Sustainable Transportation Manager, MSU Bikes on the Mich. St. Univ. campus; co-founder of the Univ. Bike Programmer's Network in early '08; webmaster for Ride of Silence organization - http://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php
Bilingual (Japanese), father of three, married to Hiromi Potter, daughter of 1961 Japanese National Keirin (professional track racing) Champion Seiichi Nishiji.
Our dept. (Mich. State Univ. Sustainability/ MSU Bikes) is exploring the possibility of starting up a bike-based courier service on our campus to augment our campus mail services as well as other delivery services that currently operate on our campus, oftentimes using large motor vehicles for small packages that could be easily delivered via bike. The photos below are of our pilot service which was launched earlier in 2014 for pick-ups and deliveries of Surplus/ Recycling materials.
This survey is to gather data on other universities that currently have bike-based courier services.
I’ll be sharing the results with the Campus Bike Programmer Network after the survey closes (approx. mid January, 2015).
Cayden stopping by MSU Bikes to drop-off and pickup materials. That’s a Bikes at Work brand trailer, their medium length model.
Traversing some of MSU’s roads w/ bike lanes.
Crossing one of our 3 ped/bike bridges. Something motor vehicles can’t do.
Crossing one of our 3 ped/bike bridges. Something motor vehicles can’t do.
Passing by one of our growing numbers of sharrows on campus street that don’t yet have bike lanes.
Returning back to home base – MSU Surplus and Recycling.
Returning back to home base – MSU Surplus and Recycling.
Returning back to home base – MSU Surplus and Recycling.
Returning back to home base – MSU Surplus and Recycling.
Unloading at the home base – MSU Surplus and Recycling.
Local bike-based delivery service bike detail. A newer Bikes at Work trailer, long model w/ double-axel/wheels for added weight capacity (up to 600 lbs).
Local bike-based delivery service bike detail. A newer Bikes at Work trailer, long model w/ double-axel/wheels for added weight capacity (up to 600 lbs).
Local bike-based delivery service bike detail.
MSU Surplus & Recycling bike and trailer setup for collecting recycleables after home football games, fall 2014.
Here are some pics from the AASHE conference in Portland (10/26-10/30/14) where some of us presented and also got together for dinner (Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen: http://www.luclackitchen.com). Many more pics from my visit here (PSU & Portland City facilities) and here (shops and bikes).
A quintessential Portland bicyclist, ready for the weather and able to carry anything (well, for now, primarily his young child!).
Shared-use paths are nicely and obviously marked for both bikes and peds
Shared-use paths are nicely and obviously marked for both bikes and peds
Crossing over to tour PSU’s newest jammed bike commuter facility.
Entryway into PSU’s newest jammed bike commuter facility.
Newest indoor secure bike parking and commuter facility
Ramp into PSU’s newest jammed bike commuter facility.
PSU’s newest jammed bike commuter facility.
Uni-sex locker room at PSU’s newest bike commuter facility
Very nicely done curb cuts from the shared-use-path across a busy road
At the valet bike parking area near the tram station for the medical univ that’s at the top of a mountain.
At the valet bike parking area near the tram station for the medical univ that’s at the top of a mountain.
At the valet bike parking area near the tram station for the medical univ that’s at the top of a mountain.
Shared use path passes a street-car stop.
Shared use path markings crossing a busy intersection.
One of the well-marked bridge paths.
One of the many green boxes at an intersection
Some newly made friends from Canada from the Regensis program of York University: https://www.facebook.com/regenesisyorku
…from the Regensis program of York University: https://www.facebook.com/regenesisyorku
Waiting at a Copenhagen Left green box
A very nice and fun corkscrew path from one of the bridges down to the river-path.
Having coffee with some of my fellow univ bike programmers
Dinner time w/ fellow univ. bike programmers
View of downtown Portland and beyond during a rare clear sky moment; Mt. Hood could be seen way off in the distance.
Interior of the PSU Bike Hub; Clint gave numerous tours.
Interior of one of the PSU secure bike parking garages.
Interior of one of the PSU secure bike parking garages.
Detail of double-stack racks in one of PSU’s secure bike parking facility.
Interior of one secure bike parking facility at PSU.
Exterior of the one free-standing secure bike parking facility at PSU.
Interior of the one free-standing secure bike parking facility at PSU.
Congratulations to all the 2014 Bicycle Friendly University Awardees and Honorable Mentions just announced on Campus Sustainability Day (Oct. 21, 2014)!
Excerpt below courtesy League of American Bicyclists:
9 of Top 10 National Universities Now BFUs
October 21, 2014
by Liz Murphy
100 Colleges and Univs now BFUs!
Today, on Campus Sustainability Day, the League of American Bicyclists announced 33 new and renewing Bicycle Friendly Universities (BFU) in 20 states. With this new round, 9 of the to 10 colleges and universities in the country, according to the 2014 U.S. News & World Report ranking, are Bicycle Friendly Universities.
