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All, Pretty chill week overall. Great weather but not very busy. Got some donations from Champaign Cycle last Tuesday.
One student worker that just graduated did a bike trip down the western border of Illinois last week and is headed to Iceland for another biking trip tomorrow. He bike-commutes and also did I4K. Great to see folks explore all the different ways to have fun with a bike.
Another student worker is scaling back here as they were offered more hours at Champaign Cycle. Always good to see staff move on to bigger and better things.
Thanks to Todd for grabbing scrap over the long weekend.
The numbers:
Visitors: 28
Sales: $904.42
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $360
Memberships: 9 for $270
Tire/tubes: 7 for $44
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Sarthak and Morgan met with Phil Krein to talk about the EV charging support on campus. See attached the powerpoint slides that Phil shared. Following are some talking points:
See the meeting recording here: https://uofi.box.com/s/o462lbl362rpw9p7jvoet8cmqsgxf7x6
Met with Brandon, Cody, Chris, Jeremy, and Toby from the Parking department to discuss the Bicycle Roundup project and the timeline. Gave them an overview of the system that we are using (ArcGIS Field Maps) and what to look for in the maps. Informed them that we have started the tagging process and expect to finish tagging all bicycles by June 16, 2023.
F&S TDM will tag and identify the abandoned bicycles, then Parking will remove them and transport them to the West Round Barn, and F&S TDM will inventory the bicycles. F&S TDM will organize the bicycle pick up for students in fall semester.
Following is the expected timeline for this project:
Start of the Tagging: 6/8/2023
End of tagging process: 6/16/2023
Start of the identification of abandoned bicycles: 7/5/2023
End of the identification of abandoned bicycles: 7/10/2023
Parking to remove abandoned bicycles (Start): 7/5/2023
Parking to remove abandoned bicycles (End): 7/14/2023
News Channel 20 reposted the F&S announcement regarding the summer bicycle roundup on June 13, 2023.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WICS) — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is reminding students about their annual summer bicycle roundup. The university's facilities and services department collects unwanted bicycles on campus after the end of the spring semester.
All bikes left on university property will be tagged with an orange sticker that reads, 'Remove this tag by 6/30/23, or your bicycle will be removed,'" said the university's facilities and services department.
They say any bicycle found with this sticker after June 30 will be impounded. If you currently have a bike in a campus rack, shelter, or parking location and want to keep your bike, remove the sticker to ensure it doesn't get impounded.
To retrieve a bike that has been removed, you can contact bike@illinois.edu with your bike information. All recovered bikes need to be registered before being returned. Register your bike here.
See the article online here: https://newschannel20.com/newsletter-daily/university-announces-summer-b...
All, Feast or famine over here last week. Beginning of the week we were slammed but slow n’ steady by Friday. TBP held their Members’ Meeting last Monday and I attended. Got a unicycle donated as well as a handful of bikes, including some kids bikes.
Spent 15 minutes on the phone with a gentleman from a rural town outside Bloomington, IL looking for a bike. Really speaks to the need that we’re getting interest from an hour plus drive away. Or maybe my hyper-local bike-only travel mindset makes that distance seem more unreasonable than it is…
I was a bit more diligent this past week about tracking non-university visits to better reflect how many folks we’re helping.
The numbers:
Visitors: 33
Sales: $1,285.17
Bikes: 3 for $540
Membership: 7 for $210
Tires/tubes: 16 for $166.00
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Following is some information from University of Wisconsin-Madison regarding their Emergency Ride Home program:
UW Madison's Emergency Ride Home Program is intended to provide another incentive to employees who opt NOT do drive alone to campus, so it is not available to any employee with an annual (car) parking permit. https://transportation.wisc.edu/commuter-solutions/emergency-ride-home/. They use a voucher based system for their ERH program with an annual budget of $1,600. They have less than 2 dozen people use the ERH program every year and they give 3 vouchers for Lyft to those enrolled in this program. UW Madison still sees a desire for this program, because as they said, “the point is that the rides are free.”
