Minneapolis Bike Share Gets $1.75M Boost

MINNEAPOLIS - The Minneapolis bike share program received a $1.75 million grant Tuesday from Bike Walk Twin Cities, a federal source of funding to increase biking and walking and decrease driving in the metro.

The added funding brings the Minneapolis bike share program closer to the $3.3 million it needs to become operational.

The goal of the Minneapolis bike share program is to create the nation’s largest municipal bike-share system. Bikes would be available in downtown Minneapolis, Uptown and the University of Minnesota campus.

Bikers would either purchase a season pass for around $50 or pay $5 for one-day use. At the end of their bike trips, riders could then return their bikes to any one of 75 kiosks.

When completed, the bike share program will be run by the nonprofit organization Nice Ride Minnesota. Some kiosks could begin operations by the end of 2009, with a full launch expected in 2010.

Bike Walk Twin Cities is providing funding to two other biking and walking projects in Minneapolis:

• $400,000 for construction of biking improvements along portions of 17th and Bloomington Avenues. This bike walk corridor would stretch all the way from 24th Street to the city’s border with Richfield.
• $350,000 for pedestrian enhancements along 5th Street NE and 7th Street N.

Minneapolis ranks second to Portland, Ore. with 2.5 percent of commuters getting to work by bike, according to U.S. Census data.

The national average for bicycle commuters in the U.S. is only 0.4 percent.