On May 1st we’ll hit a big milestone: one month since our cargo bike library opened! To better understand our pilot program’s impact, we’re collecting lots of data. Here’s a very early snapshot:
In the first 3 weeks we have…
-welcomed 30 MCBL members through 3 orientations
-loaned bikes to 6 people (one week each)
-celebrated our members riding 248 miles over 45 trips (and 6 rentals)
-added 2 more bikes to our library (thank you Bunch and Lectric!)
We can’t wait to see what our data looks like at the end of this pilot year (late fall)! In the meantime, we have some updates for you all including…
- New Bike Day: Lectric Trike!
- Nation’s greatest cargo bike library?
- Booking and orientation updates
- Upcoming event: May 4th Wheels & Bike Rodeo
- Support our library
New Bike Day: Lectric Trike
We welcomed a new Lectric Trike to our library (thank you to Lectric for this generous donation to our program!). This bike is bookable now for all MCBL members (those who’ve completed orientation & created an account on our site).
Nation’s Greatest Cargo Bike Library?
Two of our library bikes were rented this week by Doug Gordon and Sarah Goodyear, nationally recognized advocates who work to highlight the importance of reducing car dependency. They were in town for a live podcast taping at the Cedar Cultural Center, where they told a sold out house of 500+ people that our program is the nation’s greatest cargo bike library! High praise.
Booking & orientation updates
Our new Lectric Trike and Bunch Bike are both now bookable on the site for all MCBL members (those who’ve completed orientation and created an account). We currently have bookings for all bikes set through the end of May and will add June bookings sometime in mid-May (announced first via our newsletter), and likely monthly from there until late fall.
The Aventon Abound and Abound SR are fully booked through the end of May, but we have lots of availability for our Kona Ute (NOT electric), Lectric Trike and Bunch bike.
If you aren’t yet an MCBL member, our next orientation (Tuesday, May 20th 6pm) has 3 seats available! Register here (ASAP as these tend to go VERY quickly)! As we’ve mentioned in previous updates, we’re taking it slow with adding more orientations due to our limited number of bikes. We don’t want folks to take the time to attend our orientation and then not get to rent a bike all year because our bookings fill up too fast and we don’t have enough bikes for everyone. Thanks for your patience with us as we work to grow this community resource as sustainably as we can.
Upcoming event: May 4th Wheels and Bike Rodeo
On May 4th our partners at the Lyndale Neighborhood Association are hosting a fun community event called the Wheels and Bike Rodeo. We’ll be there with our Bunch bike, stickers, coloring pages and info on our program. Join us on Sunday, May 4th from 11am-2pm at Painter Park (620 W. 34th St, Minneapolis).
Support our library
We’ve received many questions from folks who are excited about our program and want to know how they can support us. A few opportunities:
- Consider making a financial donation here.
- If you have ideas, connections or opportunities please contact us directly.
- Share about our program (with friends, family, local elected officials, etc.) – in person and on social media. We’re on Bluesky, but feel free to share about and link to our website on any platform you use.
Thank you!
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