Winning Bike Rack Design Revealed!

New York, meet the bike rack of the future. Today the DOT announced that after a lengthy design competition, a jury of six—including sodden cyclist David Byrne—chose "Hoop" (pictured) out of the ten finalists. It's the work of two Copenhagen designers, Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve. "Constructed of cast metal, the design is elegant yet sturdy enough to withstand New York cyclists’ harsh treatment," the DOT said in a statement.

Mahaffy and De Greeve’s design will now be the standard bicycle rack for sidewalks, with almost 5,000 expected to be installed over the next three years. Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives hailed the new design, saying, "The winning 'Hoop' design lets bicyclists lock more parts of their bike, and has a lot more panache than the current CityRack. With 'The Hoop' now in hand, NYC needs to make bike racks as ubiquitous as street lights." (Here are the second place and third place winners, who'll receive $3,000 and $2,000, respectively.) And here are Byrne's imaginative bike racks, which were installed around town outside of the competition.

The jury also selected two winners in the indoor competition, meant to inspire businesses to provide safe bike lock areas inside their buildings: "RSVP Studio of New York imagined a user-friendly system with ceiling mounted bungie-cords and a grooved floor. Its structural grid provides a secure yet flexible system that could be easily adapted to any building environment. And Jessica Lee and Anthony Lau of London created a system of three modular pieces that could be installed in an unlimited number of combinations to conform to rooms large or small, tall or short." Check out both innovative designs after the jump.

RSVP Studio of New York

Jessica Lee and Anthony Lau of London

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By John Del Signore in News on November 14, 2008 1:41 PM

Comments [rss]

glimpf

@ "What the article doesn't mention is that this bike rack is actually MAGNETIC. Bikes do not have to be locked directly to it. Only the owner of the bike can unlock the power of this very special magnet."

lol, but what are people with aluminum frames supposed to do, or is that part of the magic?

HUGO_MEGO

I like the buxom girl in the red shirt.

Kyle T

#7, what do you mead dibs on his wheel? This bike isn't even locked up, just ride the whole thing home!

Sweet photo of the rack in use.

FotoDogue

I like David Byrne's racks much better. They're funnier, more colorful, will hold more than a single bike, have multiple points to secure a bike, and seem at least as durable as the racks the City currently utilizes.

The only advantage the winning design has over the present racks is the closed loop design. If a thief uses his car to knock the rack loose from the sidewalk, he'll still have to detach the bike.

cool

aren't locked bikes easy prey for thieves? I don't understand the point of racks if the bikes are just exposed to the elements.

Headzo

What the article doesn't mention is that this bike rack is actually MAGNETIC. Bikes do not have to be locked directly to it. Only the owner of the bike can unlock the power of this very special magnet.

chelseaexile

Looks like you don't even have to lock your bike to this new rack.

stripe

that rack can be separated from the sidewalk in 5 seconds, unlike the U shaped design. I would rather lock to a street sign.

Rob T Firefly

Dibs on that guy's front wheel.

jackdonaghy

I prefered the Italian coil and the more practical, long rack from the Brooklyn company. The winner is still an upgrade, though.

WorksInDUMBO

you can't lock more than two bikes at a time to the current single upside-down U-shaped ones anyway.

JMH

Doesn't look bad, though it'd be nice to lock more than two bikes at once as mentioned above.

Presumably this will be in addition to, rather than replacing, other racks already available around town.