On November 18th, we launched our Oonee Mini in partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and New York’s leading transportation advocacy groups. The Mini is the New York region’s first bike parking solution that is specifically designed for curbside use.
In this post, we’re going to share a few updates about what’s next and our plans to bring the Mini to neighborhoods around New York, New Jersey and beyond.
About the Mini
The Mini is a secure bike parking solution that is specifically designed for areas where larger designs can’t go. In the context of New York, Jersey City and other major metropolitan areas, this often means the curb.
The Mini occupies the “low density” category in the Oonee design family, a category which affords protected parking for six to 20 bicycles as opposed to the larger Pods and Hubs, which can accommodate a far greater numbers of bikes and scooters.
Key Features
Like its larger cousins, the Mini is designed to be automated, smart, beautiful, and highly functional. Key features include:
- Smart Access: The Mini operates via a smart access control system that will enable those with keycards and phones to unlock the kiosk. Manual keys will not be used. This approach will drastically improve the ease and feasibility of operations as well as the user experience. For example, lost keys can easily be replaced while new users can be given instant access without the need to mail a physical key.
- Rooftop Greenery and Solar: The Mini comes with an optional rooftop attachment that provides greenery and solar panels.
- Different Colors and Materials: Each Mini can be configured with different materials, textures and paints. This is designed to allow the Mini to complement virtually any architectural environment.
- Accessible Design: The Oonee Mini incorporates a low effort, minimal lift design. Cyclists will be able to roll bicycles in from the curb without lifting their micromobility vehicles and the Mini’s easy-open doors help streamline that process.
- Automated Door Closer: An automated door closer ensures that the door is properly secured in cases where the user does not properly close the Mini.
Purpose
The smallest Minis can hold six bikes, while the largest can hold 10. Minis can also be grouped together on the street for even greater capacities (i.e. 12–20 bikes).
The Mini fits the low-density category of Oonee infrastructure alongside the medium-density Pod and the high-density Hub designs.
Design History and Building Process
The Mini is based on a successful French design that has operated in Paris and other French cities for a number of years. Working with an existing design offers a number of advantages in the near term over starting from scratch.
First, the Mini has been tested at scale within rigorous urban environments across France, a fact that should inspire confidence in the United States and other global cities that are not accustomed to seeing these types of infrastructures.
In practice, this means that hardware durability, longevity, usability and reliability have been quality assured and vetted.
So what’s different?
In working with Altinnova, our French manufacturers, we sought to implement a number of design changes that would make the structure adept to the high standards of marquee urban spaces and to “ad-hoc” user operation. This includes custom textures, lights, a smarter locking system and rooftop greenery. These modular add-ons allow the design to thrive in a variety of architectural settings, site conditions and use cases.
Overall, the team spent months working with our partners in France to iterate and customize the design for deployments in New York and New Jersey.
Why this matters
While there are many scenarios in which larger bicycle parking facilities are needed, building a real network requires design solutions for all scenarios.
In New York, and many other cities, there are many neighborhoods that simply do not have room for larger bike parking facilities, this is especially true in residential neighborhoods with older housing stock that do not allow for convenient bike parking. In these cases, residents are often forced to lug their bikes up several flights of stairs or even keep expensive e-bikes secured to railings and poles outside.
The end result is that regular cycling is simply impractical for many who live in dense urban areas.
However, most cities have plenty of curbside space. In the New York City metropolitan region, this is typically utilized for car storage. The relatively recent Bike Corral program converts parking spaces to bike parking at the request of businesses and property owners, but these bike racks are only very short term options for cyclists as they offer no protection from theft, vandalism or the elements.
The Mini provides an upgraded solution for corral program with added security and sheltering for parked bicycles.
The Mini provides cities with an option to implement secure bike parking everywhere.
How it works
The Oonee Mini is designed to produce a seamless curbside experience for cyclists. Users open the Mini via a smartphone or keycard and slide their bicycles in on the track, which is at curb level. The track is designed to allow bikes to roll in with ease.
Once the bicycle is inside, the user can use the locking rack to secure their bikes into the Mini with their own lock. As with other Oonee designs, a user-provided lock serves as the final layer of protection against theft.
The sliding door are specifically designed to minimize disruption to the sidewalk and roadway, while external lights ensure that cyclists can easily identify Mini’s during evening and nighttime hours.
What’s Next
We have produced two prototypes ahead of our first order of units; these prototypes will help us refine the design, features and customizations for the units that will be scaled across the New York and New Jersey region.
The first prototype, currently in Domino Park, will move to different locations within the region over the next few months in partnership with a number of community partners and city agencies.
We will have updates on this front soon.
We are also happy to announce that we will be hosting focus groups and demos with policy leaders, advocates and cyclists at each location starting next week in Domino Park. We will have updates on timing soon.
The subsequent prototype will be headed to Grand Central for a rollout with the MTA Metro-North Railroad. The Mini will be the first bicycle parking facility at a major New York City commuter rail hub.
The next generation of Minis, which will be placed shortly, will provide capacity for Jersey City and other New York area deployments.
Frequently Asked Questions about the Mini
We’ve received quite a few questions about the Oonee Mini and what’s next for this new design. Below are some answers
Q: What kinds of bicycles fit the Mini?
A: The prototypes are designed to fit road bicycles, hybrids, cruisers and smaller mountain bicycles. This also includes most versions of e-bicycles. The Mini comes with adjustable loading tracks that can be altered to fit most types of bikes depending on demand.
Q: What about cargo bicycles?
A: Cargo bicycles are growing in popularity for good reason; they’re the bicycle equivalent of a heavy duty SUV. While the prototypes do not currently accommodate cargo bicycles, we are working on a version of the Mini that will accommodate these larger bikes.
Q: Is the Mini customizable? Can I have a version without the green roof or one that features perforated siding?
A: Like all Oonee infrastructure, the Mini is designed to be completely customizable, with swappable options that include customized siding, rooftop options, along with custom textures, colors and lighting configurations
Q: How do the Mini’s get maintained?
A: In service areas, the Mini’s will be maintained and operated by Oonee as part of our broader maintenance agreement with municipalities and property owners. On occasion, we may work with Community Based Organizations to provide supplemental support and logistical assistance for maintenance and upkeep.
Q: How will the Mini’s be paid for?
A: Our goal is to deploy thousands of Mini’s. In cities like New York and Jersey City, many Mini’s will be financed by advertising revenue from larger pods and other deployments in commercial areas. Mini’s in residential areas will operate without advertising.
Q: Can I purchase a Mini for my street or property?
A: We are working with cities to determine how Mini’s can be permitted on residential streets. We hope to have an update on this front soon. In cases where Oonee is operating with a citywide contract, we will provide a number of free Mini’s to residents in conjunction with approval from city officials. Other residents and businesses will be able to purchase subsidized minis at a discounted rate.
We expect to have an update on this front soon.
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