The University of Illinois has a rich history of partnering with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District to reduce single occupancy vehicles and increase the use of public transit.  This presentation includes a timeline showing the history of the partnership.

The call included Jim Martinie and Kathy Young with UA Payables, Cindy Klein-Banai, Stephanie Lage, and Morgan Johnston.  Ben McCall, Shelby Egan, and Ginger Valezquez were unable to join the call.

This discussion was started through a group in Chicago looking at the travel policy with Amtrak.  Unlike with airfare it wasn’t giving a preference for Amtrak.  Also, even a higher class than the coach class Amtrak is much less expensive than driving, and people may be more productive on the train.  Are there options and promotional opportunities.  Payables was going to look at it and provide us with an update. 

Policy is set by the Illinois Higher Education Travel Board and it is very difficult to get them to change.  Ginger is the representative for the UI with the Illinois Higher Education Travel Board.  They prescribe the lodging limitations, per diem amount, and travel policies.  Can do procedures and not policies on our side, but they haven’t had much luck with change requests for increasing per diem or lodging limitations.  Cindy said that this would be a little different because we want to ask them to reimburse less than for car travel.

Probably need to focus on what can be done here and what we do have control over.  Providing some information to Amtrak and train travel under make travel arrangements.  We can update the pages on the OBFS page. Payables was really focused on making procedural changes with the web-page – Kathy would like to work with someone to put the information on the website.  Kathy will submit the information for the changes – Cindy will work with them to help with that, with Stephanie.  Stephanie will bring Gary Miller up to speed about the policy issue, for the Green Governing Coordinating Council.  Morgan will get a contact at IDOT in support of Amtrak travel.

They were able to come up with a preliminary report that identifies the instances that someone has driven and been reimbursed for mileage between Urbana and Chicago.  That report needs a little fine tuning – by departments.  We can count and sum the info by department with the details.  They will look at instances between Chicago and Springfield, as well. 

Professor Lavey presented a seminar through the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) last week on governments' efforts to promote cleaner trucking services.  The focus was on tools beyond legislation and regulations, especially imposing  low-emissions conditions on access to properties and applying environmental preferences in government purchases.  Here is the short description:

Technologies to cut truck emissions are available and cost-effective, and should be encouraged by a range of government and private actions. In 2013, Chicago approved the expansion of a railroad terminal contingent on retrofitting dozens of trucks with clean diesel filters. Illinois agencies are reforming freight and package delivery purchasing programs to implement the Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013. Similarly, the U.S. General Services Administration is applying new environmental preferences in selecting transportation vendors and tracking their performance.

See the video on ISTC's website.

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.