Skeleton for Transportation Research
From Common Energy UVic
Skeleton for Preliminary Research from the February 27th Meeting
Hi folks - below are the areas committee members agreed to research. If you are not familiar with formating the wiki, please just dump the information in as prose, and as a team we can create the links.
[edit] Ride-share (and trips home on weekends, car coop) Mark
Ridesharing and Carpooling are two programs facilitated by Facilities Managemnet of the University of Victoria, described here.
UVic is also a member of the Car Share Co-op, where members have access to vehicles stationed around the city. The Victoria Car Share Co-op is described here. The University of Victoria Students' Society is also a member of the the Victoria Car Share Co-op.
transitwiki.ca has pages on Carpool.ca[1] and the Jack Bell Foundation[2]. These pages could possibly use some expansion.
[edit] Greenways - Mark
[edit] Bike Education
Groups like Cycling Solutions offer a large variety of bike training programs. Someone should check this out more thoroughly.
[edit] On campus bike security and storage, yellow bikes - Chris
[edit] Bike Parking and Security
UVic Bicycle parking is described here including information on bicycle security lockers. Indoor lockers for storing helmets etc are described here.
Parking for electric scooters appears to be the same as for bicycles provided they meet this definition: "bicycle" includes all vehicles propelled by muscular power and/or electric motor assistance rated at 500 watts or less and not capable of propelling the cycle at a speed greater than 32 km/hr on level ground. found in UVic's traffic and parking regulations.
Campus Security is currently responsible for bicycle security at UVic. They have a bicycle registration program where you can get your bicycle engraved with an identifier for free. The also offer some tips on bicycle theft protection.
UVic's Bicycle Users Committee has some additional information on security and parking. Anti theft measures are described here and this site refers to the Victoria Police Protect Your Bike site.
[edit] Secure Bike Lockup
UBC has a secure bicycle lockup program. This and general bicycle information can be found at the TREK Program Centre. This has recently expanded to include 3 separate lockup facilities. A UBC report on secure parking can be found here. Currently there is a secure lockup under the university centre at UVic use by SPOKES. It might be feasible to extend this caged facility to include a general lockup similar to that at UBC.
[edit] UVic contacts
The Campus Security Personal Safety Coordinator is mentioned as the person responsible for bicycle engraving and may be a good contact (phone: 721-8981 or email psc@uvic.ca). The Bicycle User Committe runs a mailing list and John Holland is mentioned as contact (email: uvic-bikes-owner@lists.uvic.ca)
[edit] Yellow Bikes
The University of Waterloo has a yellow bike program that allows students to rent bikes for short term use, returning them (like a video rental) the next night by 11pm. There is a sign-up fee and currently 5 bikes are available (3 speeds or less). One of the main goals is to raise awareness of alternatives to cars to get around the local area.
Bikes don't have to be yellow. UBC has a very successful AMS Bike Co-op program with purple and yellow bikes. They have nearly 300 bikes and it costs $20 a year to join as a student ($30 for faculty and staff). In Texas, a purple bike program has similar aims.
Bikes don't have to be confined to campus! Copenhagen Free City-Bike Program implemented a ‘yellow bike’ service on a wider scale. The program was started in 1995 by the City of Copenhagen. One thousand free (and specially designed) city bikes were provided at 120 locations throughout the City, including train and subway stations, parking lots, housing blocks, office buildings, shopping areas, and parks. A deposit of about $3 was required to use a bike within the designated downtown area. The project was successful and Copenhagen now has a total of over 2,000 city bikes. 38 % of users are tourists. -Emily
[edit] Electric bikes/scooters battery exchange - Heather
[edit] SPOKES (bike training, scooter training, tax status) - Dan
The website for SPOKES can be found at: http://web.uvic.ca/uvbikes/spokes.html
Current Stats:
- Program in operation since September 2003.
