Originally Posted by
roseskunk
howdy folks. i'm a prof at a small school in the south, and i'm very interested in starting a bike co-op here. whether it would be a part of the school depends on the interest, but i''m wondering if anyone has any experience with co-ops... either associated with schools or not. i'm in a small town of 8000, with another 8500 students. this would be a perfect town for riding, the winters are mild and the town is small enough to be able to ride from one end to the other in fifteen minutes. few people ride here though, as it's perceived as... well, i don't don't really know. everyone drives a truck even across campus when you can see the other building a few hundred yards away. i'm trying to change that.
i've been buying bikes on craigslist and giving them to students, but as you can imagine that gets expensive pretty quickly. and i think a co-op would be a great place to foster other alternative ways of doing things- energy for one, and a nice organic garden for another. maybe i'm just dreaming, but i think it could work, and if it can work here (in texas) it can work anywhere.
so, any advice would be appreciated. thanks!
longest running and most successful bike co-op I've heard of
http://www.brixtoncycles.co.uk/find_us.html
http://www.brixtoncycles.co.uk/news.html