Jersey City Leads The Way In Cycling With New Municipal Secure Bike Parking System

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Cyclists in Jersey City are celebrating as the city moves closer to its proposed future of safe, equitable and sustainable biking. The city is teaming up with Oonee to bring 30 secure bike storage stations to Jersey City, making it the first city in the nation to implement a municipal secure, bike parking system.

Oonee is a Brooklyn-based company that specializes in secure urban bike storage. Oonee offers customizable storage pods meant for cyclists to use as secure parking. The exterior of the pods is used for branding and sponsorships of the city's liking.

In Jersey City, Oonee has 30 stations planned to eventually pop up across the city. One Oonee station is already in place in Journal Square. The Jersey City system will be powered via sponsorship and advertisement revenue and will be free for the public to use.

Jersey City issued a Request For Proposal last month for a comprehensive municipal bike parking system, the first RFP of its kind in the nation.

"We’re looking at this comprehensively as an option to provide bicyclists with secure storage to protect resident-owned bicycles from snow, rain, and other weather elements as well as potential bicycle theft or damage," said Jersey City Spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, "The proposal is part of the City’s Bike Master Plan where residents overwhelmingly agreed that if they had a secure storage for a bicycle, they would use a bike to get around the city much more frequently as an environmentally- and traffic-friendly alternative to using personal vehicles or mass transit."

Oonee's Journal Square station was a pilot program that helped give the company insight into demand for the system.

"The first phase of our work involved proving the viability of secure bike parking facilities in New York and New Jersey through four pilot facilities," Oonee write in a Medium post announcing the expansion, "In 2020, armed with the data generated from these pilots, we began working with local advocates and community leaders to explore pathways for rapid expansion."

Bike JC, Jersey City's leading and most vocal cycling advocates, retweeted Oonee's news when it was announced, congratulating both the city and company.

"The Jersey City gov’t put out an RFP for secure bike parking a while back, and we’re thrilled to see it becoming a reality," Bike JC tweeted, "Oonee has been tireless about community outreach and engagement, also making inroads in NYC, including the big bike pod at Barclays Center in Brooklyn."

The secure bike parking is part of the city's larger plan to expand safe cycling and reduce cars on the road. In 2020, Jersey City started a rollout of protected bike lanes throughout the city using planters, curbs, parked cars, or bollards to physically separate and protect bicyclists from passing traffic in the right-of-way. The push behind protected bike lanes is part of Mayor Steven Fulop's plan to rid the city of any traffic-related fatalities by 2026 — in 2018 Fulop signed an executive order committing Jersey City to this "Vision Zero." The executive order formed a task force that created the city's first-ever Jersey City Bicycle Master Plan.

In May, Jersey City and Hoboken came together to form a unified Citi Bike program. The program will place docks and 820 bikes across Jersey City and Hoboken to start, under a five-year agreement.

More Jersey City Bike Coverage:

• Jersey City Cyclists Bike To Work With Mayor Fulop
• Jersey City and Hoboken Unite Bike Share Programs
• Jersey City Named Safest City For Cyclists In NJ: Report
• Jersey City Mayor Fulop Honored For Cyclist Advocacy