WCIA 3 interviewed Steve Breitwieser regarding the recent Bicycle Friendly University award to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. This news item aired on November 30, 2023.
Please see the news item here: https://www.wcia.com/news/u-of-i-upholds-distinction-as-a-bicycle-friend...
Please see announcement online here: https://fs.illinois.edu/News/campus-renews-its-bicycle-friendly-universi...
Campus Renews Its Bicycle Friendly University Certification
Nov 16, 2023 | 11:54 am
The Urbana Campus Extends Its Bicycle Friendly University Status Through 2027
Dear Sarthak,
On August 8, 2023, the Bicycle Friendly University 2023 application was submitted. See attached the final application.
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.
Please see attached the final presentation for the CTAC spring 2023. Watch the meeting recording here: https://uofi.box.com/s/mid9gjqnhyziake9txcdf9jee08rgx6h
Sarthak & I met on 4/24/2023 to work on the BFU application.
The current version of the log we are using is attached below.
Sarthak & I met on 3/20/2023 to go over some more of the BFU application.
The current version of the log we are using is attached below.
Sarthak & I met on 3/8/2023 to go over some more of the BFU application.
The current version of the log we are using is attached below.
Sarthak & I met for an hour on 2/27/2023 to discuss the 2023 BFU application. I checked some answers with him. We determined who we need to ask for some questions and answered other questions.
The current version of the 2023 BFU Application Log is attached below.
Sarthak & I met on 2/20/2023 to go over some questions I had about the BFU application. We talked about the built environment of the campus (question A8), and clarified the total campus enrollment statistic. I also showed Sarthak the log I created to keep track of the my progress on the application, which is attached below.
Sarthak & I met on 2/13/2023 to discuss the Bicycle Friendly University Application. Sarthak clarified that I'm currently the only person updating the application. We went over some questions that we'll have to inquired Chad about. We also found answers to some of the questions.
Alec McKay & Sarthak Prasad met on 1/30/2023 and 2/8/2023 to discuss Alec's progress on reading over the Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) related materials.
Alec read and took notes on the 2015 BFU application and the 2015 BFU Feedback. His notes are attached below.
Sarthak Prasad and Alec McKay met to discuss Alec helping Sarthak with the 2023 BFU Application. Sarthak provided some guidelines on getting up to date with the current status of the Bike Plan goals and objectives.
A document containing notes Alec took is attached below.
By mutual consent, the capstone project was terminated with Aparna Padmakumar for her help with the Bicycle Friendly University application.
This week, Aparna reviewed all of the past BFU Applications submitted to compare the progress over the years. The same was discussed and gone over again with Sarthak to help with the comments and notes made by her on the applications for a more thorough understanding. The next steps would be to start filling out the application for 2023. Aparna has been added by Sarthak Prasad to help with the submission for BFU: Bicycle Friendly University 2023.
The next steps for the project progress would be to review the past BFU applications from 2011 - 2019 to understand the stage we as a university are at currently and would help to identify, compare and contrast the work across these timelines to improve the status and make recommendations after reviewing the feedback.
In the past weeks, Aparna reviewed the BFU Application to understand the scope of work, did research/literature review work, and familiarized herself with the current initiatives taken by the university at present to combat bike thefts. Moreover, she also had a conversation with a transportation staff from UCLA and ASU who had recently reached out to me on their ideas/approach on this topic for a qualitative aspect of this project. The same was also discussed with her capstone advisor, Prof.
This week Aparna got in touch with the staff of transit services from Arizona State University to understand their approach to achieving the Gold BFU certification.
Sarthak and Aparna also had a quick overview of the materials shared and brainstormed ideas/recommendations to raise awareness in the campus community as well as keep bike thefts in mind.
The next steps would be to familiarize with the topic better, collect all the research materials and make notes/highlight the existing implementation, and make comments on these.
In this meeting, potential ideas for secured bicycle parking were discussed as ways to promote awareness among the campus community. A capstone proposal outlining the final objectives and deliverables was drafted and Sarthak helped support this discussion sharing an Excel sheet that has all of the goals, current status, and plans for the future of some mentioned ideas towards achieving the said objectives with challenges that are yet to be tackled.
