlan

    14

    Colleen Williams

    15

    Jake Benjamin

    16

    Hila Kelly

    17

    Lily Wilcock

    21

    Lily Wilcock

    24

    Saniya Rattan

     

    Honestly, I cannot thank all of you volunteers enough. Personally, I love technology and I love it when we can use it to make our communities better. Thank you for your hard work and James Whitacre at the Scholarly Commons and I will be typing away to process this information and get it in your hands and the hands of campus planners, engineers, architects, and administration.

    With all this being said, tomorrow have a good sense of humor, walk and bike quickly, and have fun counting every bike we can!

    Thank you,

     

    Lily Wilcock and James Whitacre

     

    Visiting Active Transportation Coordinator

    Facilities and Services

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

     

    Give to the Campus Bike Plan Fund at http://go.illinois.edu/bikefund

    Attached Files: 

  20. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Light the Night

    All, the major news of last week was the Light The Night event. We installed roughly 870 light sets this year! We completely sold out, which is a first for me in the 4 or so years in which I’ve been involved with this event. With it still being warm out, I hope we can get some valuable feedback from people who’re using the lights in regards to which ones they like, how they’re performing, etc.

    Last week was also the Members’ Meeting for the Bike Project wherein it was decided that used tubes will henceforth be free of charge for in-shop repairs. While this will cut into profits, it is a better choice as we do not have the ability to maintain proper quality control with our used tube selection. If a person wants to buy a tube for later use, however, they must still pay for it.

    Late Friday I got a message from Working Bikes in regards to coordinating for emptying the Bike Warehouse. They would like to do the event next Monday (October 9th). I will discuss with the Bike Project and decide if this is doable.

    The numbers:

    Sales (overall): $867.95
    Memberships: 12 for $360

    Bikes (refurbished): 0
    Bikes (Build-a-Bike): 0
    Tires/Tubes: 26 for $180

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

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