Colorado State University
IN-25: Innovation B

In 2014, CSU’s The Spoke opened its doors as an on-campus cycling and maintenance education training center operated by student workers. Since its opening, this living lab has provided free services to thousands of students, faculty, and staff in its brick and mortar location on the northeast side of campus. Due to its success, a student conceptualized and presented to the Alternative Transportation Advisory Board (ATFAB), a student fee board, which is a part of the Associated Students of Colorado State University (ASCSU), a pop-up mobile bicycle maintenance shop. This all-inclusive mobile bicycle shop, powered by a bike towing a 6’ bike trailer, could travel to high traffic bicycle trails on campus meeting students in their path of travel to engage in bike maintenance and safety. Bike surveys had shown that more bikes were parked in the South side of campus, and students would often not venture to The Spoke located on the North side of campus. Surveys also showed that our physical shop was mainly used by only a small segment of the student population, mostly first-year on-campus residents, so it was important to extend our reach to students in their second year or higher and all those living off campus. The mobile bike shop would not only broaden its reach to deliver services and engage with students, faculty, and staff, but it would bring attention to the physical bike shop location during times when the mobile bike shop isn’t available or nearby. In early 2018, ASCSU, CSU's student government, granted the Alternative Transportation Fee Advisory Board (ATFAB) $33,232 in student fee funding to fund the capital and labor costs to develop and manage the mobile shop as well as extend the hours of the current physical location. The shop was built and designed by an engineering student and economics student with support from engineering professors on campus. The Spoke Mobile Shop launched in August of 2018, servicing and rotating between ten different high-traffic bicycle locations, two hours each weekday, during the peak season of August- October and March-May. In that time span, both the physical location and the mobile bike shop engaged in over 6,800 bicycle maintenance educational encounters with on and off campus individuals, 94% of which are CSU students. The Spoke Mobile Shop has also more than doubled the number of employees working between the mobile and physical shop location. Due to the flexibility of the mobile bike shop to pop-up in high- traffic bicycle areas, much of the engagements come from individuals who pass by the mobile shop, who then stop to evaluate their bikes with available student bike technicians. Much like its physical location, The Spoke Mobile Shop offers free bike services and low-cost bike components if deemed necessary, lowering the barrier of entry to anyone - students, staff, faculty, community member, on- or off-campus - looking to bike around campus, or tune their bikes. This maintains a level of safety and comfort for anyone riding their bicycle on campus or in the community, ultimately reducing overall vehicle usage around the University. The Mobile Spoke is just one of many bike innovations that have helped CSU maintain a Platinum level Bicycle Friendly Campus designation. The fact that this innovation was entirely conceived, funded, built, and operated by students is a powerful testament to how empowering students can lead to successful outcomes.