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Projects Updates for theme: Transportation

  1. Registration now open for Bicycle Mechanic Course

    Registration is now open for the six-week Bicycle Mechanic Course offered by the Campus Bicycle Shop! Space is extremely limited, and there is a $30 course fee.  The class will run from February 6-March 13  and again from March 27-May 1.  Register  in person for either session at the Campus Bike Shop today to reserve your spot!  For more information contact Ken Sutto, Campus Bike Shop Manager, at 217-300-0296 or kensutto@illinois.edu or come by the Campus Bike Shop during open hours (2 to 6pm Monday -Thursday and 2 to 5:30 Friday). 

     

    “So You Want to Work on Bikes” is a six-part course designed to teach you about different types of  bicycles, their components, and how to do most adjustments, maintenance, and overhauls on your bicycle’s major systems.

    This six-week course runs February 6-March 13 and will be held on Wednesday nights, from 6:30 to 8:30pm at the Campus Bike Shop. There are only five spots in the course, and registration is first come, first served until all five spots are filled. There is a $30 course fee, with all the money going towards The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign. This six-week course will be held again from March 27-May 1, and registration for the second course is also currently open (again, first come first served).

    If you wish to register please come by the Campus Bike Shop to sign up and pay the deposit as soon as you can. For more information contact Ken Sutto, Campus Bike Shop Manager, at 217-300-0296 or kensutto@illinois.edu or come by the Campus Bike Shop during open hours (2 to 6pm Monday through Thursday and 2 to 5:30 Friday). 

  2. Campus Bicycle Feedback Form

    Associated Project(s): 

    F&S Transportation Demand Management (TDM) continues to improve efforts to make the Urbana campus more bicycle friendly.
    TDM’s latest initiative is a “Campus Bicycle Feedback Form” that will allow anyone to share their suggestions for bicycle-related improvements on campus.

    The feedback will help inform the Campus Bicycle Master Plan, currently under development, as well as to help determine priorities for bicycle infrastructure and programming improvements in the future. 

    Feedback topics include bike parking, rules of the road, enforcement, fix-it-stations, and the Campus Bicycle Shop. Respondents will be asked if their comments relate to a specific location on campus, to describe the situation, and then to provide contact information if a follow-up is necessary.

    See the Campus Bicycle Feedback Form at http://go.illinois.edu/bikefeedback

  3. Final Bike Sharing Feasibility Study Submitted to SSC

    The final report for the Bike Sharing Feasibility Study was submitted to SSC. The study recommends the following three tiered approach to bicycle sharing on the Urbana-Champaign campus: 

    1. Bikes available for employees – The small existing program at Kinesiology and Community Health should be replicated at departments throughout campus. The program needs to be approved by Legal Counsel, Risk Management, Purchasing, and interested Colleges.  Then it should be promoted to departments, to encourage them to invest in bicycles for their employees and provide them with a simple support system for maintenance and tracking.
       
    2. Bikes available for short-term rentals – As an interim solution until the campus can handle a large-scale bike sharing program, the small existing program at Campus Recreation should be expanded with support from the Student Sustainability Committee.  They should increase the number of bicycles available, make the program self-sufficient financially, and market the program to visitors, conference attendees, faculty, staff, and students. A similar program could be investigated for the Illini Union. 
       
    3. Bike solutions for students and the public – Before this campus is ready to pursue a public bike sharing system, we must first address the issues regarding degraded infrastructure and the need for more bike safety education. Once these issues have been resolved, the campus should renew consideration of several options for bike sharing, such as bicycle libraries, kiosk systems, and GPS-enabled community bikes.  

     

  4. Funding request submitted to SSC for FY13

    Associated Project(s): 

    In February 2012, The Bike Project submitted a funding request to SSC for $39,872.  In March 2012, the SSC approved this funding. 

    During summer 2012, the University and The Bike Project revised their Facility Use Agreement to clarify their collaborative working relationship.  The SSC sent a clarification letter regarding this update and subsequently completed a revised award letter.

  5. Status Update meeting with Mike Lyon

    Associated Project(s): 

    Amelia, Morgan, and Mike Lyon met this morning to review the current status of this project.  Morgan gave an overview of what has happened with bicycling this summer, and Amelia described the LINC class projects for this fall.  We will set a meeting with Risk Management, Legal, and Kinesiology to review the departmental bike sharing process.  We will also set a meeting with Purchasing to identify the correct process for the purchase of UI owned bicycles.

