With all the nice weather we've been having lately, I have been able to bike back and forth from work. There is a bike trail that stretches all the way from my house in St.Paul to the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Six miles is a long ride to campus, but I enjoy the beautiful trail on East River Parkway, spending less money on gas, and getting my exercise for the day! During the school year I bike a lot too. It's nice to hop on my bike when I'm running late for class and get there right in the nick of time.
I am not the only person that is taking advantage of the trails in the Twin Cities. Bicycling Magazine recently named Minneapolis the "Best Bike City in America"! While reading the article, I was surprised to find out that 8,200 people bike to work in Minneapolis during the summer. Here are some more fun facts about biking in the Twin Cities from Bicycling Magazine and Nice Ride Minnesota:
- Minneapolis and St.Paul have 84 miles of bike trails and 44 miles of bike lanes. Forty additional miles will be built this summer.
- There are 50 bike shops in the Twin Cities (one of those is Erik's Bike Shop, located on the U of M campus).
- Minneapolis is ranked second in the nation for the number of people who commute to work by bicycle. Census data shows that approximately 4,500 Minneapolis regularly commute to work by bicycle.
The Twin Cities just got even more bike accessible with its launch of the Nice Ride bike sharing program. Bike kiosks are scattered around the city, where you can pay to rent a bike for a couple of hours or up to a year. Eleven of the sixty kiosks are located on the University of Minnesota campus.
Williamson Hall Kiosk
Kolthoff Hall Kiosk
Being able to bike just about anywhere in the Twin Cities is one of my favorite benefits of going to the University of Minnesota!
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