Move with Aloha is comprised of the following three initiatives to ensure the welfare and safety of the campus community:

1) Share Zones (walk your wheels during high pedestrian traffic).
2) Sharrow Lanes (lanes shared by bicyclists and motorists).
3) Bicycle Routes (designated to support a safe commute to and from campus).

Share zones and sharrow lanes both involve ground markings which signal travelers to move safely and clearly designate a hierarchy of users whereby bicyclists yield to pedestrians in share zones and motorists yield to bicyclists in sharrow lanes.   Since the markings only involve no infrastructure or physical changes, their effectiveness will depend on our response as a community.

Transportation is a centerpiece to many of the problems we have here in Honolulu –traffic congestion and lack of parking; and in society at large – health issues from inactivity, high transportation costs, fossil fuel dependence, and global warming.   Non-motorized modes of travel such as walking and bicycling provide a low-cost solution to all of these big problems.

The Move with Aloha program represents a great addition by biggest traffic generator in the state.   It is a program that focuses on the sharing of common resources to enable rapid action.  The ‘sharrows’ epitomize this approach as they work to create bicycle-friendly roadways by adding paint to the ground; the University is acting as a laboratory for this low cost solution.

While Move with Aloha has much potential for encouraging and making safer non-motorized travel, it is also a program that epitomizes the HUB (Help Us Bridge) way.  When the Vice Chancelor of Non-Academic Affairs wanted to develop a program to deal with pedestrian safety, they reached out to the student and faculty community.  The program was developed between different University offices, including Facilities and the Office of Sustainability, students and faculty through the UHM Bicycle Committee and Cycle Manoa.  From broad program principles to the finite details all parties were involved in the development of Move with Aloha.  As an example of how this partnership worked, Cycle Manoa was asked to map the placement of the sharrows.  This took advantage of the student group’s extensive knowledge of cycling on the campus and feedback networks with the cycling community; and allowed the group to take the lead on one of the most important aspects of the program. The end result of the process is a great program and the development of partnerships that will undoubtedly enable further action.

The story of the development of the Move with Aloha program serves as a great example of the power of bridging across organizations and groups to create great outcomes for all.  As many challenges and opportunities sit before us, we must continue to engage and pursue action in a HUB way.  As mentioned in a previous blog and still in the works, the Office of Parking is in the process of getting a car-share program established at the University.  As this process moves further along, more potential for constructive collaboration definitely looms on the horizon.

cheers and happy travels,
Daniel Alexander
sUH Transportation Coordinator

A review from the SUH Transportation Team’s meeting.  We agreed on moving forward with two goals.
1.  Develop a list of sustainable transportation options we support with information about these options.
2.  From this list, determine projects, programs or policies that we can proactively pursue.

Anyone interested, in joining a SUH Transportation email list, email me.

Now, our first action is to survey the sustainable transportation options, determining which we support and why.   As a start, a list of sustainable transportation options has been created (linked below).  This is a starting point for research and will invariable be augmented (hopefully by a lot!).  Additionally, a template for write-ups on the topics has been provided.  This is designed to guide research and make the reports useful for SUH to present to the world.  While this is mainly directed at SUH interns, anyone that is inspired could help this effort!

cheers and happy travels,
Daniel Alexander
sUH Transportation Coordinator

sUH Options: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgnj6sb7_218c7x6s2dh
sUH Transportation Research: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgnj6sb7_219fjpk3jcm

Beneath is a summary of what’s going on in the next week.  *If you
would like to receive weekly emails about such things, email
danielal@hawaii.edu.

This coming up week we will have all our normal activities: Wednesday
Meeting and Open Shop, Thursday Kickstand and Sunday Bicycle Recycling
Workshop.   Plus we will have a ride event on Sunday.

Get to Know Manoa and Your Bike
Sunday 2pm meet @ the Baile/Manoa Gardens Courtyard
A fun ride into Manoa followed by Basics of Bicycle Maintenance hour-
long class.  Ride length and route will be determined based on
participants.  The class will be taught by a professional mechanic at
the Cycle Manoa workshop and will finish by 5pm.  This is a great
opportunity to learn some basic bicycle mechanics, ride with friends
and have some fun.

Meeting and Open Workshop
Wednesdays 5:30-8 @ the workshop
Discuss making the organization as great as possible.  Followed by
open shop time from 6:30-8.  Open shop time means that stands, tools
and knowledgeable volunteers are available to help you work on your
bike.

