Mayor Adams will have the Tranzito.
Bike parking lockers built by transportation firm Tranzito are coming to hundreds of locations across the five boroughs next year, the Adams administration announced on Monday — finally picking a vendor after years of delays to efforts to bring secure bike parking to New York City.
The Department of Transportation announced its selection of California-based Tranzito, formerly known as BikeHub, to roll out 500 lockers, along with potential charging for e-bikes — 18 months after it began collecting proposals from potential vendors.
DOT did not provide a start date for the lockers or where they plan to put them beyond saying they would deploy them "equitably." The five-year contract starts in May, according to a notice published in the City Record on Monday.
New Yorkers take 600,000 cycling trips a day, according to DOT figures, but finding a safe place to park a two-wheeler can be difficult in a city where many people live in relatively small apartments. Other dense cities like London and Jersey City have run laps around the Big Apple when it comes to bike storage.
Mayor Adams, who once boosted a storage pod by another company, Brooklyn-based Oonee on the campaign trail in 2021, talked a big game on the issue but did little to move the needle. DOT rolled out a six-location pilot that petered out without follow-up during Adams's first year in office in 2022. In 2024, the agency announced it would bring 500 locations to the city in 2025 — a deadline it summarily missed as the effort got held up by city budget officials, insiders previously told Streetsblog.
Advocates accused Adams and his team of trying to claim credit while punting the actual groundwork to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
"It’s certainly good news this is finally moving. But it’s unconscionable the Adams Administration stalled the already-funded program for over a year and a half for no reason," said Jon Orcutt, a former DOT policy director during the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations, who now works as the Director of Advocacy for Bike New York. "The work of planning and implementation will of course fall to the Mamdani administration."
New York City leaders have talked about the need for secure bike parking as far back as the Giuliani administration. Studies have shown that a lack of safe places reduces cycling, safety and increases theft while hurting local businesses.
The city also has struggled to implement safe bike charging facilities — beyond plans and press conferences — as e-bikes proliferated over the past nearly decade and cheap lithium-ion batteries sparked deadly fires.
DOT set up a small pilot of battery swap kiosks last year, and allowed private property owners to install them in February. But the Fire Department set up so many regulatory roadblocks to make the process for landlords and business owners nearly impossible.
A separate program to deploy chargers on public housing campuses also fell through after Con Edison quietly backed out this year.
"Secure bike parking would be a game-changer for the affordability of New York City, giving many more New Yorkers the safety and peace of mind to get around easily and affordably," said Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas in a statement. "Getting around by bike is an inexpensive and fun transportation option, but right now, too many New Yorkers are unable to choose it because they can't afford the risk of having their bike stolen."
Adams's top transportation official at City Hall praised Monday's vendor announcement as another sign that the city keeps "innovating."
"One thing I love about our city is how we are always innovating. We’re constantly deploying new tools to make New York smarter, safer, and more livable — and Secure Bike Parking is a perfect example,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Jeffrey Roth in a press release.