- How often an employee can use this service in a year?
- ERH can be used up to three times every six months.
- How do you fund the ERH program? Do you use your departmental funds or is there another funding source available?
- ERH is funded through parking revenue
- How often do employees use this program? What is the annual cost that you have to reimburse (in general)?
- Annual budget is $1,600
- does the $1,600 per year budget includes administrative cost?
No, but there essentially are not any administrative cost. The program takes very little time and it is folded into my existing duties
- Who has the administrative responsibility for this program?
I do. It is a UW Transportation Services program.
- I understand that the employees need to not pay the taxi and just provide the driver with the ERH form. Does the taxi company file for reimbursement? How does that system look like?
We have a contract with the cab companies and they invoice us and include a copy of the form with the invoice.
- I am a bit confused about the Lyft option. The website says that users will get 3 codes to use per six months after submitting the form, but how do you ensure that the users are not using this code for personal use?
We assume good faith use. To get the Lyft code you click a box that says you agree to our policies. In theory if someone abused the program they might be subject to disciplinary action (or at least a nasty letter and/or being banned from future use).
- Would you be able to connect me with the Lyft point of contact that you have for the ERH program?
Avery Gordon avery@lyft.com
- Employees only get either 3 codes by Lyft or 3 taxi fares, right?
The policy is 3 total rides per 6 months, but it would be possible to cheat that and do both (or use more than 3 cab rides). It is up to me to monitor for abuse. In the 16 years that I have managed the program I have had ONE case of abuse. We literally goes months sometimes with no one using the program and there’s never more than half a dozen rides in a single month.
Following is some information from Anna Dragovich from Indiana University Bloomington regarding their Emergency Ride Home program:
- What is the current budget to run this program?
- It’s not much – maybe $1,000-$2,000/year. I don’t have a set budget – it’s just whatever people use, is what I reimburse. It hasn’t gotten out of hand enough for me to apply any more restrictions than what we already have in place. Surprisingly, not many take advantage of it.
- I see that you use Chrome River for users to get reimbursement. I seem to recall that your department used to pay for this system. Is this still the case?
- Yes, this is still the case. We use Chrome River to facilitate that reimbursement. We have the steps outlined here on our website (scroll down a little).
- How many people are enrolled in this program?
- ERH is eligible only for people who are enrolled in our commuter program which is about 800.
- How many people use it?
- I’ve had only about 10 people use it in the last year.
- How do you confirm if the users availed this service for a legitimate reason?
- We have them attest that they used it for legitimate reasons when they submit in Chrome River.
- Have you evaluated the program recently and whether there is still a desire/demand for ERH now that there are Uber/Lyft and other ride share programs available?
- We encourage them to use Uber/Lyft and are reimbursing those expenses. A few years ago, they could only use taxi companies in town but with taxi’s going out of business and Uber/Lyft taking their place, we switched.
ZipCar reached out to the F&S TDM department to inform us about the update to their program on-campus with the additional Young Driver Fee (YDK) for users aged under 25. Following is the email from ZipCar representative and attached is the letter to the University:
Hi Stacey and Sarthak,
I wanted to reach out to alert you that we are making a change to our University Zipcar program.
Our VP has asked that I provide you with his attached letter.
A Young Driver Fee will be added to all 25 and under reservations on University Zipcars as outlined below, starting June 19th, 2023.
Hourly: $1.50 (18-20) & $0.75 (21-24)
Daily: $12 (18-20) & $6 (21-24)
Please let me know if you have any questions, and don’t hesitate to call. I understand this is a sudden adjustment.
Each summer, F&S and the Parking Department identify and collect unwanted bicycles on campus after the end of the spring semester.
All bikes left on university property will be tagged with an orange sticker that reads, "Remove this tag by 6/30/23, or your bicycle will be removed." Any bicycle still displaying the sticker after that date will be impounded. If you presently have a bike in a campus rack, shelter, or parking location, please remember to remove this sticker to ensure your bike is designated as active.
