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Projects Updates for theme: Transportation

  2. update from Ben McCall

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    2014 Campus Bike Plan [ARCHIVED]

    Dear Transportation SWATeam,

    Morgan and I had a very nice discussion with Pam Voitik at F&S late last week, and I wanted to brief you on some of the key points as they relate to the iCAP revisions.

    1) F&S is in favor of hiring a full-time "Active Transportation Coordinator," and having that person report to the Transportation Demand Management Coordinator (Stacey DeLorenzo).  "Active Transportation" (as you probably all know, but I didn't!) is industry lingo for all transportation except single-occupancy-vehicles.  So this person would be responsible for mode shift, the Bike Plan, and so forth...basically the last two bullet points in item #6 on page 30 of the current draft.

    2) Pete Varney and his team would be the sensible locus for efforts related to shifting the fleet more towards EVs and bicycles, and exploring renewable fuels for the fleet.  [The second and third bullet points in item #6 on page 30.]

    3) The first bullet point, about air travel, is outside of the scope of F&S, and should perhaps be a focus of iSEE or another entity in the domain of the Chancellor or Vice Chancellors.

    4) The Campus Bicycle Plan is essentially finalized now, but F&S is working on ascertaining exactly what entity should formally approve it. 

    Pam's suggestion is that it should be approved by the campus leadership (rather than by F&S), but the responsibility for implementing it should be with F&S.  This would give the Plan more authority/heft than if it were approved by F&S alone. There is reason to hope that this approval will be finalized before the iCAP.

    Cheers,

    Ben

     

  3. Update from Ben McCall

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Parking Master Plan
    F&S Sustainable Fleet Plan
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations
    Support the MTD Bus System

    Dear Transportation SWATeam,  [Sorry for the barrage of emails...this is the last one for this morning!]

    I met with Michelle Wahl from Parking late last week, and she had some very useful comments on the iCAP draft that I thought I should share with you:

    1) She mentioned that in years past, she used to receive "idling reports" on her vehicles, which must have been equipped with some sort of system that tracked when the vehicles were idling.  This raised the question of whether such technology could be deployed widely on our fleet, rather than focusing only on "class 6 and above trucks" (neither of us knew exactly what that means).

    2) She was concerned about the financial aspects of providing additional opportunities for people to purchase less than full-time parking privileges in lots with wait lists...this is probably something that deserves further discussion.  If Parking allows someone to drop their full-time parking pass for a particular lot and instead purchase less than full-time for the same spot, their revenue will decrease.  This is concerning because Parking is legally required to be self-supporting -- they cannot receive any subsidy from campus, nor can they make a profit.

    3) She recommended adding a recommendation that parking rates be increased to provide a dis-incentive for single-occupancy vehicle use. 

    This would also be essential if the number of parking permits sold were to decrease, as Parking's costs are essentially fixed. Raising rates would be a challenge because they are subject to collective bargaining, but it has been successfully done on other campuses (including UIC). 

    Having an explicit call for this in the iCAP might help provide ammunition for such efforts.

    4) She recommended some investigation of the subsidy that Parking currently provides to MTD.  At present, Parking pays over $500K per year for this, ostensibly to support the buses that run to the "shuttle lot" (E-14, I think).  But this amount greatly exceeds the total revenue that Parking receives from selling permits in the shuttle lot.  She thought it was worth making sure that the amount Parking is contributing towards the MTD is the appropriate amount, because any funds that could be "saved" there could be directed towards other sustainability-related initiatives within Parking.

    5) She pointed out that there are now 18 "Level 1" charging stations for electric vehicles on campus, and Parking has plans to install some "Level 2" charging stations in 2015.  She thought it might be worth showcasing this work on page 29 of the current draft, and I am inclined to agree.

    Cheers,

    Ben

  5. BIF crosswalk survey overview

    Associated Project(s): 
    LAS Honors College - Sustainability Partners [ARCHIVED]
    Encourage Walking

    U of I F&S Trial Crosswalk between the Business Instructional Facility (BIF) and Wohlers Hall

    In recent years, pedestrian safety on-campus has become a growing concern at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U of I). One such issue was raised by U of I’s College of Business, specifically on the frequency of pedestrians jaywalking between the Business Instructional Facility (BIF) and Wohlers Hall, just south of the intersection at Sixth Street and Gregory Drive. Using funding from the College of Business, U of I’s Facility & Services (F&S) implemented a temporary mid-block crosswalk in the area on September 22, 2014.

