Nice rack!
New York cyclists soon will tie their bikes to this cast-metal beauty, winner of a $10,000 prize in the Department of Transportation’s bike-rack design competition.
The racks, circular with horizontal bars that make them look like the Greek letter theta , will be installed on city sidewalks over the next three years.
Officials plan to install 1,250 racks yearly at a cost of $275 apiece.
The winning rack was designed by Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve of Copenhagen, Denmark, a country famed for its bike-friendly transportation system.
Danish Consul General Torben Getterman said at the award ceremony that 35 percent of his compatriot commuters get to work by bike.
“This is a simple yet astonishingly beautiful design,” Getterman said. “I hope it will make the biking experience even better.”
More than 200 people from 24 countries entered the competition. In return for their $10,000 prize, Mahaffy and De Greeve gave the city intellectual-property rights to their design.
Outside the competition, the city tested nine designs by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.