NYC E-Bikes from NYT

[verticaldoug]

I guess what we already knew deep down, it's not the e-bikes and riders, it's the app we hate.

Street Wars: Have E-Bikes Made New York City a ‘Nightmare’?
2024-05-27 07:02:03.468 GMT

By Dodai Stewart

(New York Times) -- E-bikes zoom down streets, zigzag around cars and zip
across sidewalks, changing the way some residents view the streets.

Elijah Orlandi knows what many New Yorkers think about delivery workers on
e-bikes: They ride too fast. They zigzag in and out of traffic and bike lanes
— sometimes going the wrong direction altogether. They materialize on
sidewalks, idle in groups and block the paths of pedestrians. They risk
colliding with people, pets and cars in their rush to get where they’re going.

“There are scenarios where people have the right to be upset,” said Orlandi,
who lives in the Bronx and has been making e-bike deliveries for Grubhub — in
addition to his 9-to-5 job — since October. He has seen e-bike riders
“swerving in between cars and all that kind of stuff.”

But Orlandi is also hoping for compassion. “People got to understand, we’re
working,” he said. Delivery apps, he noted, keep track of how quickly workers
make their drop-offs — and ding them if they take too long.

“Sometimes you’ll be going somewhere and Grubhub will send you another order,
and then no matter what you do, you’re going to be late,” he said. “So that’s
why you’ll see a lot of people rushing.”

Of all the new kinds of vehicles and obstacles on New York City’s busy streets
and sidewalks, electric bicycles, which proliferated during the coronavirus
pandemic, draw perhaps the sharpest opinions.

Delivery riders were considered “essential workers” during the lockdown, and
the speed and ease of e-bikes made them attractive to deliveristas whisking
food through the rain. The lockdown eventually lifted, but the popularity of
home delivery — and electric bikes — remained.

Commuters, too, have turned to e-bikes. There have already been seven million
rides on electric Citi Bikes this year.

But the explosion of e-bikes has also soured the way some New Yorkers view the
streets.

“In the last three years there’s been an enormous shift,” said Susan Simon,
who moved to New York in the late 1970s. “The quality of life has gone down.”

“The streets are very dangerous,” Simon continued. “What used to be a
wonderful walking city for tourists, for pedestrians, has become something of
a nightmare.”

Simon used to pedal a bike herself, for fun or to go to the grocery store. But
e-bikes are different, she said — faster and heavier and therefore riskier.
She noted that a woman was killed last year after someone riding an electric
Citi Bike hit her.

There are some efforts to tame the chaos. Janet Schroeder and Pamela Manasse,
who was hit by an electric vehicle in 2022 and suffered a severe brain injury,
founded the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance, which promotes various regulations
for e-bikes.

The alliance supports a bill that would ban e-bikes and other e-vehicles from
parks and greenways. It would also like the government to require that e-bikes
be registered and riders licensed.

Schroeder said her organization includes 74 people who have been injured by
e-bikes. In nearly all cases, she said, the rider fled immediately.

“It’s a free-for-all with no consequences whatsoever for the people on these
bikes and mopeds,” Schroeder said.

Meera Joshi, New York’s deputy mayor for operations, acknowledges the
difficulty in striking the right balance on city streets.

“We want to be accommodating to the convenience of technology and modern
life,” she said, “but there’s no question we need to cut down on the Frogger
feeling on our streets.”

Joshi described the city’s bike lanes as offices — crowded offices — for more
than 70,000 delivery workers. She wants the city to gather data from delivery
companies to help inform infrastructure improvements like widening those
lanes. New York, she said, needs to “gain a deeper understanding of who is
profiting from our roads, so we can rewire the incentives towards slowing
down.”

E-bike riders themselves are especially vulnerable to danger. Zoey Laskaris
and Mustafa Hussein, researchers at CUNY, recently published a study that
found that food delivery gig workers in New York City face a high risk of
injury and assault.

The situation is compounded by the fact that delivery app companies do not
generally provide safety training, equipment, maintenance or workers’
compensation, the researchers said.

Laskaris suggested that New Yorkers also think about their own behavior.
“We’ve all created this scenario,” she said, “where there’s ‘on demand, I want
things delivered.’” The Upper West Side, where Manasse was injured, is one of
the neighborhoods where people love getting food deliveries. By some counts
it’s around 14,000 orders a day.

Joe Riggs, an e-bike rider who lives in Ridgewood, Queens, is more concerned
about reckless motorists than e-bike riders: “You can’t count on vehicles to
obey red lights,” he said. “It’s pretty terrifying.”

