NYC is turning 12,000 old parking meters into bike racks

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11 years 10 months ago - 11 years 10 months ago #1 by riada

In 2011, New York City decommissioned its last single-space parking meter. Many of the parking meters were sold, but discontinuing the use of single-space parking meters meant that there were thousands of iron poles sticking out of the sidewalks. Now the city has a plan for them: bike parking.

The city’s department of transportation has signed a $2 million contract to turn 12,000 old parking meter poles into bike racks. But is it worth the money? You bet, the New York Post reports:

Although the $1.9 million contract might seem like a lot, officials say that using existing infrastructure saves money because they don’t have to rip out the poles.

And because they’re made out of sturdy old parking meters, they are more difficult to steal.

The city already has about 200 parking meters that have been retrofit as bike racks. But with this new plan, the city will more than double its current number of bike racks.

The retrofitted racks will be designed and manufactured by Long Island-based Louis Barbato Landscaping.

They will look similar to more than 200 existing bike racks, also made from old parking meters, that feature a hoop-shaped rack fixed to the middle of the pole. Those racks are already up in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

And because they’re made out of sturdy old parking meters, they are more difficult to steal.

Meanwhile, the transportation committee of Manhattan’s Community Board 7 last night approved extending Columbus Avenue’s bike lanes north to 110th Street and south to 59th.

The full community board will vote on the extension on Feb. 5.


Nor but in sleep findeth a cure for care.
Incertainty that once gave scope to dream
Of laughing enterprise and glory untold,
Is now a blackness that no stars redeem.

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