“Also mentioned is better/more bike parking”

Yep. Working on that. And we passed a milestone in fall 2014 – we now have more 
free bike parking spaces on campus than we spaces for cars.
Roughly 13,100 bike parking spaces vs about 13,000 car spaces.

And we have already replaced all but about 600 of the old, awful bike racks on 
campus (you know, the wheelbenders, and the “wave” racks that are so popular 
with architects because they look pretty when empty).

Most dorms now have 1 bike parking space for every 2 residents (Sellery and 
Witte are notable exceptions, but there’s a $40 million project there that 
should improve bike parking there).

And we’re not done yet. Our goal is 14,500 spaces that all meet campus 
standards by 2017.
And we are on track to do that.

I’ve started working on UW-Madison’s reapplication to League of American 
Bicyclists for a better Bicycle Friendly University status (we were named 
silver in 2011), and honestly, more and better bike parking is the main 
obstacle to gold (or perhaps even platinum) status, imo.

But I’d welcome your comments here , or directly to me, about that.
Thanks,
chuck


From: Bikies [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robbie 
Webber
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2015 1:27 PM
To: Bikies
Subject: [Bikies] Survey of UW transportation issues

Very interesting responses. There are actually two documents: 
one<http://transportation.wisc.edu/files/SurveyReports/2014SurveyReportMain.pdf>
 is just the percentages of people that answered questions in a certain way, 
and the 
appendices<http://transportation.wisc.edu/files/SurveyReports/2014SurveyReportAppendices.pdf>
 include comments verbatim.

I found several things especially interesting.

Biking to campus is the second highest mode after driving alone for faculty and 
staff making over $55,000/yr

The comments section was especially interesting and had a number of strong 
themes:

  *   Faculty/staff that drive part way into the city and then either bike or 
take the bus,
  *   Faculty/staff that love the bus pass program,
  *   Faculty/staff complaining about the cost of parking on campus,
  *   Hospital employees overwhelmingly complained about parking, but many more 
issues than just the cost, although that was also the top complaint. Schedules 
or the bus and work not matching are significant problems.
  *   Hospital employees are much more outright hostile to UW Parking and 
Transportation Services than other groups. Many m ore comments that said, "We 
shouldn't have to pay to come to work."
  *   Faculty/staff that would like better transit options to allow them to 
drive less. These include longer hours of service/more frequency, service to 
areas that don't have it now, and more direct connections to campus from some 
areas. Also mentioned is better/more bike parking and showers.
  *   Students complaining about overcrowded buses. Faculty/staff too, but the 
#80 seems to be the biggest problem.
  *   Very few faculty, staff, or students use Monona Transit. More UW Hospital 
employees use Monona Transit.
I have a bit more sympathy for the hospital employees that work off hours, have 
to go to multiple locations of UW Clinics, or are "on call," so may not be able 
to plan travel easily.

But there also seem to be a significant number of people in both professional 
categories (I'm leaving out students) who need to be a little more creative 
about using more than one mode to get to work. Except for maybe living 
somewhere car-dependent (which is a different subject), there is nothing wrong 
with driving in from your home in the 'burbs or farther reaches of Madison, 
parking for free on the street, and then jumping on the bus or your bike for 
the rest of the journey. Many people have obviously figured that out, but many 
more just can't wrap their head around the idea that the journey to work can 
involve more than one mode.


Robbie Webber
Transportation Policy Analyst
608-263-9984 (o)
608-225-0002 (c)
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my 
employer or any other group with which I am affiliated.
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org

Reply via email to