Hello again, friends. We’re beginning to emerge from our winter hibernation with some cargo bike library updates for you!
- Name change and growth
- Booking Reopens April 15
- Orientations (April & May)
- Upcoming Events
1. Name change and growth
We’re excited to share that we’ve officially switched the name of our program to the Minnesota Cargo Bike Library to reflect some very exciting work to open locations in cities across the state of Minnesota! Stay tuned for more updates on those.
Our merch store has been updated with our new logo. Pick up a tshirt to help spread the good word of our cargo bike library. All proceeds go directly to support our program costs (bike repairs, insurance, etc.). We can also accept tax deductible donations here. If you have questions, ideas or feedback for us, please don’t hesitate to reach out via our site contact form. Thank you for your support!
2. Booking reopens: April 15
Although our library has been in hibernation over winter, our volunteer team has been hard at work through various mutual aid efforts to help our neighbors. Several of our bikes have been used to support, including helping to transport students to/from school when their parents weren’t able to leave home, to deliver groceries and other essential household needs. We are SO proud of the way neighbors across our city and state have shown up for each other and we cannot wait to formally reopen to ensure our cargo bikes can continue to support our community with mutual aid, commutes and daily life.
We are currently aiming to reopen our booking on April 15th with our first bikes going out the end of April or early May. We received a LOT of bike donations at the end of last season and will be working on getting all of those bikes onto the booking side of the website ahead of reopening booking. Last year our library launched with 3 bikes – this year we have 14! We’ll send another email with all of those updates on the 15th.
3. Orientations
As a reminder, to be eligible to borrow a bike from our program (for FREE!) you must first complete a 1 hour, in-person orientation. If you completed an orientation last year, you’re eligible to book bikes again this year. If you haven’t yet completed an orientation, you’ll need to do that to get access to our booking platform. We do still require participants borrowing from our Minneapolis locations to live within the city (bc we do not allow members to transport cargo bikes via car) and be 18+ years of age.
We have monthly orientations scheduled through the summer at the Lyndale Neighborhood Organization office. Our newsletter subscribers (you!) get first access! Registration for both April and May are on our site and you can reserve your spot now! Enter password: bikes! on Eventbrite. Public registration (if we have spots left) for April & May will open on April 1st at 10am. Registration for future orientations will open later this year.
4. Upcoming Events
30 Days of Biking Day Zero Ride: Tuesday, March 31 @ 5:30pm
Perennial Pastry Rides: Every Saturday in April @ 9am
April MCBL Orientation: Saturday, April 19th @ 10am (early access w/ password: bikes!)
Lyndale Wheels & Bikes Rodeo: Saturday, May 16th 11am-2pm (we’re hoping to do bike test rides at this event!)
May MCBL Orientation: Saturday, May 2nd @ 2pm (early access w/ password: bikes!)
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