Starting this fall, student tenants will be able to borrow bicycles. Through a partnership between Skövdebostäder and Praktiska Gymnasiet in Skövde, abandoned bicycles will be put to good use.
There are many abandoned bicycles in Skövdebostäder’s neighborhoods. These are bicycles that no one has used or claimed for a long time—but which, with a little maintenance, can be made fully functional again.
– Thanks to the bike bank, we don’t have to throw the bikes away. We’ve partnered with Praktiska High School, and their students help us with maintenance, repairs, and repainting. The bike bank is part of our sustainability efforts and is aimed at our approximately 1,000 student tenants. A large proportion of them move here from other parts of Sweden and around the world, and through the bike bank, students can borrow bikes for free. We’ll start small with five bikes and then hopefully expand over time,” says Mahnaz Fakhari, coordinator at Skövdebostäder.
A Smooth Student Life
Skövdebostäder has long offered bike-sharing programs for tenants. There, tenants can borrow cargo bikes or electric bikes for short periods of time.
– The bike bank focuses on long-term rentals of regular bikes. Here, tenants pick up their bike at the start of their studies and then return it when they move out. “This is much easier for students than buying their own bike, and hopefully we’ll avoid having as many abandoned bikes when they move on,” explains Mahnaz Fakhari, coordinator at Skövdebostäder.
Committed to Cycling
The Bike Bank isn’t the only initiative Skövdebostäder has launched in recent years.
“We want to make it easy for our tenants to choose cycling because it’s good for both the environment and their health. For example, we have stations equipped with tools where people can repair and maintain their bikes. We’ve also organized bike-themed days. Providing good, secure bike storage in our neighborhoods is another important issue,” says Mahnaz Fakhari, coordinator at Skövdebostäder.
Mahnaz Fakhari, a coordinator at Skövdebostäder, has led the project. Here she is at Kurorten, one of the student neighborhoods that will have access to the bike-sharing program.
More information will be provided
The bike-sharing program will launch this fall, but we don't know the exact date yet. We'll post more information in the neighborhoods about the launch date and the practical details of how to borrow a bike.
