Joel Steinfeldt in the Office of Public Affairs is the key contact for adding a bike rack to the campus map.  To add a bike parking area, you will need to provide Joel with the location for the map, a small description (eg. 15 U-loop racks at Building Name), and a picture of the bike parking area.  This information and photo can be emailed directly to Joel's attention, and he will add the information to the campus map.

The draft Bike Code was sent to the Campus Administrative Manual (CAM) review committee for approval.  Additionally, the start date of the Bike Code was postponed to summer/fall 2014, from MArch 22, 2014.  This is so the data tracking system can be correctly set up.

After Amelia Neptune took the excellent job at the League of American Bicyclists, the Campus Bicycle Coordinator position became vacant.  The funding for this position is not available for FY15, so a funding request was submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee.

Small Starts is a federal grant program administered by the Federal Transit Administration for eligible transportation projects that cost less than $250 million total. A Small Starts grant proposal is being spearheaded by MTD for a segment of high-traffic streets in the center of campus, which would require a cost-sharing component by all the CATS member agencies.  Within the University District, this grant proposal includes bike lanes on White Street, Wright Street, Green Street from Wright Street to Lincoln Avenue, and Armory Avenue from Wright Street to Fourth Street.  Within the Small Starts proposed improvements, the University has jurisdiction over Armory Avenue from Wright Street to Fourth Street, the Wright Street existing bike path to the east of the roadway from Armory Avenue to Green Street, and the Green Street existing bike path to the north of the curb from Wright Street to east of Goodwin Avenue. 

The Green Street bike path removal should occur when the City of Urbana installs bike lanes on Green Street.  The Wright Street bike path removal will need to happen in conjunction with the installation of bike lanes on Wright Street, which is under City of Champaign jurisdiction.  The bike lanes on Armory Avenue should occur when the Wright Street and Armory Avenue intersection is reconfigured.  That reconfiguration will include shifting the street and sidewalk southern edges farther to the south, so it will be primarily under the jurisdiction of the University.  However, this work will require careful coordination with the City of Champaign, and the intersection should be done in conjunction with the bike lane installation on Wright Street.

The projects in this grant proposal are the top priority safety concerns for the University and the other CATS agencies.  Every effort should be made to assist MTD with obtaining this grant, so these safety issues can be addressed quickly and completely. Additionally, because the Small Start Grant will require some matching funds from the member agencies of CATS, the University should be diligent in helping to meet the required match.

Eva Sweeney, Robert Halverson, and John Summers from F&S Engineering Design Services met with Paul Foote and Morgan Johnston.  They discussed the SSC step two proposal for an EV charging station.  Robert had met with Michelle Wahl and Tom Skaggs from Parking. Eva will be the key electrical engineer for this project.

There was discussion about a connection from the parking meter to the electric charging station.  The meter could have contacts that would energize the charging station when the parking meter is paid. 

There was a question whether this proposal is for one or two charging stations which would take two or four parking spaces.  Morgan said she would check with Michelle about the quantity.  It was later clarified that the proposal is for one charging station, which would need two parking spaces.

Parking will have reduced revenue from the parking spaces.  A departmental space is $1980 per year.  Parking meters are currently charging $1.00/hour.  We need to be able to report on the effectiveness of this program, so we need to track the energy usage.  

There will be ongoing maintenance costs.  The Engineering design work can help understand these potential costs, once the specific charging station is selected.

This will go in parking lot B4. It will not be a leased space.

The SSC request is for $20k.

According to Robert, Michelle indicated that UA wants a trending report on usage.

Let's make C-U a bike thief Un-Friendly Community.

I think that our local cycling community would benefit from a relatively simple system which would compile and distribute information on stolen bikes.  I gave it some thought last night and we discussed and refined a possible system at our weekly staff meeting this morning.  This is not a finished product and I'd welcome suggestions to improve it.  But here's the idea.

The system would consist of three parts:

1. An easy way for the owner to register their bike as stolen.
2. A way to disseminate that information to appropriate people in our community.
3. An accessible list of stolen bikes that people could refer to.

Champaign Cycle is volunteering to set up and run this system.  We could implement it in the following manner:

  1.  Register your bike as stolen.

The bike owner would email service@champaigncycle.com  (I'm changing this to stolen@champaigncycle.com) with "Stolen Bike" as the subject and provide the information on the stolen bike.  We will develop an email form that they could fill out and email back.  That form would include:

*IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• *Serial Number
  • Check with the bike shop you bought the bike from.  They should have recorded the serial number and have that record for you.
• *Brand
• *Model
• *Color
• *Frame type (men's or women's frame)
• *Bike Shop Sticker
• *Distinctive Features (white aero wheels, yellow baby seat with frog stickers, 12" rusty scratch on top tube, black fenders and rear rack)
• Size (frame size or wheel size)
• Style (road, mountain, hybrid, cruiser, kids, etc)
• Where it was purchased
• Year Purchased
• Date Stolen
• Location of theft (First and John, Cherry Hills, UI Library)
• Locked with (U lock, cable, chain, in garage, unlocked)
• *Name
• *Email
• *Phone

We would ask that the Police departments also submit their stolen reports so we could disseminate their information.

All this information would help everyone identify the bike to help return it to its owner.  The information could also provide a view of how big a problem bike theft is and where and how bikes are stolen.

  2.  Dissemination of stolen bike information to interested parties.

We would maintain an email list and we would send the information on the stolen bike to:

• Police: Champaign, Sheriff, UI, Urbana
• CCB eMail list
• KMBC eMail list
• PCC eMail list
• UC Bike Ride eMail list
• Bakers Bikes
• Bike Project
• Bikeworks
• Durst Cycles - Urbana and Champaign
• Itty Bitty Bike Shop
• Neutral Cycle Workshop
• The local pawn shops

   3.  Maintain an accessible list of stolen bikes.

We would maintain a list of the stolen bikes on a page on our website to which anyone could refer at any time.  It would be under the Service Tab as Stolen Bikes.  The list would include all the stolen bikes reported to us and would be sortable by column of the categories listed on the report form.  So you'd be able to sort the list by brand, serial number, or whatever.  That way you wouldn't have to print out each report or keep a list which might be out of date. 

So that's the system as we envision it.  We could have it up and running next week.  Any ideas on improving it would be welcome.  We don't suggest that this is a finished project.  It can evolve as we gain experience with it.  I would especially appreciate input from our Police departments.  I'd also be glad to hand this off to another organization, but we are happy to develop and maintain it.  I don't think it will be much of a job for our staff.  We've assigned a person to administer it.  The thing that will make it work and be effective is that we list all the stolen bikes.  So promoting notifying the system of your stolen bike is very important. 

As this system became more widely used, and more widely known, it should act as a bicycle theft deterrent.  If prospective thieves know there is a system to register stolen bikes and that there are Police, bike shops, pawn shops, and individuals on the outlook for stolen bikes, it may make stealing less attractive.  Think of this as a Bicycle Community Watch.

What do you think?

Peter Davis
Champaign Cycle
217-352-7600

The updates for the FY14 Facility Use Agreement have been completed.

In order to gauge demand in existing and new classes, we have created a Bicycle Class Request Form so that students, employees and community members can request new opportunities to learn more about bicycles. The form link appears when an existing bicycle class registration is already full, so that we can estimate how many additional people tried to register for classes that have reached maximum capacity.  The form can also be used to suggest new bicycle safety or mechanics classes.