- 181 bicycles distributed to date
- 135 volunteers
- Annual operating budget of $1600
- 4 major partners at UVIC (UVSS, GSS, UVSP and BUC)
- Space permanently donated by UVIC and monitored by Campus Security
- Estimated program worth (supplies, tools, bikes and parts) $5,000
- Winner of 2004 Quality of Life Challenge Award
Their wishlist includes:
- funding: hopefully sustained multi-year promise of funding
- expansion to faculty and staff: as the university to sponsor (maybe $5000), enough to increase capacity
- locks and helmets
- website work
- print and sell SPOKES branded gear
- community outreach, and partnerships with local schools, clubs, etc.
- high resolution print graphics
- nice display boards
and the big one:
- volunteers to help make it happen
[edit] Other CEP groups integrated into new student orientation - Mark
UVic New Student Orientation is facilitated by Sue Corner and the Student Transition Centre. In September 2007 Common Energy will be looking to recruit members, and through orientation may be a good vehicle to do so. Moreover, transportation is one of the most practical ways individuals can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and a presentation surrounding transportation/Common Energy at orientation for new students could be very useful.
[edit] Transportation Resource Groups in Victoria - Caspar
Capital Bike and Walk Society
c/o John Luton
22 Philippa Place
Victoria, BC V85 156
Phone: (250) 592-4753
email
http://www.capitalbikeandwalk.org/
Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition
12 Centennial Square
Victoria BC V8W 1P7
Phone: (250) 480-5155
email
http://www.gvcc.bc.ca/
Island Transformations
LRT Advocacy
email
http://www.islandtransformations.org/pages/03.php
Sierra Club Victoria Group
Transit and LRT advocacy
email
http://www.sierraclub.ca/bc/localgroups/victoria.shtml
Victoria Car Share Cooperative
Phone: (250) 995-0265
email
http://www.victoriacarshare.ca/
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
Research
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7
Phone & Fax: (250)360-1560
email
http://www.islandnet.com/~litman/
[edit] Transportation at UBC - the TREK Program - Chris
The Transit Wiki has an excellent summary of the TREK program. Following are some points of particular relevance to Common Energy transportation:
Since 1997, UBC has been working to reduce automobile trips to and from UBC, and encourage the use of other modes of transportation, including transit, carpooling, cycling and walking. Since 1997, UBC has collected data each year regarding travel patterns to and from the Point Grey campus. A year-to-year comparison of these data provides a measure of UBC’s progress in achieving its transportation goals. UBC has a strategic transportation plan last updated in 2005 and a Trek 2010 strategic vision document.
The latest report if from the fall of 2006 and uses a variety of methods to monitor travel including automatic counters and manual observation of bicycle use, number of occupants, and heavy truck traffic.
Here is a graph of transport use at UBC between 1997 and 2006:
One of the most significant changes since the start of the transportation initiative has been the student U-Pass, which was introduced in September 2003. The U-Pass is a universal student transportation pass offering unlimited access to TransLink Bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus services (all zones), discounted West Coast Express fares, etc. UBC and TransLink are now considering extending the U-Pass program to staff and faculty, as well as implementing a similar program for residents on campus who would not otherwise receive a U-Pass. The employer pass program (EPP) currently offers a savings of only $9/month.
Other improvements in reducing car use include increased parking fees, improved bus service (including some express routes), and adjusted class times to spread out the public transit peak morning load. To promote bicycling new bike lanes to the campus have been added as well as better lock-up facilities and more racks. Car sharing and pooling, emergency ride home, and campus shuttles also help.
UBC provides two (soon to be three) secure bike lockup cages free for the use of cyclists (registration required). They also provide maps outlining where bicycle facilities are located on campus.
For more info, see the UBC TREK website.
[edit] Bike route maps (locally and other cities) and dedicated bike routes? - Emily
The 2002 version of the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition's Victoria Cycling Map is available at the UVic Bookstore for $4.95 (it does not appear to be available online).
