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Projects Updates for 2014 Campus Bike Plan

  3. September 9th, 2016 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation SWATeam
    Develop Scenarios for Converting the UI Fleet to Renewable Fuels
    Reduce Cars (Vehicle Miles Traveled) on Campus
    2014 Campus Bike Plan

    9/09/16

     

    Summary: This meeting was our inaugural meeting for the year. On the agenda today was the creation of a team description, a review of ongoing projects, and planning for future meetings.

     

    In attendance:

        Josh Feldman

        Claire Dondival

    Ankit Singhai

    Yangfeng Ouyang

    Pete Varney

    Lily Wilcox - Active Transportation Coordinator

    Olivia Webb - Sustainability Programs Coordinator

     

    Topics Covered:

     

    Team Description

    We collectively crafted our team description for the iCAP portal, which can be found at:  https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/transportation-swateam.

     

    Project Slides

    Renewable Fleet Study:

    Claire and Petehelped foster a discussion about the current types of alternative fuels for campus fleet vehicles. Currently, natural gas is the only type of fuel seriously looked at. One concern was that the gas CNG, while possible to implement, would be somewhat costly and have little payback unless driven many miles. Electric vehicles were brought up, but are currently not part of the market. Biodiesel was also mentioned, but its performance in cold weather is a concern.

     

    Staff Mode Shift:

    Lily discussed the ways that this project will reduce single occupancy vehicles. One idea looked at was bike sharing, which has been tried by Purdue but does not have much payback economically. Lily also discussed “It’s your MTD too”, which features social bus-riding trips which introduce MTD to campus employees.

     

    Bike Plan:

    This was a summary of effort to make campus more bike-friendly. This would include having more, and better, bike parking. UIUC was recently recognized as a bronze-level Bike Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.

     

    Future Meetings

    We decided that every other Friday at 1pm is a good time to hold meetings. We will be holding meetings in the National Soybean Research Laboratory. Our clerk Josh will send out reminders.

    Attached Files: 

  4. Bike recycle event, KellerWilliams Realtor RED Day Bicycle Recycle event

    Associated Project(s): 
    2014 Campus Bike Plan

    Happy Bike Month Everybody,

    We have lots of bike-related events going on in May.  And as the use of bikes and the local bike community grows, we will have more and more bike events.  This is all good.  Champaign County Bikes will try to share local bike information and keep everyone informed. (A growing task for us, and one of the reasons we need to grow and add capacity!)  For now, during Bike Month - our Bike Month calendar and resources are at www.CUBike.org  A more complete and ongoing bike event calendar that draws from many of our local bike groups is at our CCB website, www.champaigncountybikes.org.

    I just want to quick highlight a new event, one I just received some information on tonight.  I believe it’s good that all of us who share leadership roles in our bicycle community are well informed, given that that we might be asked about any bike-related event in town, including this new event.  Scott Bechtel and his staff at KellerWilliams Realtor are hosting this RED DAY Bicycle Recycle event, and as I understand it are promoting it primarily within their extensive network of contacts, and then generally in the community.  One of our CCB members knows Scott and they have had some conversations. This is how CCB knows of RED DAY.  Red Day falls on our local Bike to Work Day, Thursday, May 14.

    You can find more information at:  www.KWChampaignRedDay.com, at KellerWillimas, or their Facebook page.

    Thanks for everything all of you are doing to make Champaign County an awesomely Bicycle Friendly Place!

    Jeff

    Jeff Yockey

    President

    Champaign County Bikes

    jeff@champaigncountybikes.org

    www.champaigncountybikes.org

    217 565-1785

     

     

     

    Attached Files: 

  6. Previous description in iCAP Portal

    Associated Project(s): 
    2014 Campus Bike Plan

    Transportation Demand Management (TDM) in Facilities & Services is finalizing the 2014 Campus Bike Plan, a master plan to direct our efforts for future bicycle infrastructure improvements and program development.  The official public comment period for the Campus Bike Plan ended in April 2013, but additional feedback is always welcome via the online bicycle feedback form.

    The draft 2014 Campus Bike Plan was available for public input during a four-week period, and members of the campus community were encouraged to review the plan and submit their comments and feedback via the online Campus Bicycle Feedback Form. 

     

  7. update from Ben McCall

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation SWATeam
    2014 Campus Bike Plan

    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

     

  8. "Connectivity and Accessibility of UIUC Campus Bike Paths"

    Associated Project(s): 
    2014 Campus Bike Plan
    Independent Student Projects

    "The results here indicate that the changes to the UIUC network do in fact improve connectivity over the existing network. Moreover, the planned network lowers the average shortest-distance path between libraries, dormitories, and the Union by nearly the same amount as a control scenario without paths at all. While we may assume that a bicycle master plan will address and improve connectivity as a matter of course – and the language in the plans claims that they do – it seems counterintuitive that this simple test not be included in the research process to confirm that this is so. Ultimately what these accessibility and connectivity analyses show is that while planners and bicycle advocates may seek to improve bicycle infrastructure, we need a way to quantify and subsequently verify that any changes will improve the functionality of the network and the ease with which a rider can travel from one location to another." -- Pildes, Russell. (2014) "Connectivity and Accessibility of UIUC Campus Bike Paths", B.A. Honors Thesis, Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

    Attached Files: 
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