NYC recently undertook a citywide purging of all parking meters, replacing the old coin-and-post types with a lesser number of solar-powered Muni-Meters, which can dispense chits, service more cars and are easier to maintain. The downside: The removal of the old meters means there's far less places to shackle your bike up.

Luckily NYC's Department of Transportation, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Google, and Transportation Alternatives collaborated on last year's City Racks Design Competition and chose a winning design (which we showed you here). The designs have yet to see widespread installation, but Google is reportedly leading the way by installing them at their NYC headquarters.

While the winning design seems pretty decent, I'm not sure I trust any aesthetic judgement that was signed off on by a municipal NYC body--anyone remember that taxi logo fiasco? In any case, Cool Hunting's Brian Fichtner takes a look at some other neat bicycle rack designs from around the world. We would have preferred California-based Creative Pipe's more elegant Horseshoe Rack, below.

Incidentally, Creative Pipe has literally dozens of distinctive bicycle rack designs.

Check 'em out here.