Transportation Committee Meeting
Tuesday, December 11, 2007; 11:00 am
Present: Jillian Buckholz, Sustainability Coordinator; Ann Bykerk-Kauffman, Academic Senate; Lesley Curry, Parking; Beverly Gentry, Strategic Planning; Jim Jessee, APO; Suzy Littrell, Cashiering; Russell Mills, Faculty – Civil Engineering; Rick Rees, Student Activities; Eric Reichel, University Police (Chair of Committee); Alan Rellaford, CDES; Ken Sator, Environmental Health & Safety; Glennda Morse, Facilities Planning; Cale Whitehouse, Staff Council; Julie Wright, AS Environmental Affairs; Ivan Garcia, BCAG; Guests: Corie Lopez – AS Recycling Education Coordinator, Ryan Lavine, and Kyle Hughes – AS Adventure Outings.
Bike Project: AS Recycling Education Coordinator and student, Corie Lopez, presented ideas for a new bike program she and colleagues, Kyle Hughes and Ryan Lavine have been working on. They call it a Green Bike Program – they are hoping for a central hub on campus where students can have access to bikes, offered as low cost rentals. The AS plans to recycle old bike parts to make new bikes, with all of the bikes and materials coming from University Police’s bike inventory. Most of the money they need to assist this project is for labor. This is an extension of Adventure Outing’s bike cart, which is servicing approximately 10 bikes a day now. This has the potential to triple.
The objectives of this program are to:
§ Get more people to bike to/from campus;
§ Offer low cost bicycle repair;
§ Help reduce traffic to/from and around campus
§ Education – promote bike safety; offer clinics to help people learn how to repair tires and perform minor tune-ups
The program could be like checking out library books – the user pays a small fee; has his Wildcat Card swiped which allows for the rental of a bike with a lock. The program coordinators would make sure all bikes are registered by working with University Police. They would also work with UPD to auction recycled bikes in addition to using many as rentals.
Ideas on how to promote the program include:
§ Launching a mini advertising campaign at the beginning of the semester;
§ Offer incentives to students, faculty, staff for using alternative transportation
§ Advertise for clinics; and, let students know they are still doing bike repair as well.
They would like a central location on campus. They will start small and gradually grow. They want to involve students and groups in the program, to get them excited. For example, have an “adopt-a-bike” program, where a group adopts a bike which can be decorated, and rented to folks from that group. In an effort to prevent theft, they would provide bike locks with every bike rented.
They see that space on campus may be an obstacle. In addition to needing space, they need administrative support, and funding.
They have looked at other schools to see what works and what doesn’t work. One model school is UC Davis which has between 15,000 and 18,000 bikes on campus every day. They also looked at Stanford,
Corie said they have come to this committee to get suggestions and ideas of how to promote the program, and how to obtain funding.
The following questions were asked by committee members:
§ How much money do you need?
o This would be an expansion of the existing bike program that Adventure Outings runs now. Do not have exact figures at this time.
· It was asked, how many bikes are you looking at to get the program going?
o 50 to 100.
· What type of locks are you looking at?
o Possibly the U-locks.
· How is the bike auction program going?
o Great – it is giving their students labor experience. And students, in general, are getting bikes at a low cost. Numbers so far approximately 50 bikes have been sold (SP07 semester) but they went through 70 to 100 to use for bike parts. This fall they want to double that.
Bev Gentry said she was excited to hear about what the group is doing. She said she would like to talk with them more in hopes of figuring out how to align their program with the work Bev is doing regarding alternative transportation and parking services. She suggested they need to have more conversations, especially with Facilities Planning, as it relates to space. She said it is important to use our resources wisely. We can’t necessarily offer any answers right now. Bev said we need to support each other – she said the university can help advertise, their website can be utilized, etc. Hopefully, she continued, we will also have an Alternative Transportation Program with incentives so she really wants to talk about what the groups’ plans for incentives are.
Ken Sator commented he thought it a great idea overall. He is looking at it from a Risk Management/Safety perspective. He said having a hub internally on campus sends up red flags. He suggested the new
Alan Rellaford suggested they think about collaborating with the local bike shops in order to get their buy-in. The local competition is a critical thing. Kyle Hughes said he has been talking to Pullins, North Rim, and in the process of talking to others. He said they want to model their program after other schools and ensure they are non-competitive with local shops. Alan also asked how many people really need a rental bike? Do you have a sense of that? He continued by saying the idea of starting small is good. Obtain short success from which to build upon is good.
