As the city installs Pay Here stations in favor of individual parking meters along busy commercial corridors, any good urbanist might wonder to do with the vestigial metal “stumps” left embedded in the sidewalk as the old-style meters are decommissioned.  The Dept. of Transportation has come up with a remarkably elegant and logical solution by converting those stumps into bike racks. Even the design of the rack itself is pretty sleek.  This picture is taken on Main Street in Venice, where the racks are well-utilized at rush hour by environmentally-minded cyclists attending yoga classes at the Center for Sacred Movement.

A smart reuse of street space.

Grade: A

The DPW needs to rethink the design of its latest receptacles.

Meanwhile, just around the corner, the Dept. of Public Work’s Resource Program receives lower marks for its recent installation of clunky recycle and trash bins. Not only are they dingy and cheap-looking, they are strangely movable, sliding anywhere from one end of the block to the other over the course of the week. The outsized bins compete for space with newstands, trees, and other street furniture, encumbering the path for pedestrians. Plus the recycle bin is distinguished only by color and not by design, which almost undoubtedly results in a lower user awareness of their distinctive purposes. The openings to the recycle bin should be restricted to a slit (for newspapers) and a round hole (for cans and bottles).

Overall: Well-intentioned concept, but let’s improve the design and implementation before this innovation goes citywide. Grade: C+