The Beauty for the BEAST bicycle art exhibit is now up! Don't miss your chance to go see it. The exhibit includes custom steel bikes from Peacock Groove, http://www.peacockgroove.com/, posters from ARTCRANK, http://www.artcrankpostershow.com/, custom helmets, and other bike related art.
If the photos below don't get ya I don't know what will!
What: Minneapolis' first ever hardcourt bike polo tournament.
Where: McRae Park Hockey Rink at 46th and Chicago Ave S.
When: Sunday July 12th from 1pm to 8pm?
The hell is bike polo you ask? Watch this video to get a taste. Think hockey on bikes.
http://vimeo.com/2778469
As part of the Bicycle Film Festival there will be a Co-ed bike polo tournament. There are players from Boston, DC, LA, and Milwaukee in town to play.
Come down and watch a really fun sport and cheer us on.
More info including a map to the location of the court can be found at
http://mplsbikepolo.com
Join your neighbors for a leisurely
BIKE RIDE
(to downtown and back),
5pm, Friday, May 15th.
Meet at the intersection of Summit Avenue and Mississippi River Boulevard.
We’ll stop midway and/or at the end of the ride for a little food and beverage.
(Rain Date—May 16th @ 3pm)
Celebrate Bike to Work Day!
Celebrate the end of classes!
Meet other cyclists!
Celebrate Bicycling!
While it appears that for now BEAST is one step ahead of the U. of MN in terms of bike-sharing, things might be changing soon. Check out this massive new project the university is embarking on!
peace,
joe
State-of-the-art U of M bike center and 1,000 bike sharing program receive Bike Walk Twin Cities federal grants
~ President Bruininks, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Lea Schuster of Transit for Livable Communities to speak at Tuesday announcement ~
When: 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 10
Where: Oak Street Parking Ramp, 401 Oak Street S.E., Minneapolis
Who: President Robert Bruininks and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak
Contacts: Ryan Maus, University News Service, (612) 624-1690, maus@umn.edu
Katie Eukel, Transit for Livable Communities, (651) 767-0298, Ext. 115
Cathy Kennedy, (612) 309-3951, cathryn@cathrynkennedy.com
Two innovative bicycling projects -- a new U of M Bike Center with a first-of-its-kind rider frequency program and a 1,000 bike sharing program in Minneapolis -- are among the more than $4 million worth of biking and walking improvements which will be announced by Tuesday by Bike Walk Twin Cities, a federally-funded initiative to increase biking and walking and reduce driving in Minneapolis and neighboring communities.
University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will be the featured speakers at a special announcement ceremony beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 10 at the site of the to-be-opened U of M Bike Center in the Oak Street Parking Ramp, 401 Oak Street S.E., Minneapolis. Lea Schuster, executive director of Transit for Livable Communities (TLC), will announce a total of six Bike Walk Twin Cities projects, including grants to St. Paul and Edina. TLC is the nonprofit organization designated by federal law to administer the $21 million Bike Walk Twin Cities initiative. Bruininks and Rybak will speak about how these biking innovations will help transform the U of M and the city of Minneapolis into more bike-friendly environments.
On display will be renderings of the state-of-the-art U of M Bike Center, a demonstration Bike Share security bike and more information on the U of M's pioneering "Radio Frequency ID" (RFID) technology. The RFID system, set to be implemented for the first time ever at the U of M, effectively solves the longstanding problem of bicycle commute trip validation.
Representatives from the City of Minneapolis and Nice Ride Minnesota, the nonprofit organization that will administer the Bike Share program featuring 1,000 bikes at 75 kiosks across the city, will be on site to provide more information.
----------
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
(10-08) 19:16 PDT -- The $700 billion bailout bill intended
to stop the tailspin of the nation's financial sector did
something else: It includes federal tax benefits for people
who commute by bike.
Starting in January, workers who use two-wheelers as their
primary transportation mode to get to and from work will be
eligible for a $20-a-month, tax-free reimbursement from
their employers for bicycle-related expenses. In return,
employers will be able to deduct the expense from their
federal taxes.
"It significantly legitimizes bicycling and elevates it to a
credible commute mode, like riding a bus or train," said
Andy Thornley, program director for the San Francisco
Bicycle Coalition.
The money could be used to purchase, store, maintain or
repair bikes that are used for a substantial portion of an
employee's commute.
Bike advocates have been trying for seven years to get such
a provision passed in Washington, but came up short until
Congress rushed through the Wall Street bailout package last
week and lawmakers squeezed in pet projects. The bicycle
benefit was championed by members of the Oregon delegation.
Backers estimate that the federal tax rolls may lose out on
about $1 million a year due to the new employer write-off,
according to the advocacy group League of American
Bicyclists.
Willy Dommen, 49, regularly rides his bike from his San
Anselmo home to his job as a management technology
consultant in San Francisco's Financial District. He said
the $20-a-month perk for cyclists won't amount to much in
term of covering actual expenses. But, he said, it will help
raise awareness of bicycling, "and that recognition is
great."
San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi plans to introduce
an amendment to a law he sponsored earlier this year that
requires all but the smallest businesses in the city to
provide their employees with incentives to get them out of
their cars and onto transit.
Under the city law, which will take affect next summer after
a six-month public education period, employers with 20 or
more employees will have to offer their workers transit
passes or vanpool reimbursements or offer them door-to-door
shuttle service, or set up a program in which employees
could tap into an existing federal program that provides tax
breaks for those who commute on transit. Mirkarimi hopes to
add the new fringe benefit for bicyclists as an acceptable
alternative.
"It's another opportunity to encourage good commuting habits
," he said.
The federal bike bill would not allow participants to tap
into both the transit credit and the bike reimbursement.
Yesterday during the race the sun was welcoming and the wind not so much. But despite the wind we had around 30 people show up and about 20 people enter the race.
We had about 30 people show up to the alleycat race yesterday and about twenty people enter the race.
Check out this great event our friends at MacBike are putting on this week!
here is the file as a pdf
Yes it is official, the long and awaited bike share program finally started yesterday.
For those of you who don't know about the bike share program, it began as a vision about two years ago. Work had been done off and on for the last two years, and a lot of the key framework had been completed. Only until this past summer though, did it turn into a reality that BEAST might be able to get this thing going in the fall. BEAST has been working tirelessly this fall to construct an official bike checkout system that is free for all to use. With the help and support of many other people at St. Thomas and in the community the final piece of this enormous puzzle has finally come together.
We launched the program yesterday with 8 bikes. We had somebody check out a bike within hours after the ribbon cutting! We envision the bike share program growing much larger than 8 bikes. We look to expand to over 15 bikes very shortly.
Bike Share
(The bikes, after the bike share program launched on Wednesday)
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