CHAMPAIGN — Around 15% of students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation, and the campus has plans to make the U of I more bike-friendly.
“It’s really important for us to provide a safe, convenient and comfortable infrastructure to our students, faculty, staff and visitors who go through campus on a regular basis,” said Sarthak Prasad, a sustainable transportation assistant at U of I Facilities & Services.
As a silver-level Bicycle Friendly University, the U of I provides parking for up to 11,635 bicycles, with bike racks located within 150 feet of nearly all campus buildings.
But some students feel there’s room for improvement. U of I junior Yehuda Goldbloom said he’s satisfied with the U of I’s bike network, but “there are some more buildings and places that need bike racks for sure and maybe more protected bike racks as well.”
This is a common concern among students, Prasad said, and the latest Campus Bicycle Plan aims to address it and implement additional infrastructure improvements that have been on hold due to funding constraints.
To cover the costs of the infrastructure updates, the bicycle infrastructure and programming fee, which is charged to students, will rise from $1 to $3.10 per semester, starting this fall.
The previous Bicycle Plan, released in 2014, focused on improving connectivity and infrastructure, and the new 2024 plan will expand those efforts beyond the core of campus, to “the outer side of campus, for instance, the Florida Avenue connectivity to Orchard Downs on campus,” Prasad said.
Over the last 10 years, the university has made infrastructure improvements and initiated different programs that enhanced the bicycling experience, he said.
The mandatory bike registration system is one of those programs. All U of I students are now required to register their bikes, which helps F&S understand how many people have bicycles and use them.
It’s also a way for students to protect their bikes. When students register their bicycles, they receive a sticker. Once they put the sticker on their bicycle, the bike can be tracked down in the event that it’s lost or stolen.
Prasad said F&S partners with a company that is tied to more than 400 law enforcement agencies and bike shops all over the U.S. and Canada. This means that if a bicycle gets stolen and someone tries to sell it, the bike shop can run the serial number or sticker ID and contact the original bike owners.
Since the implementation of the new bike registration system, Prasad said the U of I has recovered nearly 10% of reported stolen bicycles.
Another goal of the campus bike infrastructure — and the Illinois Climate Action Plan — is to reduce the use of single-occupied vehicles and encourage more people to walk or ride a bike and help reduce carbon emissions.
“Especially in the core of campus, it’s really hard to drive anyway. And sometimes it’s faster to walk and even faster if you ride a bike,” Prasad said.
The Illini Union and Greet Street areas are the most highly trafficked areas for bicycling and walking, he said. With more cars, buses, scooters and e-bikes, the areas get heavily congested.
To reduce potential collisions, Prasad recommends that students take the Bicycle Safety Quiz, an online educational tool to learn on how to safely share the road.
Another problem with bike paths on campus is that drivers block the paths, Goldbloom said, noting that the bike path on Green Street between First and Wright constantly gets blocked by parked cars. He said he usually avoids that area because it feels like an unnecessary risk.
Prasad said he is well aware of students’ complaints. There’s interest in more bike space in certain locations, including in front of the Campus Instructional Facility area in Urbana, but with the limited budget and the surge in construction costs since the COVID-19 pandemic, he said F&S hasn’t been able to implement a lot of infrastructure projects.
But through the efforts of the Student Sustainability Action Committee, and the forthcoming rise in the bicycle infrastructure and programming fee, the funding will be available for these projects. “So instead of $90,000 per year, we are going to have nearly $280,000,” Prasad said.
Lukas Moore, a U of I junior, said he appreciates the bike infrastructure on campus and the fact that “all the roads are pretty bike-friendly.”
Prasad encourages students to share feedback on campus bike infrastructure and programming through the Campus Bicycle Feedback Form.