A route map of the local area around UVic is available online and marks cycling routes, main roads, bike lanes, minor roads, connecting paths, steep hills. It does not include routes to downtown. The streets are unlabeled except those that the bike route runs along. The UVic site does not include information such as biking tips, rules of pathway use, or description of routes.
The City of Vancouver has a 2005 bike route map available online
The City of Calgary also has a clear and detailed online cycling map available here
Kelowna’s Bike Route Map differentiates between bike lanes on both sides of the road, one side of the road, routes (low volume road or wide curb), and designated paths (separated from road).
San Francisco’s Online Bike Map includes an inset map marking bike parking, stations and lockers. It also distinguishes btwn bike lane, designated path, routes. Road grade is colour coded. It serves as a walking/running guide as well.
Melbourne also has an online bike map for the inner city available here
Other cities/sites to investigate further: Santa Barbara, Portland, Danish Bicycle Improvements (report that includes a chapter on successful examples of community based bike improvements), New York City award winning bike plan.
Portland has 200 km of dedicated bike lanes, Seattle has 144 km of bike paths and Toronto has 166 km of signed bike routes and 121 km of off-road bike paths. Toronto plans to build 1,000 km network for bicycling, half of which will be dedicated bike lanes. San Francisco, Chicago, and Montreal have all added bike lanes to downtown streets [3]
An interesting side note - there are free route mapping tools available online that riders/walkers can add their favourite routes to and view others’ favourite routes. An easy-to-use free route map generation tool developed in Poland is called Miejsce.info makes use of the Google Maps API to create maps.
[edit] lobby to get parking monies dedicated to TDM - Tess
Parking money is collected by campus security. The money is used to fund parking and security programs at UVic. Bill Johnstone is the operation manager for Campus security and can be contacted at wj@uvic.ca or 721-6062 for more information about parking money.
[edit] Brochure Material for Use in Orientation and Beyond - Chris and Mark
[edit] Possible Content Areas
- Getting to and from UVic
- Buses (overview, schedules, maps, tips)
- Bike Routes
- Using Electric bikes - TBD - Heather to contribute?
- Sharing cars
- Ride Share and Car Pool
- Victoria Car Share Co-op
- Bicycling
- Bicycle parking and security
- Secure lockups
- Best Places to park
- Bike repair on campus
- Need a bike? - SPOKES
- Bicycle parking and security
[edit] Teleconferencing
Teleconferencing systems can be rented from UVIC Audio visual services. There is a fair bit of information on their site.
If you need it for grad student related activities, the GSS says that: If you do a thesis at the GSS that requires long distance teleconferencing, you order the equipment and then bring a long distance phone card to make the call. Phone jack used must be coded for long distance and have a billing code that you can then pay so this must be arranged.
UVIC also has teleconferencing options in some classrooms (notably HSD has a teleconference meeting room). But the place to start is AV.
The new ECS building (engineering and computer science) has a 2 monitor facility that has been useful in thesis defence and collaboration with other research groups. My experience with using this facility has been that it can be a hit and miss thing to set up and get the right camera view or monitor display on each screen. Connecting to a remote facility is easy but getting things to display correctly is not always so. This could be helped by better instructions (a quick start) or perhaps a part-time trained resource person or two who was available as needed. Also, I believe the facility is not effectively used - it seems to be empty most of the time --Crb 06:51, 26 March 2007 (PDT)
[edit] Campus-wide UPass
The UPass has been extremely effective in getting students out of their cars and onto public transit. While staff currently qualify for a subsidized bus pass, this is not mandatory and the subsidy is not as great as that provided by the UPass. Other universities (e.g., UBC) are also mulling over the idea of extending their UPass system to include all people on campus. There may be a synergy possible if multiple BC universities were to work together on a proposal at a provincial level. The Transit Wiki has a page on UPasses across Canada. Note that the University of Texas funds a pass for its staff and faculty. Dan Pollock mentioned a univerisity in Canada that may have adopted a true campus-wide upass - TBD.
[edit] Unassigned
think about walking
Transit stuff: Fairfield service levels