These institutions join a cutting-edge group of colleges and universities from across the United States transforming their campuses and the communities around them. There are now a total of 100 BFUs in 37 states and Washington, D.C.
It was a pleasure to present with consultant Alison Kendall & Amelia Neptune in an hour & a half webinar today titled “Bikes on Campus” this afternoon for approx. 50 univ. folks from around the country. Unfortunately we didn’t have as much time for Q&A as we should have but the Qs we did get were quite excellent. A large focus of the presentation was on the Bike Friendly University program and how a university can become more bike friendly.
Encouraging to know that there’s so much interest in what we’re doing! Hopefully many more univ’s will be joining our growing network.
University bike programmers gathering during the Natl. Bike Summit 2014.
A handful of university bike programmers had a great BFU dinner on Tuesday night. Here’s a photo from the dinner, and below are the names and affiliations of everyone who attended (click to enlarge the photo).
Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure
Thanks to a recent post from Tanya DeOliveira (Planner, Clemson University Planning & Design) the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies has released “Volume 2387 / Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure”. This volume contains 17 reports related to research focused on bicycling that were presented at the last TRB Annual Meeting.
These reports are available for no charge to TRB members or member institutions. Here’s the summary page.
If your university is a member institution you should be able to view and download the PDF reports from this page.
One example of a univ.-based bike sharing system @ Texas A& M’s Maroon bikes. Click pic to visit their site.
As we all know ‘bike sharing’ is a very hot topic on our campuses. For those of you interested in learning more about the state of bike sharing systems the Assoc. of Ped and Bike Professionals has 1 more session on the topic coming up Mar. 5th titled “The Future of Bikeshare Transit Systems” that sounds worth the $50 for members ($85 non-mbr); earlier sessions are all available for download (for a fee). To learn more and register go here.
More bike sharing related resources:
Bike Share Philadelphia – great source for general info on the industry world-wide (global map, videos, photos, news articles, etc.)
A number of our member universities are cited in this new report from the US Public Interest Research Group. Great to see higher education institutions getting some recognition in steering the way for the nation’s future transportation systems.
Congrats to all the new additions and to those who moved up in the rankings! A special shout out to David at UC Davis for becoming the second Platinum BFU — you run an amazing program there. I recently heard Bill Nesper from the League talk about this BFU program at the Bike Symposium as part of the AORE conference here. It really is a valuable process for bringing together all the parts of the university who work on biking, and for getting feedback on how to improve. Next deadline is August 2014!
(courtesy of member Jessica Zdeb, Transportation Planner, Toole Design Group)
Note: Our List of University Bike Programs has been updated with BFU status through fall 2013. If your university isn’t on this list please add it (it’s a Wiki page, so anyone can update it!).
Campus Bike Programmer’s dinner attendees, AORE – Bike Symposium (L to R: Tim Potter, MSU Bikes; Ginny Sullivan, Adventure Cycling; Jessica Zdeb, Toole Design; Beverly Malone, UMD Transportation; John Brandt, UMD Bikes Coord; Gerald Fittipaldi, Civil Engr.; Devan Tracy, Engineer.
A number of our members attended the annual conference of the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) held at the U of MD in College Park, MD, Nov. 7 – 9th. It was the first year for the Bike Symposium which featured quite a good variety of topics and presentations from different universities around the country. Our colleagues from the UMD Transportation office (Beverly Malone, Asst Director; Mike Levengood, UMD bikeUMD bicycle coordinator) and the conference co-host Mike Doyle, Asst. Director, Campus Recreation Services, were gracious hosts and showed me around to my amazement of everything that can be done within the confines of an older university with very tight space.
Here are links to a couple presentations from AORE-2013:
Ask the Experts gathering, AORE – Bike Symposium (L to R: Beverly Malone, Jessica Zdeb, Gerald Fittipaldi, Rick Dawson, CSU – Monterey Bay)
“Campus Bike Planning 101″ : (21 pgs) was given by Jessica Zdeb of the Toole Design Group, with the assistance of Beverly Malone, of U-MD. An excellent resource/ reference for universities looking to develop a comprehensive bike plan or improve/ update the plan they might already have: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7nC7dXHvhYmb1c3YVJFdDVWcDg/edit?usp=sharing
For 2014 the AORE annual conference will move to Portland, Oregon (Nov. 12 – 14), so hopefully that location and having one symposium under our belts will combine for an even better turn-out and program! Be sure and hold the date and your budget to attend!
More of my pics from the AORE Conference and UMD visit that might interest you are here.