Russell Mills said that approximately 10 years ago the city experimented with a similar program that entailed making free bikes available to people. He said there were many liability issues and suggest the group may want to talk to city of
Kyle commented that the A.S. looked at the bike parking survey done by FMS that was posted on the website. He said the bike racks by Taylor Hall appeared to be underutilized and would that area possibly be a feasible location?
Bev Gentry interjected that the university is about to go out for a transportation management study and possibly this could be included.
Glennda Morse suggested to the AS Group that they develop a budget. Base it on how many bikes they need, how many locks, etc. Come up with what the overall budget would be. She said the university could help with grant writing. She also said to find out if the A.S. will help with funding first. Glennda continued, she was confused as to what kind of space would be needed. She said they need to define how much space, and what type of space. Talk to the A.S. first to find out if there would be any room in the WAC. Another idea would be to look at the possibility of space in the BMU where the bookstore is vacating, or Adventure Outings, etc. Do you need internal space? What about a repair and/or holding area? Do you need cyclone fencing? And for how many bikes? Should it be utilitarian in nature or more of a yard/storage? She said the area by Laxson and Taylor will be highly congested and may not be the best place. She suggested the Student Services Center/Library area is what the campus is focusing on right now and may be a better area for this proposal. She said they need to be clearer on what their space needs are. The next step is to go to the space administration committee and be sure to include square footages.
Bev Gentry said they should also provide a timeline. Bev volunteered to work with committee. Ivan volunteered to work with her also.
Ryan Lavine reported that he is involved with a state wide organizational effort to get students riding. He said he rode to conference last year in which many students rode in together and made a big impression. This year the conference includes a statewide bike-a-thon in which the participants will get pledges for miles. They are trying to bring 10% back to
Spare the Air Week – Ivan Garcia reported Butte County Association of Governments is working on Spare the Air Week. This is the second year that Butte County Air Quality Management District is funding this. It is a program where people can ride the fixed route system for free for one day. He said they are having guest speakers (many from the university faculty and staff). It is planned for the last week of April, first week of May.
Ivan reported their B-line has a new fare box collection system which will give them a better understanding of where people are getting on and off the buses. He said they will be pursuing GPS technology also.
Draft of City Bike Map – Ivan reported they received $5000 from the Air Quality Management district to develop a bike map. He presented the first draft of the map. He said they are working with the city as well as with the Chico Bicycle Advisory Committee and Chico Vello. He said he would leave the drafts with Bev Gentry. He said they welcome any construction comments, ideas, additions, etc. City of
Discussion regarding the development of map; ideas, suggestions, etc. shared by various members of the group. Ivan encouraged all ideas and suggestions and said he would need these in writing by the beginning of January.
Further discussion ensued. Russell Mills said in previous maps, identifying bike routes may be difficult because if you haven’t actually ridden a bike in
Alan Rellaford asked if the university wanted to take the map to another level for its own purposes, perhaps with a tighter view surrounding the campus. Further discussion of map parameters as well as discussion of the limited bicycling in and around campus, which won’t be on this city map. It may be advantageous to have another map for that purpose. Ivan again said to give specific comments to Bev Gentry. The question was asked whether this map would be copyrighted? Ivan said not by them.
Temporary Bike Stall Relocation Map – Glennda Morse presented a map of the relocation of bike stalls which include a new area south of Whitney. She reminded everybody this was temporary, however, depending on how well these new locations work out, some may become permanent. Russell asked why there were so few around Shasta? Glennda said it was at the request of the Director of UHFS who wanted more common areas to play volleyball and have other activities for the residents of the Halls.
Drafting of Parking Signage/Maps/Permits Design Plan – Bev Gentry reported her office has just begun to think about the redesign of a new parking permit that will hang from the rear-view mirror. As they began conversations about this, they realized they would also need to change the look of campus signage and campus maps to coincide with the new look of the permits. She said there is a small group working on the design plans and she wanted to make the committee aware. Any ideas and/or comments relating to this should be directed to her; all are welcome.
Meeting for next semester will be scheduled in late January. Meeting adjourned at 12:00.