$1 to Save Bicycling on Campus at Univ. Ill – Urbana-Champaign

Grace Kyung - Univ. of Ill - Urbana-Champaign
Grace Kyung – Univ. of Ill – Urbana-Champaign posing in front of a bike polo match.

Nice article about one of our newer members, Grace Kyung from Univ. Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her efforts to get stable funding for their bike program:
Congrats to Grace for her efforts there and inspiration for what can be done with enough hard work!

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/23/1-save-bicycling-campus-university-illinois-urbana-champaign/

Member Amelia Neptune, of the League of American Bicyclists notes “This story originated on the League of American Bicyclists’ blog: http://bikeleague.org/content/big-idea-1-save-bicycling-campus because Grace will be presenting on this topic at the National Bike Summit in March.”

Survey of University Bike-based Courier Services

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).

http://goo.gl/forms/LysGVqJrZA

Thanks in advance for your participation.

AASHE 2014 Conference Gathering Memories

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).

 

9 of Top 10 National Universities Now BFUs!

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!
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.

Click image to right or here to read full article.

Bikes on Campus Webinar report

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.

National Bike Summit 2014 Gathering

Natl. Bike Summit 2014 gathering
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).

Working clockwise from the front left: Steve Durrant, Alta Planning and LAB Board; Amelia Neptune, League of American Bicyclists; Brian Ohlen, Boise State Univ.; Stephen Ritter, Boise State Univ.; Tyce Herrman, Dickinson College; Briana Orr, Univ. of Oregon;  Steve Sanders, Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities; David Takemoto-Weerts, Univ. of California – Davis;  John Brandt, Univ of Maryland, Shady Grove.

Courtesy: Amelia Neptune, Bicycle Friendly America Program Specialist

Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure Reports

Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure
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.

 

The Future of Bikeshare Transit Systems

Texas-AM-maroon-bikes
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:

University Campuses Are Transportation Trailblazers as Young People Lead Shift From Driving

Cover of "New Course" report by US PIRG
Cover of “New Course” report by US PIRG

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.

NEWS RELEASE – Wednesday, February 5, 2014

“As Millennials lead a national shift away from driving, universities  are giving students new options for getting around and becoming innovators in transportation policy, according to a new report released today. The report, titled, “A New Course: How Innovative University Programs Are Reducing Driving on Campus and Creating New Models for Transportation Policy” was released by U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

Click the cover image to the right or link above to read the rest of the release.

Newest Bicycle Friendly Universities Announced!

Students riding bikes on the UC Davis campus.
Students riding bikes on the UC Davis campus. Photo: University of California, Davis, courtesy of League of American Bicyclists

The League of American Bicyclists just released their 2013 list of Bicycle Friendly Universities — (11/14/2013)

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!).