A study revealed that a lack of secure bike parking was the biggest reason why people don’t cycle to work. So the Department of Transportation is cooperating with Cooper-Hewitt, Google and Transportation Alternatives to organize an international design competition for the next generation of city bike racks. More than $50,000 in honoraria to develop prototype bike racks and $15,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top designs.

Contestants are asked to submit designs for sidewalk bike racks and to generate new concepts for bicycle parking inside commercial and residential buildings. Jury members include local celebrity cycling advocate David Byrne and international design superstar Duncan Jackson. Thirty-seven new bike shelters are being installing in the city, but the contest is intended to replace the standard U-shaped ‘CityRack’ seen all over town. (Find out how you can request a CityRack for your neighborhood.)

NYC currently has nearly 4,700 CityRacks and will continue adding at least 500 a year, but the DOT is looking for a new design because the boring old CityRack just doesn’t “fulfill its potential to be an icon for New York City cycling.” Designers are being encouraged to look to the city’s sleek new bus and bike shelters for guidance, but a glass bike rack is probably the wrong direction to go in. And winners of the In-Building competition may have their prototype installed inside Google’s Manhattan headquarters.