The August 26, 2022 issue of Insider featured the "Achievements in Transportation". Read the article online at https://fs.web.illinois.edu/Insider/2022/08/26/achievements-in-transport... or see below.

Achievements in Transportation

Be it walking, bicycling, taking transit, or driving vehicles, getting around the campus is done more sustainably than ever.

The F&S Transportation Demand Management (TDM) department creates, maintains, and coordinates the overall transportation network for all modes of travel. TDM implements campus and community policies and plans, like objectives in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP).

“Safe and sensible transportation, in all its forms and complexities, is essential to a functioning campus,” said Stacey DeLorenzo, transportation systems manager.

Read the full Transportation Demand Management Plan FY22 Achievement Report on the F&S website.

Students walking to Quad on Centennial Plaza in spring between the Chemistry Annex and Noyes Laboratory.

Key achievements include:

Asset Management Plan

• $1.25M was allocated for pavement maintenance and improvement projects, starting in FY22.
  • Pennsylvania Ave – Asphalt patching West of Maryland: $98,471.81
  • First and Peabody – Concrete patching: $47,866.28
  • College Ct westbound lane near PAR – Concrete patching: $42,055
  • Campus-wide – Spray injection: $25,000
  • Campus-wide – Crack sealing: $25,000

• F&S TDM is responsible for the 2014 Campus Bicycle Master Plan. The department installed the campus’ first bicycle shelter, removed abandoned bicycle paths, and enhanced bicycle facilities.

• Installed bicycle and pedestrian counters by Eco-Counters at 4 campus locations, with more planned soon. Learn more at Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts.

Programming

TDM educates and encourages students, faculty, and staff to use active modes of transportation. TDM evaluates and plans campus infrastructure to create a safe environment.

The Bike at Illinois website features information on bicycle education and facilities, bike sharing, registration, safety, and more. The F&S website includes information on walking, MTD buses, accessibility, and car-share options.

Collaborations

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is home to some of the world’s brightest researchers and students. The phrase “an active partner in research, teaching, and learning” added to the F&S mission, to academic collaborations. Working with researchers is an essential component to the future of F&S, and a major theme emphasized in the F&S Strategic Plan. F&S collaborates with students and researchers to envision the campus as a living lab and implement research to see the impact with real-world application.

All INSIDER stories on F&S academic collaborations, visit https://go.fs.illinois.edu/Academic.

Can pavement construction use food waste?
Dr. Lance Schideman (ISTC), Dr. Yuanhui Zhang (ABE), and Dr. Ramez Hajj (CEE) use bio-oil produced from food waste as a rejuvenator for asphalt. F&S is collaborating with these researchers to implement this technology on campus pavement in the near future.

Do students collaborate with F&S?
The TDM department collaborated with more than 25 students in the last year to help with class projects, research, or interests in transportation systems on campus.

Walkability Audit
F&S conducted a thorough walkability audit. Nearly 75 volunteers collected data for the following surveys: a) Walkability Audit survey, which focused on the general walkability of the campus (macro level), and b) Deficiency Reporting survey, which focused on identifying specific faults on campus (micro level analysis). Sutapa Banerjee, a master’s student in urban planning, analyzed the walkability audit survey to determine the “walk index” of 76.2 for the campus. The deficiency reporting survey data and ADA transition plan supplement will improve accessibility on-campus.

Those involved: Sutapa Banerjee (MUP-2 student), Dr. Lindsay Braun and Dr. Bumsoo Lee (Department of Urban and Regional Planning), Mylinda Netherton (Disability Resources Educational Services), Allison Kushner (Office of Access & Equity), Ryan Welch (F&S Grounds), Brent Lewis (F&S Capital Programs), and Chad Kupferschmid and Justin Pinnell (F&S Facilities Information Resources).

Sutapa Banerjee presented her final capstone project on Walkability Audit on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. She also presented her poster and provided handouts. Please see attached the presentation as well as the poster.

On April 14 and 21, 2022, Sarthak and Sutapa met to discuss the progress of the Walkability audit.

Tasks decided:

1. Data analysis will begin on 22nd April for the rest of the data points collected during Phase 2 of the audit.

2. Campus high priority zones will be weighted higher than low priority zones. This will impact the overall walkability Index of the campus.

3. Deficiency categories with highest number of recorded points identified are: Sidewalk Maintenance, Crosswalk Maintenance and Accessibility. Create a list of recommendations to improve them.

4. Presentation of overall results to Transportation department by Sutapa on May 3rd, 2022, Capstone Poster presentation on May 5th 2022.

On March 17 2022,

Sarthak and Sutapa met to discuss updates on the FY 22 Walkability Audit Project.

Below are the completed tasks:

• 196 records of the General walkability audit survey with corresponding finalized scores ( see excel spreadsheet). See map for visual representation of average weighted scores.
• Color coded 820 deficiency reporting survey points overlayed on Division of Responsibility map and 29 map block divisions of campus.
• Making a list of incomplete map blocks for general and deficiency reporting survey.

Next steps;

• Writing the Walkability audit draft report for info collected till date.
• Assigning incomplete map-blocks to volunteers.
• Sending out invites for virtual and in-person training sessions for next week: 21st March - 25th March.
• Finalizing H, M and L priority questions