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.
Results tagged “bikerack”
It's been a week and a half since the bike rack prototypes have been unveiled and already one of the models is broken! Reader Mick sent in a photograph (above, on the right) of the "cable rack" style prototype looking pretty unsecured.
The Department of Transportation's design competition for the next generation of bike racks entered its final phase yesterday with the installation of ten design prototypes around New York City. Nine of the ten finalists' prototypes were installed at Astor Place, and as of 6 p.m. yesterday they were almost entirely unused. It'll probably take a day or two before more cyclists discover the next-wave locking options in the Alamo island there, so for now it seems there's plenty of free parking.
Is there anything this city won't do for renaissance man David Byrne? The former Talking Head has been helping out with the DOT's search for new bike rack designs, and recently got inspired to sketch some imaginary bike racks named for New York neighborhoods and locations. Then, voila; David's dream is manifest, as he explains on his blog: "To my surprise, [the DOT] responded by saying, 'If you make these we'll put them up.' Holy Moses! I was over the moon — what happened to the legendary red tape and years of bureaucratic haggling I was supposed to go through?"
The ten finalists were announced today in the Department of Transportation’s search for new street bike rack designs. The city currently has nearly 4,700 boring old U-shaped "CityRacks" around town, but with a 75% ridership since 2000, that number’s not cutting it. The finalists will each receive an honorarium of $5,000 to produce two full-scale prototypes of their design. Whoever wins first place gets $5,000, and in exchange the city gets to keep the intellectual property rights to the design and start installing it. See New York's brave new world of bike racks here.
A study revealed that a lack of secure bike parking was the biggest reason why people don’t cycle to work. So the Department of Transportation is cooperating with Cooper-Hewitt, Google and Transportation Alternatives to organize an international design competition for the next generation of city bike racks. More than $50,000 in honoraria to develop prototype bike racks and $15,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top designs.
A group of business execs in the 34th Street Partnership are teaming up to build what would be New York’s first bikes-only parking lot; it would be located on space secured on West 33rd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.