    In order to assess if this temporary crosswalk should be installed permanently, a survey was created by 2 Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) James Scholars (Sicong Fang and Ethel Liao) with the guidance of U of I F&S employees (Morgan Johnston, Stacey DeLorenzo, and Roland White). The survey collected over 500 electronic responses from the perspectives of pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, and bus drivers in the affected area for 2 weeks from October 31 - November 14, 2014. Survey participants included U of I students, staff, faculty, and guests; they were contacted via targeted email newsletters (departmental, eweek, F&S, and CUMTD), official U of I social media channels (Facebook and Twitter for F&S, the College of Business, and CUMTD), and on-site surveying with iPads by the LAS James Scholar students. Questions on the survey were based on a 1 to 5 number scale and allowed respondents to explain why they rated each item as they did. Topics covered included how perceptions on safety, convenience, and traffic flow changed upon the temporary crosswalk’s installation; there was also an area for respondents to suggest other problematic transportation spots on-campus and how the process F&S went through for this crosswalk may be improved for future projects. Final analytics on collected data were done by Sicong with the help of the summarization function in Google Forms.

  6. notes from phone call

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Train Travel for Business Trips

    All

    Thanks for a good call. Attached is the summary of our meeting with to dos. In summary:

    1. Jim will run a FY14 travel report and look into tracking Amtrak
    2. We will develop content for website and messaging by mid-December, including info from Amtrak. Morgan and Stacey from facilities at UIUC will start that.
    3. Final language will be provided to OBFS by early January, after it is circulated among the group.
    4. Cathy will put the info on the website for start of spring semester and OBFS will announce it.
    5. Sustainability Offices (Cindy and Stephanie) will work on targeting the units that have the highest levels of auto travel between campuses.
    6. We will monitor the data to see how effective this was and opportunities for policy change.

    Cindy

    Attached Files: 

  7. Working Bikes donation

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Michelle,

    This Saturday we removed 390 bicycles from the warehouse.  Of the bikes we planned to ship to Ghana 60 or 70 did not fit into the shipping container.  I am arranging for Working Bikes to come down in a few weeks and pick these up.  I do not have a date yet.  I will let you know as soon as I can confirm details.  There are also about 60 good bikes that I will transfer from the warehouse to the bike center.  I will work with Tina and the other parking employees to get this done.

    Thanks,

    James Roedl

  8. Teleconferencing information

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Telecommuting

    From: Kyung, Grace H
    Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 3:34 AM
    Subject: Video Conferencing Info

    Attached is a description of what teleconferencing is, resources available and why people should are. Also, attached is a broken down excel graphs of current uses of teleconferencing. Below are questions I asked someone at CITES to help me understand the graphs.

    Let me know if you need anything else!

    ----

    1. I was wondering though where these numbers are coming from and if it’s for everyone at the university?

    These numbers come from the built-in reporting service that is part of Microsoft Lync Server. The numbers are inclusive of all Lync users on campus, but keep in mind that undergraduate students and graduate students without appointments do not get Lync accounts. So these numbers don’t include everyone on campus, but do include all faculty, staff, professional students (e.g. vet med, law), and graduate students with appointments. In addition there are about 1,700 “common area phones” which would include the phones in many conference rooms and the courtesy phones that you might see in the dorms. The latter devices are never used for conferencing.

    1. Are the total A/V conferences out of the total conferences or are they additional?

    There is a difference between the field called “Total Conferences” and “Total A/V Conferences”. Total A/V only counts conferences where either the audio (phone) or video components of the conference are used. Total Conferences includes the Total A/V conferences plus any other conferences where audio and video were not used. The conferences without A/V could include a chat window with multiple people, it could be screen or application sharing, or it could be using the whiteboard feature of Lync. Let me know if this doesn’t make sense. At the bottom of this pagethere are definitions of the fields that are used in the Excel spreadsheet.

    1. What does total unique conference organizers mean?

    A "unique” organizer is anyone who schedules at least one conference. For example, if Pilar Ackerman schedules one conference she counts as one unique organizer. If Ken Myer schedules 148 conferences he, too counts as one unique organizer.

