LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s been nearly a year since Louisville’s bike share program, LouVelo, ended.
The bikes have been sitting in storage, but now more than half the bikes have been donated to the University of Louisville.
Working in the UofL Bike Shop means fixing up bikes and signing out the latest addition to their fleet, 150 LouVelo bikes.
“It feels really good. It feels like we have a lot more capacity to help people get bikes if they need that. Before that, we were only working with an inventory of 100 or so, so it literally doubled our inventory and more,” said Sam Shaw, sophomore at UofL.
Shaw has been working in the bike shop for over a year and he said the job helps him get closer to people on campus
“I want to learn how to get better at working on bikes, and also it kind of connects me with the whole campus and the needs of what people need and want,” he said.
Shaw bikes to and from school every day, for sustainability and economic reasons.
“Biking is free. There is no charge to hook up your bike to a bike stand for the day and it just makes it easier to get around too. There are bike lanes for the most part all around campus,” he said.
The 150 LouVelo bikes are undergoing a rebrand. Then, any student, staff or faculty member can check out a bike for as long as a semester, each season.
“Think about something like an international student coming to the University of Louisville. If they’re here on an international visa, they probably can’t even get a driver’s license or have access to a car. Then, how do they navigate our city? I’d love for them to have another option besides walking or waiting for the bus,” said Justin Mog, Sustainability Coordinator for the University of Louisville.
The bikes are also contributing to the university’s carbon commitment. According to the UofL sustainability coordinator, about a quarter of the university’s carbon footprint comes from transportation, which it is working on reducing.
“But now we’re getting to the harder things to cut. So, we got more efficient with our energy use, we’ve added a little bit of renewable energy, we want to do more. The next big hard things are related to just daily behaviors like how I get around,” Mog said.
The LouVelo bikes sat in storage for almost a year, but now have a new place to call home.
“As we get more, the more happy we are to blast that this program exists and more people can get in here and get bikes,” Shaw said.
The city also donated about 80 helmets to the UofL bike shop. They are available on a first come first serve basis.
Students and staff interested in the bike share program can fill out the online form.