Kickstand
Thursdays 11-1 @ the Sustainability Courtyard
Flat tire, loose brakes, skipping derailer?   We can help and for
free.  We’re just hanging out and helping you with any basic
repairs.

Bicycle Recycling Workshop
Sunday 5-8p @ the workshop
Volunteer-driven and overseen by a professional mechanic, we turn
donated bicycles into student’s transportation.  Through the buddy
system, we pair high-level skills with lower level, this leads to
hands-on learning with a productive output.  For anyone new, this is a
great time to come participate and have fun with Cycle Manoa
regardless of skill-level or mechnical propensity.     Bbq and drinks
are provided.

cheers and happy riding,
Daniel Alexander
Cycle Manoa Coordinator
danielal@hawaii.edu

Here is a photo for the Solar Golf Cart project.

Happy Holidays!
Ken

HCC will be testing out a GreenCarts Solar Panel Roof Top to see how adding a photovoltaic system to their golf cart will decrease their energy consumption and help the school reach their sustainability goals.  The solar roof system provides a constant charge to the batteries while the golf cart is under the sun and allows HCC to use free energy from the sun to help run their campus golf carts.

We are currently finishing up the second week of testing the solar panel top on the campus security golf cart. The first week of testing was used to gather kilowatt readings that showed how much energy the golf cart consumed while being recharged overnight.  The second and third week of testing will focus on how many days the golf cart can be used with the solar panel top CONNECTED versus it being DISCONNECTED.

So far John, from campus security, has noticed that the golf cart runs smoother and has more power throughout the day with the solar panel roof.  He also shared that many of the staff and students have noticed the new look of the golf cart and like the concept of adding a solar roof to the school’s golf cart.

Thanks for reading.  I’ll be sure to update everyone after the testing is complete.

Tracy Ogihara
GreenCarts, LLC
Ken Johnson, HCC

For those who have been lucky enough to use a car-share program in cities like San Fransisco and Washington or even universities like Harvard and UC Berkeley, they know of the program’s many benefits.  If Shito and Sustainable UH are successful, UH Manoa students will soon be able to experience this awesome service.  Car-share programs, such as ZipCar, locate cars around town and allow for members to rent them for any time from an hour to a day.  The prices are cheap, normally around $10/hour.  And reservations are easy; they can even be made in real time with your iPhone.  This opens up a world of freedom for the non-car owner: trips to the grocery store or the beach are suddenly easily and affordably in reach. Rather than buy a cheap gas guzzling clunker, new students could use a ZipCar, which is fuel efficient and often a hybrid (we’re going to push for this of course).  Many people commute to campus because they might have a mid-day trip they have to take.  With car-sharing they could carpool, bike or take the bus to school and then simply sign out the car for their off campus errand or meeting.   Car-share programs allow people to not own a car.  Each car-share vehicle has been found to take 14 vehicles off the road.  This is more than just a personal benefit; not owning a car leads to less driving, more use of public transportation and bicycling.  This all equals healthier people and a healthier planet.  Shito hopes to have a pilot program launch in the year 2010!

While big dreams are in the works, Shito’s office is already addressing sustainable transportation.  The office has for some years set aside 300 parking spaces for carpoolers.   They have also provided UH Manoa’s Chancellor Hinshaw with one of only two plug-in hybrid cars that exist in Hawaii’s state fleets.  In the meeting, Shito also agreed to collaborate with Cycle Manoa to get all abandoned bicycles to the student organization.

On the student front, the group Cycling Manoa has been making it easier and more fun for students to get on two human-powered wheels.   The group, founded nearly two years ago, runs an ongoing bicycle-recycling program.  Using volunteer-power, Cycle Manoa members turn broke-down bicycles into sustainable transportation for students.  The group kicks off each semester with their Sustainable Transportation sale (aka bicycles).   The crowd of students is always giant and demand can never to be fully satisfied, but still the group tries.   Cycle Manoa also provides basic mechanic courses and offers students free self-empowerment repairs (aka you do, they mentor).  And even, finds time to do rides, host bicycle film nights and create crafts with random bicycle bits.

Keep tuned to the blog for the latest and greatest in sustainable transportation at UH.   Also, look for Cycle Manoa’s reviews on the UltraMotor A2B coming soon to this blog.