  6. Fourth Street from Armory Avenue to Kirby Avenue

    Associated Project(s): 

    This project will include resurfacing of Fourth Street from Armory Avenue to Peabody Drive and reconstruction from Peabody Drive to Kirby Avenue. It will incorporate on-street bike lanes, curb bump outs for narrowed crossing distances at selected intersections, and new traffic signals at the intersection of Fourth Street and Peabody Drive.

  7. Sixth Street from Armory Avenue to Gregory Drive

    Associated Project(s): 

    This project will reconstruct pavement on the worst condition high volume streets and add bike lanes per current campus standards. This work will occur on Sixth Street from Armory Avenue to Gregory Drive. This will also upgrade the traffic signal at the intersection of Sixth Street and Gregory Drive to meet current federal standards and include pedestrian countdown signals.

  8. Gregory Drive from Oak Street to First Street

    Associated Project(s): 

    This project will include total removal and reconstruction of Gregory Drive, between Oak Street and First Street, including existing parking along street. This project will also include parking meters and some new sidewalks.  This segment of roadway is intended to be marked as a bicycle route, as part of the Campus Bike Network.

  9. Campus Bike Project Funding Agreement

  10. Campus Bike Parking Overhaul Phase 1_Funding Award and Acceptance

  11. Bicycle Project Updates: bike racks, bike parking, bike sharing, bike to work day, campus bike project

    Associated Project(s): 

    The SSC bike parking award is for $225,000 to install approximately 1,000 new bike parking spaces on existing concrete throughout campus. 

    The SSC and the Illini Union agreed to support improvements at the southwest corner of the Illini Union, where there are existing “donut-hole” bike racks.  These will be removed over the summer and replaced with stainless steel U-loops.  Additionally, the F&S Grounds division has agreed to plant an additional tree in that area, which will increase shading for the bike parking.

    Through Champaign County Bikes, the University has acquired 22 Varsity Bicycle Racks (which will hold a total of 44 bicycles) from Park-a-Bike in order to run a year-long pilot test of the racks. 10 of these racks will be installed for the year near the Union and the remaining 12 will be distributed in various high-visibility locations on and near campus, to be determined.

    The graduate student working on sketches for the Campus Bicycle Network improvements has completed a majority of the campus owned pathways.  In some cases, this has included site visits to specific areas, with the Transportation Coordinator and the Landscape Architect for campus.

    The SSC-supported Bike Sharing Feasibility Study student intern held a review meeting with the Bike Sharing Steering Committee.  The report is substantially complete and will be available this summer.  As part of the Feasibility Study, F&S released a bike sharing survey to the campus and surrounding community in late March, and accepted responses throughout April. The Survey received 1,168 responses from students, staff, faculty, retirees, visitors and members of the community. F&S is working with the UI Bikes section of Engineering 315, Learning in the Community (LINC) course, to analyze the data from the survey responses. Students from the LINC course also conducted a focus group with undergraduate students in conjunction with the survey in order to dive deeper into the topic of bike sharing with focus group participants.

    In preparation for the third annual C-U Bike to Work Day (BTWD), staff organized fundraising, publicity, volunteers, bike stations’ supplies, registration, and riders’ incentives. The University led the efforts to organize BTWD this year, in partnership with local governments and other agencies. BTWD is an opportunity to encourage and support new bicycle commuters across C-U, including students, staff and faculty of the University, in an effort to create a mode shift toward more bike commuting and less automobile commuting.

    SSC granted a funding request from the Campus Bike Project (CBP) which will allow the current part-time hours of the CBP shop manager, a University employee reporting directly to F&S, to be expanded to full-time. The grant also includes a small stipend for part-time student employees to help staff the CBP.  Sustainability Staff have been working with CBP representatives to develop the position description and conduct a job search, which attracted over 30 applications. The search committee, which included sustainability staff from F&S, as well as Bike Project volunteers and members, is currently in the process of narrowing the pool down to select a qualified candidate.

     

  12. CUUATS reported Grainger lighted crosswalk not recommended

    Associated Project(s): 

    The Champaign-Urbana Urbanized Area Transportation Study (CUUATS) prepared a report on the efficacy of the Grainger lighted crosswalk on Springfield Avenue at the Engineering Quad.  Due to high maintenance needs, difficulty with the light activation system, and a false sense of security for pedestrians and cyclists crossing Springfield Avenue, this system is not recommended for future locations on campus.  Safety for people crossing high-traffic streets can be enhanced with alternative lighted crosswalk systems that are more effective and provide more consistent safety improvements.

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