CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) — U of I Facilities and Services (F&S) announced that they will perform a Campus Bicycle Census on Wednesday, April 26 from 10-11 a.m. with Champaign County Bikes and volunteers from the community.

F&S officials said the data collected by the group will update the university bicycle database, which is used to identify high-ridership locations for mobility, safety, and infrastructure improvements, including bike rack upgrades and complete street projects. Previous censuses on campus counted more than 5,000 parked bicycles over one hour.

F&S said they will incorporate the information into the interactive Campus Bike Parking Map to help riders find more than 500 parking areas on campus. They said the data will also help assess the impact of the on-street lane and pathway improvements, parking upgrades, and expanded programmatic efforts, such as online bicycle registration.

“During the last census in 2021, the number of bicycles on campus gave us a unique look at how many students, faculty, staff, and visitors were continuing to regularly use infrastructure throughout the pandemic,” said Sarthak Prasad, a sustainable transportation assistant for F&S. “This year’s effort is expected to yield results at traditional levels and help us to better understand how individuals are interacting with an expanded bicycle network.”

In 2019, F&S said the university achieved silver status from the League of American Bicyclists for taking significant steps to address health and environmental challenges by creating safer, more welcoming, and accessible areas for people who bike. They said this year’s bike census is another step toward becoming a gold-level Bicycle Friendly University, which highlights the campus’ ongoing leadership in active transportation and sustainability.

Volunteers to participate in the census can sign-up online. Officials said additional instructions will be given at a required virtual training session at 9 a.m. on the day of the event. Volunteers may bike or walk around the campus to look for off-rack and on-rack bicycles.