The University of Minnesota is embracing the concept of reuse-recycle to encourage students to use bicycles to access campus by repurposing an old bus center in the Oak Street Ramp to become a bicycle center.
This project, like many others in the Twin Cities, is being supported via a grant from the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program.
The new center will feature secure bike parking, showers, and other amenities, much as is offered by the popular Midtown Bike Center on the Greenway, which has proven popular with Minneapolis bicycle commuters.
Use of the facility to park will incur fees – but the annual fee will be much less than even the monthly cost to park in similar university facilities. Bicycles already account for more than 10% of campus trips, and such facilities will help encourage students, faculty and staff to increase this number and reduce traffic congestion in what is a very busy area.
Image by Steven Vance, via Flickr