    --

    Grace Kyung, MPH

    Sustainable Transportation Intern

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

    Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

    College of Fine and Applied Arts | Master of Urban Planning Candidate 2015

    Attached Files: 

  10. Step 1 Proposal Received

    Associated Project(s): 
    Japan House and Arboretum Bicycle Parking

    Japan House and the University of Illinois Arboretum request funding to provide bike racks. Although the Arboretum and Japan House are administered separately (Japan House through the College of Fine and Applied Arts, and the Arboretum through ACES, Japan House sits within the Arboretum and the two units often collaborate on projects.    There are currently no available bike racks in the 57-acre Arboretum and Japan House grounds. Japan House is the site of University classes and the Arboretum is frequently used as a resource for classes from units such as Landscape Architecture,  Crops Sciences, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and others. In addition, the Arboretum and the Japan House Gardens are a major recreational resource for Illinois students, faculty and staff, and yet currently, there is no bike parking or encouragement for students, faculty and staff to bike to reach these grounds. Currently, bikers are forced to lock bikes to benches, lampposts, trees, and other structures inappropriate for this use and sometimes permanently damaging to the trees or structures. The Japan House offices are located at the site and students routinely ask where they should lock up their bikes.   Funding is requested for the installation of two six-loop bike racks mounted on sufficient permeable pavement for easy access and grounds maintenance and relating biking policy signage.  

    Attached Files: 

  11. MTD solar array article

    Associated Project(s): 
    Support the MTD Bus System

    "This summer, the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD) maintenance facility got something cool to go on top of its roof — a big photovoltaic system — 1,212 panels.

    According to Jane Sullivan, whose title at CUMTD is grant manager and sustainability planner (and who is a 2012 graduate of the UI School of Earth, Society, and Environment, where I teach), it's the biggest solar array operating in central Illinois.

    It generates 350,000-kilowatt hours of electricity over the course of the year, which translates to one quarter of the electricity used there. (The maintenance facility is a busy place, operating 24/7 when the UI is in session and providing full service maintenance for the district's 102-bus fleet.)

    Sullivan said the investment in solar is in keeping with the broader environmental mission of the district. "We're interested in finding as many ways as we can to reduce our environmental impact, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an important part of that."" - Rob Kanter, http://www.news-gazette.com/living/2014-09-28/environmental-almanac-loca...

     

  12. on campus distribution locations

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Area Bicycle Map

    Champaign-Urbana Area Bicycle Map
    Distribution Locations on the Illinois Campus

    University Locations

    Campus Parking:
    Public Safety Building, MC-241
    1110 Springfield Ave., Suite 201
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Campus Police:
    Safety Day
    September 11, 2008

    Campus Recreation
    Campus Recreation Center East
    Activities Recreation Center

    McKinley Health Center
    1109 S. Lincoln Ave.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Illini Union Bookstore
    809 S. Wright Street
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Undergraduate Library
    1402 West Gregory
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Illini Union
    1401 West Greet Street
    Urbana, IL 61801

    International Student and Scholar Services
    400 Student Services Building
    610 E. John
    Champaign, IL 

    Turner Student Services
    Front Desk or Third Floor (Dean of Students)
    610 East John
    Champaign, IL 61801

    Alice Campbell Alumni Center
    601 South Lincoln Ave.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    University Housing

    Allen Hall front desk
    1005 W. Gregory Drive
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Busey/Evans Hall front desk
    111 W. Nevada Street
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Townsend Hall front desk
    918 West Illinois St.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Wardell Hall front desk
    1012 West Illinois St.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Trelease Hall front desk
    901 College Ct.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Oblesby Hall front desk
    1005 College Ct.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Babcock-Carr Hall front desk
    1001 W. Pennsylvania Ave.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Blaisdell-Sunders Hall front desk
    901 W. Pennsylvania Ave.
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Weston Hall front desk
    204 E. Peabody Drive
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Taft-Van Doren Hall front desk
    1213 South Fourth Street
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Barton and Lundgren Halls front desk
    1205 South Fourth Street
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Forbes Hall front desk
    101 East Gregory Drive
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Garner Hall front desk
    201 East Gregory Drive
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Hopkins Hal front desk
    103 East Gregory Drive
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Orchard Downs front desk (Family and Graduate Housing)
    1841 Orchard Place
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Sherman Hall front desk
    909 South Fifth Street
    Champaign, Il 61820

    Daniels Hall front desk
    1010 West Green Street
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Private Certified Housing

    Armory House
    1010 South Second
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Bromley Hall
    910 South Third
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Europa House
    802 West Oregon
    Urbana, IL 61820

    Illini Tower
    409 East Chalmers
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Newman Center
    604 East Armory Ave.
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Presby Hall
    405 East John
    Champaign, IL 61820

    Cultural Houses

    Asian American Cultural Center
    1210 West Nevada Street
    Urbana, IL 61801

    Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center
    708 South Mathews
    Urbana, IL 61801

  13. Press Release - 2014 Bike Map released

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Area Bicycle Map

    Champaign County Bikes (CCB) announces “Go by Bike”, the latest version of its Champaign-Urbana-Savoy Bicycle Guide and Map. CCB will begin making it available through local bicycle shops, City and Park District offices, and public libraries. In addition, the map will be distributed by the University of Illinois to students, faculty and staff as well as at CU-MTD’s Illinois Terminal. The map will also be available at Urbana’s Market at the Square, Sat., Sept. 27, from 7am - 12pm.

