Where one car equals 10 bicycles

There’s a new way to score curbside parking in Tel Aviv, where spots are harder to find than raindrops in summer: Ride a bike.

The city is this week introducing Henyofan, a new device for maximizing its bike parking possibilities.

The term means very little in English, but in Hebrew is an acronym of henyon — parking — and fan, from ofanayim, the word for bicycle.

The Henyofan is a car-shaped bike rack that can fit 10 bikes. It’s placed in parking spots, symbolizing that bikes are more efficient than cars, said Merav Moran, the Henyofan founder.

The City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is trying out six Henyofans for now; the first is parked on Rechov Ha’arba’a Street, across from the Cinematheque movie theater. A second will be set up on Rothschild Boulevard, plus one on Herzl Street, two on Sheinkin and another on Dov Hoz.

The city is following London, Boston, Buenos Aires, Vienna, Copenhagen and Seattle in providing bike-friendly parking.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai called the city a pioneer in promoting bicycle riding in Israel.

“We hope this device will push residents to abandon their cars and to pedal,” he said.

According to Huldai, Tel Aviv now has thousands of residents who use bikes to get to work, school and around the city. There are 120 kilometers of bike paths in Tel Aviv, as well as the Tel-O-Fun rental bikes and 3,000 bike rack spaces.

The city was promoting its new bike rack in time for Sovev Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv’s bike riding event that will take place on Wednesday, October 15.