Spring Fling Bike Valet 2017

Transcription

1 Spring Fling Bike Valet 2017

2 1. Project Members Parking and Transportation Services- they provide free use of bike racks placed in the middle of the bike valet. This has been a free service to the project every year. PTS will also help write survey this year. Office of Sustainability- The office will check in with the bike valet to make sure the event is running smoothly. Benjamin Champion, Director bchampion@ .arizona.edu; Julia Rudnick, Program Coordinator Rudnick1@ .arizona.edu; Spring Fling-Grant will oversee all bike valet and work directly with the UA Cycling Club. Grant T. Rees Spring Fling Club Relations Director, grantrees@ .arizona.edu The University of Arizona Cycling Club will staff the three day event. Joey Iuliano, President, Jiuliano88@gmail.com Green Team Support- Jamie Verwys, Green Team, jverwys@ .arizona.edu, Co-author Harrison Hughes, Green Team, hhughes@ .arizona.edu, Co-author 2. Abstract: Spring Fling is the largest student-coordinated carnival event in the United States. Spring Fling drew approximately 32,000 attendees last year, with a majority of those guests being UA students. Spring Fling will once again be held on the UA Campus this April. An event of this size has a large environmental impact through increased use of water, electricity, increased waste among other things. Conversely, this event provides an opportunity for the UA campus community including the UA Green Fund to demonstrate its desire to use sustainable practices to decrease the environmental impact of Spring Fling while simultaneously improving the experience of event attendees. This Mini Grant seeks $1,500 for the staffing and operation of a bike valet at Spring Fling. The goals of this project are 1) to reduce the environmental impact of an on-campus event that sees considerable community participation; 2) to reduce the impact of Spring Fling on adjacent neighborhoods in the form of vehicle traffic and on-street parking; 3) to provide a free and convenient bicycle parking option for event attendees; 4) to improve the student and community experience of Spring Fling; and 5) build on the enormous successes of the previous year s bike valet program. For Spring Fling attendees seeking a flexible, healthy, affordable, and sustainable transportation option, the bicycle valet is an unparalleled choice. Having a bike valet keeps the valuable bikes of guests safe, encouraging more guests to ride their bikes. 3. UA Student Involvement/Benefit a. Administrative Co-Leader: One student from the The University of Arizona Cycling club will work with Spring Fling Organizers and the Office of Sustainability to oversee the entirety of the project. This student will help arrange valet set-up, determine and assign student worker shifts, and provide expertise before, during and after the event on the needs of bike commuters to the Spring Fling. 1

3 b. Student Workers: Based on our previous years implementing the bike valet, we estimate 2-3 student workers from the Cycling Club will be needed for each bike valet for each shift. These student workers will be responsible for checking in bikes, creating and distributing valet tickets, answering questions and generally assisting guests with the bike valet. Any issues a student worker might face will be reported to the administrative colead. c. Experiential Learner: There are about 32,000 Spring Fling attendees who will have the opportunity to use the bike valet. It is anticipated that if the bike valet station is fully utilized with between 100 and 150 bicycles stored at the station at any given time, the number of Experiential Learners who directly use the bike valet station could number in the thousands for the duration of this three-day festival. 4. Project Timeline March - Coordinate and plan for site location bike ped rail installation with Spring Fling organizers and PTS. Start advertising bike valet. April - Set up bike valet station- 2 different rail systems needed- enclosure and bike. Run bike valet April 7th to April 9th, May - Report to Green Fund on success of bike valet project, as well as any new ideas to improve the bike valet during Spring Fling and beyond. 5. Marketing Part of the marketing for Spring Fling 2017, is that the bicycle valet station will be located near the entrance of the festival. The bike valet will be in the same location as previous years as fair attendees know to look for the convenient valet. There is ample space to set up and operate a 2

4 temporary bike valet station that is very conveniently located for Spring Fling attendees. The UA Office of Sustainability will hang banners and some directional signage that will point cyclists to the bike valet station and that will prominently advertise the bike valet station and the Green Fund s participation and support. The Spring Fling bike valet will be promoted through social media outlets, and the Spring Fling executive team will also advertise the existence and location of the bike valet station to encourage alternative transportation and this free valet service. All printed and digital media from PTS and the Office of Sustainability will prominently feature the Green Fund logo; the Spring Fling team operates under slightly different advertising rules and will advertise Green Fund support whenever possible. 6. Metrics a. Desired Impacts: The desired impact of this project is to provide Spring Fling guests a safe place to keep their bikes while they enjoy the event. This also furthers the UA s support of sustainable, healthy modes of transportation. This continues Sustainable UA s goal to keep campus events sustainable and as green as possible. Working off the successes of both last year and 2015, we hope to make the bike valet a normative feature of Spring Fling and continue to improve. b. Strategy: The UA Cycling Club will bring their expertise and passion for cycling to each bike valet station. Working in partnership with the Office of Sustainability, Spring Fling and Transportation, the club will work help create and implement strategies for the bike valet. c. Measurement and Reporting Plan: Each bike that is brought to the valet will be counted. Each of these bikes is another vehicle that has been removed from heavy traffic. Each car that is reduced will reduce carbon emissions. Last year, The Green Team designed and administered an ipad-based survey to collect vital data on participants and the bike valet program. We served over 140 people over the course of three days almost double the figure from 2015 (80 participants). Saturday was the most popular day, with 44 percent of all participants utilized the valet that day. 3

5 We think the bike valet could have served more people on Sunday, however, the fair was closed early due to a rainout. There were some technical difficulties that arose with the ipad based survey (internet connection was spotty), so this year we will go back to a traditional paper survey to gather feedback and data from participants of the bike valet. Budget The costs of running a bike valet are minimal, and include a club stipend; a recyclable paper based tag system; pedestrian rail barriers and bicycle racks; and marketing the special bike valet. We have seen a lot of success with the bike valet at Spring Flings in the past and know that this project is completely doable with the budget of $1500. The bike valet will be staffed every hour in which Spring Fling is open ensuring opportunity for all students, staff and community members can participate. Spring Fling is open for approximately 30 hours and the Cycling Club will be on site during this time. The cycling club will receive a club stipend that will allow them to help allay the cost of bike race travel for UA students. In years past, pedestrian rails were rented from a local company. Residence Life has graciously offered to let us use their plastic pedestrian rails. Unfortunately, they only have 9 rails and based upon experience we will need at least 15. Thus the rest of the budget will be used on purchasing pedestrian (Ped) rails. This will allow us to use the rails every year and not have to ask for money to support these operations costs in the future. Please see the attached spreadsheet. 4