Nice pod, bro.
A bicycle vault coming to the streets outside Atlantic Terminal Mall this spring will provide a new, hip way for cycling commuters to stash their pedal-powered rides, according to the Brooklyn-bred startup dude who dreamt up the high-tech storage system, which he said is too awesome to call a garage.
“This is not some cage that you stick into the corner of a parking lot,” said Shabazz Stuart, who grew up in Crown Heights. “This is something that looks iconic and has an architectural significance. We call it a pod.”
Stuart, the founder of Brooklyn Navy Yard–based tech-storage company Oonee, will install his so-called Oonee Pod — a modular shed-like structure he said can be configured to securely shelter between 20 to 50 bikes at a time — near the massive shopping center and transit hub at Atlantic Avenue and Fort Greene Place.
Borough cyclists who register their bikes on Oonee’s website can fork over $1 for a day in the gara… pod, which they can book using an app called Brivo Onair. And true pod people can drop $4.99 for a monthly subscription that offers unlimited access.
The company can offer those low rates to customers because it leases the exterior walls of the cag… pod to advertisers, according to Stuart, whose firm is currently working to seal the deal on a partnership that would cover the structure in ads he said locals will appreciate.
“It’s an experiential, guerilla-style marketing piece,” Stuart said.
And the storag… pod is insured to cover the value of any stolen bikes, according to the entrepreneur, who noted no two-wheelers have disappeared from the city’s pilot Oonee Pod since the company installed it near its Navy Yard headquarters last year.
In fact, preventing bicycle thefts is what got Stewart into the business, after crooks made off with no less than three of his two-wheelers over a five-year period, he said.
“I’ve had three bikes stolen,” Stuart said.
