I have ridden several folding bikes but have owned two. One was a Dahon Vitesse 5 on which I commuted for about a year and a half. The other was a 1970s Chiorda I found in the trash on a Jackson Heights curbside. I rode the bike a couple of times before I gave it to a local mechanic who gave it to his girlfriend.
Neither of those bikes bore any resemblance to this one:
In October, I wrote about a bicycle parking locker the Brooklyn startup Oonee installed by Grand Central Station.
Now, the company’s founder, Shabazz Stuart (cool name, isn’t it?) is taking his idea “on tour,” if you will. Yesterday, the parking pod was brought to Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, where it will remain for a month. Following that, it will go across town to the Lower East Side and Union Square before crossing the bridge in June to Stuart’s home borough of Brooklyn, where it will spend a 29-day “residency” on Vanderbilt Avenue—near Barclays Centre, Atlantic Terminal and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Finally, it will trek up to my home borough—Queens—and my neighborhood, Astoria. At each location, the city’s Department of Transportation will grant access to a spot on the curb for 29 days.
The mini pod is free to use but requires an Oonee membership, which allows access by a key fob or mobile app.
Although its scale, at the moment, is small, Stuart calls it “ powerful step forward.” He notes that this pilot marks “the first time any big city in the United States has had a secure bicycle parking facility on the curb.” He plans to expand his idea to other parts of the city and to cross the Hudson to Jersey City and other parts of the Garden State.
One of my recent posts is titled “Paint Is Not Infrastructure.” Too often, planners and policy-makers act as if painting lines on a road shoulder makes a bike lane, and that bike lanes are the beginning and end of bicycle infrastructure.
At least some folks in Louisiana understand as much and are enlisting business owners. Bike Baton Rouge and Bike Easy, advocacy organizations in the state’s capital and largest city (New Orleans) are partnering to create a network of emergency pit stops for cyclists in their cities.
The two groups are working to secure sponsorships from ten businesses in each cities. The money will be used to purchase emergency supplies that will be housed in bundles housed at the sponsors.
The plan is to form a web of businesses where cyclists who need spare parts, air for their tires or even sunscreen can stop.
This, I believe, could help to ease the anxiety some people feel when they consider commuting or even recreationally. As an example, I’m often asked, “What if you get a flat?” or “What about the weather?” when people learn that I pedal to work, school or anywhere else.
I also can’t help but to think that at least one business owner will see an opportunity. If someone riding to work or school stops to pump a tire, get sunscreen or simply to rest at, say, a store, there’s a good chance that cyclist will return to shop.
