C-U Metro Unemployment and Transportation

In this post we have the latest area unemployment data and comparisons (also what the federal statisticans call our metropolitan statistical area"), MCORE updates with links to getting around closures and construction, and new electric rental bikes from VeoRide.

First the local unemployment in the Champaign-Urbana metropolitan statistical area remains low even compared to other area areas. Champaign and Urbana are even lower:

February jobless rate up in C-U, down in Danville over 2018
The unemployment rate in the Champaign-Urbana metro area increased slightly in February compared with a year ago, from 4.4 to 4.8 percent...

The Champaign-Urbana metro area lost 400 nonfarm jobs in the past year, declining from 111,200 to 110,800, and the Danville metro area lost 600, declining from 27,600 to 27,000.

In the C-U metro area, job gains were reported in the government, financial activities, professional and business services, and other services sectors, while declines were reported in the education and health services, wholesale trade, retail trade, and manufacturing sectors.

More information at the full article here. The federal statistics define the "Champaign-Urbana metropolitan statistical area" as a fairly large area that includes Ford and Piatt Counties as well. Here's a snip from the Census map of MSA's in our area:

Nobody could blame you if you consider whoever came up with that "metropolitan" description to be a few metros short of a metropolis.


Closer to what some of us might call a metropolitan area, albeit with a chuckle, there was also some news updates on transportation in the Champaign-Urbana local area. This includes an MCORE project update and electric rental bikes coming this week from VeoRide in the News-Gazette today. On MCORE:

Latest phase of MCORE work creating chaos for UI pedestrians
Phase 4 of the MCORE transportation project has taken over a well-traveled section of the University of Illinois campus, and it appears to have caught lots of people off guard.
UI communications instructor Tom Costello, who works in Lincoln Hall, has witnessed students and faculty climbing over chains used to rope off areas and struggling to find a way into buildings, with "no signs and no idea of where to go or how to get there."
...
The $47 million MCORE project — short for Multimodal Corridor Enhancement — is designed to improve safety and transit for pedestrians, bikes and buses in central Champaign-Urbana, with help from a $16 million federal grant. Three phases are complete, including sections of Green Street from the Illini Union to Lincoln Avenue in Urbana and from First and Neil streets in Champaign...

This new $13.2 million phase — repaving Wright from Springfield Avenue to Armory and repaving Armory from Wright to Fourth Street — is scheduled to last through December 2020. But the sections now being worked on will be completed by next fall, she said...

The Facilities and Services website has an item about the project with links to maps for each building and accessible routes, as well as the MCORE website. 

More information at the full article here. Accessibility information and maps at the Facilities and Services website here and the MCORE website here. [UPDATE: Tom's Mailbag had a specific question and answer on bagged parking meters and wheelchair access with the MCORE work on campus here.]


On VeoRide launching electric rental bikes:

VeoRide's electric bikes make C-U debut near UI Undergraduate Library
...
A few of the bikes were available near the University of Illinois' Undergraduate Library Monday, and a full launch is planned for Wednesday, said Ben Thomas, the company's local general manager.

"We are putting bikes out starting today," he said Monday. "We are having a launch this Wednesday on campus."

The electric bikes are identified in the VeoRide app with a lightning bolt symbol and cost a dollar to unlock.

After that, they run 15 cents a minute...

VeoRide plans to replace 150 of its 500 bikes in Champaign-Urbana with the electric models.
The company doesn't need permission from the cities of Champaign and Urbana or the University of Illinois, as the intergovernmental agreement that created the dockless bike-sharing license allowed for electric versions...

The cities and the UI would need to approve adding electric scooters, which have popped up in cities around the country in the past year, including in Indianapolis.

Full article with more details here.