Metro

Meters made better

Here’s some chopping that an environmentalist can support.

Under the city’s latest green transportation plan, about 225 parking meters across the city will have their heads hacked off and be turned into bike racks.

The transformation starts this spring on the Upper East and West sides; Park Slope, Brooklyn; Riverdale, Bronx; and Ridgewood, Queens. The metal pole that remains of the meter will become circular racks.

Drivers will pay for parking at communal “muni meters” at the end of each block, rather than feed individual meters.

The new bike racks will replace every third or fourth parking meter, depending on the street, according to city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. The meter heads will be stripped for parts, then used for scrap metal.

“It’s the ultimate recycling to transform the old meters into bike parking racks,” Sadik-Khan told The Post. “One of the biggest challenges to bike commuting in the city has been bike parking. This is a whole new alchemy of the street. We have a special design for the bike rack that is adapted to fit on a meter pole.”

The new racks will feature two curved half-circles made of cast ductile iron attached to either side of the remaining post, and will be able to hold two or three bikes at a time.

The new racks will cost about $300 to install, but will save the city the $200 cost of removing the entire meter and then repairing the ripped-up sidewalk, said Sadik-Khan.

“It’s a huge investment in the street infrastructure of the city. The punch line is that biking is booming in New York City,” she said, citing a 26 percent increase in biking in 2009.

The city currently has one bike rack for every 30 cyclists, according to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

“For cyclists, this new plan is like beating swords into plowshares,” said group spokesman Wiley Norvell. “It’s cheap, it’s infrastructure we already have, and we’re making the most of it.”

akarni@nypost.com