To retrieve a bike that has been removed, contact bike@illinois.edu with your bicycle information. All recovered bicycles will need to be registered before being returned (https://bike.illinois.edu/register-your-bike/).
Please find attached PDF containing performance metrics for ZipCar usage on campus for April 2023 and May 2023.
Sarthak Prasad met with Hrushikesh Chavan, a Master of Architecture student, to help with several sustainable transportation projects, including the end of year bicycle round up. Hrushikesh has agreed to volunteer his time to help with the bicycle round up project.
All, We were closed yesterday for the Memorial Day holiday.
Last week I moved bikes out of the barn. We’re not 100% done but only have 25 or so bikes left.
This week I’ll move the rest of the bikes out of the barn and do some reorganizing to accommodate the influx. We also have a new staffer starting this week, so we’ll host a training session or two with them.
The numbers:
Visitors: 13
Sales: $1,069.50
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $530
Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $110
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 11 for $86.75
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Please see attached the meeting notes from our meeting on May 22, 2023. Attended by: Morgan White, Stacey DeLorenzo, Sarthak Prasad, Jennifer Fraterrigo
Major talking points:
Action items for Sarthak:
All, Last week we started our Summer Hours of M/W/F 2 – 6p. No complaints so far and if visit numbers are any indication, it’s the correct move. A lot fewer folks through the doors this time of year.
On Wednesday, with the help of a TBP volunteer we moved 10 or so bikes over to the Urbana space. A good small step, but still more bikes to clear. That’ll continue this week as well.
We’ve been selling bikes at a marginal clip but can’t have enough bikes ready come August so we’ll wrench on a few more this week during the down times.
The numbers:
Visitors: 22
Sales: $834.25
Bikes (refurb): 4 for $672
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 1 for $8
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Beginning Monday, May 22, the university and bike sharing partner Veo will launch a pilot program to explore the use of Cosmo-e bikes on the Urbana campus. During the trial, the motorized class two e-bikes will be allowed to operate on university streets and dedicated bicycle lanes. Rental bikes were previously restricted to pedaling only in these areas.
The program will run through Monday, August 7, at which point the ridership data and community feedback will be used to review the status of the service and determine future usage guidelines for the bikes before the start of the fall semester. Requirements for the pilot will also consist of strict geofencing restrictions for the class two e-bikes to protect pedestrian safety by properly balancing active transportation modes, including the following:
Riders will receive more information, such as route maps and general reminders, from Veo before the pilot program begins. For questions about the upcoming pilot, contact hello@veoride.com. Additional resources are available on the Bike at Illinois website.
Improving mobility options for students, faculty, and staff continues to be one of the university’s top transportation priorities. The pilot is the latest example of collaborative efforts to offer greater bike sharing availability and flexibility while maintaining the highest safety standards throughout the U of I’s jurisdictional locations.
Read more at Campus Pilot Project for Veo Motorized Bikes
Sarthak & I met on 5/1/2023 and 5/15/2023 to work on the BFU application.
The current version of the log we are using is attached below.
All, We received 8 bike donations directly from graduating students last week—easily a record during my tenure so far. Not sure how the word got out, but it was effective! Of course, I forgot to ask for a few photos for future marketing use, but one person did request a photo with her bike before she donated it.
I also worked with TBP volunteers to move a chunk of bikes out of storage, so we’re making headway on that. But still a good number of bikes left, too, which I’ll continue to work on going forward.
This week we start our summer hours of M/W/F 2 – 6p.
The numbers:
Visitors: 49
Sales: $868.25
Bikes: 3 for $570
Memberships: 4 for $120
Tires/tubes: 5 for $36
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Here are some links that direct you to UIUC's bike safety quizzes!
Links to Share – share these links with anyone who’s interested in taking the quiz. Feel free to post on social media, websites, etc.
May Newsletter sent out on May 10, 2023.
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