    Attached Files: 

  14. FY14 air travel data

    Associated Project(s): 
    Offset Emissions from Plane Trips
    Report on Progress

    From: Miller, Kristina Ruth
    Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 8:43 AM
    To: Lage, Stephanie M
    Cc: Strater, Darren; Alexander, Franklin S
    Subject: RE: Air Travel dollars

    Hi Stephanie,

    Darren Strater asked me to provide you with the information you requested. 

    For FY14 Airfare for Chart 1 (UIUC) totaled $14,014,590.  This included extra charges for baggage fees, changed ticket fees and booking charges. 

    With JUST the price of the Airfare ticket, the total for Chart 1 (UIUS) totaled $13,671,434.

    If you need a formal breakdown, please let me know.

    Kristina R. Miller

    Analytics and Operations Support Coordinator

    University of Illinois

    OBFS University Payables

  15. Calculation of air travel emissions

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Offset Emissions from Plane Trips

    Good morning all,

    To get air travel emissions, miles must be entered into the Clean Air-Cool Planet calculator. 

    Mileage data is not tracked for our campus. So, I request air travel dollar data from OBFS.  This number has become more reliable in recent years because of the T-card implementation.

     

    Air travel dollars are converted into miles using the passenger yield (fares per mile) data from Airlines for America. 

     

    In fy 2013, dollars spent on air travel was $9,283,105.82.  Passenger yield was $0.1514 (this is fy 12, apparently fy 13 was not yet available).

     

    Divide the two, and you get 61,477,522

    Best,

    Stephanie

  18. New Bike Code released

    Associated Project(s): 
    University Bicycle Ordinance

    August 31, 2014

    University Bicycle Code

    The University Bicycle Ordinance, also referred to as the University Bicycle Code, was updated for campus-specific rules such as bicycle parking and registration, as well as riding bicycles on campus property. Increased enforcement of the code started this semester. This ordinance is included in the Campus Administrative Manual (VIII-22).

    Stacey DeLorenzo • Facilities & Services

  19. Bike Code approved

    Associated Project(s): 
    Enforcement for Safe Cycling

    The University Bicycle Ordinance, referenced in CAM VIII-22. Bicycle Regulations, was approved by the CAM committee on May 15, 2014.  The plan was to have enforcement of the ordinance to begin at the start of the Fall 2014 semester.  During the fall semester, enforcement would be focused on education, with only safety-related citations being issued.

    The link below is the approved version of the ordinance.

    University Bicycle Code

  20. University Sourcing informed about SmartWay opportunity

    Associated Project(s): 
    EPA SmartWay Affiliate

    From: Milbrandt, Janet
    Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 2:02 PM
    To: Lavey, Warren Gary; McCall, Benjamin; Bartels, Bart A
    Cc: Bohlen, Kayci; Taylor, Mark A
    Subject: RE: new State of Illinois UPS contract

    I am forwarding you to the Sourcing Office for the University of IL.

    From: Lavey, Warren Gary
    Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 9:27 AM
    To: Milbrandt, Janet; McCall, Benjamin; Bartels, Bart A
    Subject: new State of Illinois UPS contract

    Hello, Janet.  The State of Illinois is implementing a new contract with UPS for ground and air package delivery services.  UIUC is an eligible customer under this contract.

    This contract was awarded pursuant to the Illinois Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013, with environmental factors comprising 20 percent of the bidder evaluation criteria.  The contract includes provisions for tracking emissions and fuel consumption related to the services provided.  Alternative fuels, including biofuels, and cleaner vehicles are encouraged for UPS's services under this contract. I don't have any information on the rates under the new contract.

    Can you arrange a meeting with UIUC's UPS contract representative to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of migrating UIUC's shipments from UIUC's existing UPS contract to the new State of Illinois contract?  I would like to participate in this meeting.

    Thanks and best wishes.

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