It's a fact: more and more people these days are relying on their bicycles to get around. A recent study by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics indicates that bicycling has become the second most preferable mode of transporation after the automobile, with 41.3 million Americans relying on their bike for transport. Not only is this good for bicycle manufacturers, but also for environmentalists and Landscape Architects who want to encourage "green" thinking on their projects. Case in point: the University of Minnesota, one of the world's largest universities, is a good example of a campus environment working to encourage "green behavior." With nearly 60,000 students, U of M officials were concerned about parking. As part of their solution, they elected to install 152 Cycle-Safe??????oe bike lockers. Officials realized early that an effective bicycling program would require more than the installation of a few extra bike racks. Students wouldn't make the switch from gas power to pedal power unless they knew their bikes would be safe when left unattended. They needed secure, dependable, easy-to-use bike parking. With the bike theft rate at a higher level than ever before, students who chained their bikes to racks, lampposts, or trees, could never be sure their bikes would be there when they returned. U of M's bike thefts reached 275 per year before bike locker installation. This figure has declined considerably thanks to the thief- and vandal-resistant bike lockers. Steve Sanders, Campus Bicycle Coordinator, says there's been a "great response" to the lockers, which are installed at 15 different locations across three separate campuses (East Bank, West Bank, and St. Paul). They are available to all faculty members and students for an annual fee of $66. Currently there is a waiting list in most locations for the lockers. This, coupled with the university's continued enrollment growth, led officials to order another 134 bike lockers last year. U of M's decision to provide secure bike parking helps strengthen local transporation initiatives. "The University is the third largest traffic generator in the state," said Sanders. "So the more people we can stop from driving, the better." Another university making the switch to bike lockers is the University of Washington-Seattle, which offers 362 lockers currently and may add more, up to a total of 500. Cycle-Safe, Inc., says its bike lockers are now the most widely used bicycle storage lockers in North America, although they are distributed internationally as well. They also claim that, in the 20 years these bike lockers have been on the market, not a single unit has ever been successfully broken into?EUR??,,????'??+and those installed two decades ago are still fully operational today. Each locker retails between $818 and $1,389. The company touts the manufacturing of its lockers as superior to standard sprayed-up fiberglass: they use a high-pressure, heat-molded, sheet molding compound similar to the process used in modern truck bodies, automobiles, snowboards and space shuttles. There is a large amount of funding available from the federal government to encourage transporation alternatives. Federal spending for bicycle and pedestrian projects increased from about $4 million in the late 80s to $239 million in 1997, due in large part to the Transporation Equity Act (TEA-21), which earmarked a potential $3 billion for bicycling inititatives nationwide. This is the legislation that allows bicycle-related transit projects to receive up to 95 percent of their funding from federal sources. Between 1992 and 2002, the Twin Cities are in Minnesota alone will have received more than $36 million in federal grant money for bike and pedestrian projects. For more information on available bike parking funding and bike lockers, visit these sites: www.cycle-safe.com www.tea21.org www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/septoct99/wykle.htm www.bikefed.org/summary.htm www.enhancements.org www.railstotrails.org www.fhwa.dot.gov/reauthorization