Riggs has 20 years of experience riding in the city and is “multimodal,” as he
puts it. He has a minivan, but he usually commutes by e-bike or electric
unicycle, and drops his kids off at school using an electric cargo bike.

He understands that e-bikes have a terrible reputation. “There’s lots of
irresponsible e-bike riders, for sure,” he said. But, he added, “I can get to
and from more quickly and have less difficulty parking and a lot more fun on
the bicycle.”

For family outings, he prefers the electric cargo bike to the minivan.
“They’re really viable car replacements for most families who live in a city
and don’t need to travel outside of it,” he said. As for his children? “They
love it.”

Quote of the week

What would your version of a utopian New York City look like?

A place where I can go for a bike ride with my mom. Is that too much to ask? —
Henry Grabar, author of “Paved Paradise.”

[herb5998]

While not as dense as NYC, we have similar issues here in Montreal with e-bikes, those used by delivery drivers, and the electric versions of the Bixi (the MTL version of Citi Bike). Quite a few more accidents, especially pedestrians and e-bikes. In addition to that, a recent update of the by-laws allows electric scooters in the bike lanes, so it's a free for all on the paths that are high usage. I'm not sure what "right" looks like for the future, but it's only going to get busier in the near term. It doesn't help that all the constant construction here frequently forces bike users into traffic, which is even more sketchy given the state of our roads.

[Alistair]

The whole app-based gig-economy crap needs to be banned/regulated/something. Not just e-bikes, but just about all of it. It’s simple rent-seeking from tech bros at the expense of vulnerable workers. Yeah, there are a few PT Uber drivers who do it for fun or pocket-money, but most need the job and should receive the same protections as normal employees.

To the question of e-scooters in bike lanes, I have mixed feelings. I don’t live in an urban area, so there’s capacity in the lanes and MUPs to share. And I’d rather have people on e-things than cars. I feel that NYC should be the same, but that means converting more auto space into bike/transit/etc space which takes time and political capital and money.

[EB]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bett...w_of_headlines

[catchourbreath]

When the large delivery e bikes started popping up on my commutes to and from work I got annoyed (they're throttle, weigh a ton, have zero maintenance and are ridden with wreckless abandon the majority of the time) Fast forward 6 years or so and now I'm regularly rubbing shoulders with gas powered scooters/mopeds in the bike lane, on bridges etc.
NYC in the last year or so has pivoted to gas scooters primarily as the preferred delivery vehicle and that's soooo much worse for everyone.

Like 15 years ago a lot of service work went to delivery bicycles, these days in hoping my manager will refuse the service on whatever monstrosity comes in.

[merlinmurph]

One of the issues is that "e-bike" now covers a very wide spectrum of vehicles, much wider than years ago when the different classes were defined. Lots of these e-bikes are scooters or motorcycles, weigh in excess of 100 lbs and are capable of going quite fast with no pedaling. I don't want someone riding a pedal assist bike to be forced to register their bike and get a license. That's absurd.

[peanutgallery]

AI and fools with MBAs are going to be the death of us all in the form of delivery apps

[stackie]

"... with wreckless abandon the majority of the time"

Actually they are ridden with wreckfull abandon the majority of the time.

[NYCfixie]

Of course the NYPD is no where to be found and not mentioned in the article because they are doing almost nothing to deal with the situation.

As Manhattanites, I am proud to share that my wife and I have never used one of these apps/services. We just go pick up our damn take-out food on our own, rain or shine.

Something needs to be done because I fear for my 81 year old father and 78 year old step-mother who walk the Manhattan streets every day. Who the f-ck is looking out for them?

[catchourbreath]

Originally Posted by stackie

"... with wreckless abandon the majority of the time"

Actually they are ridden with wreckfull abandon the majority of the time.

Lol

[merlinmurph]

"The Upper West Side, where Manasse was injured, is one of the neighborhoods where people love getting food deliveries. By some counts it’s around 14,000 orders a day."

Wow

[Mr. Pink]

Originally Posted by merlinmurph

"The Upper West Side, where Manasse was injured, is one of the neighborhoods where people love getting food deliveries. By some counts it’s around 14,000 orders a day."

Wow

I remember way back when the editors of The Onion were interviewed about their recent move from Madison to Manhattan, and one marvelled at the fact that you can have anything delivered to your door. Even weed.

[the bottle ride]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

I remember way back when the editors of The Onion were interviewed about their recent move from Madison to Manhattan, and one marvelled at the fact that you can have anything delivered to your door. Even weed.

lol- I am old enough to remember that was the first *REAL* delivery business in NYC.
Everyone had a guy.


The people won’t like the solution but if e-bikes/small motos continue to grow then cars should lose a lane on the major avenues.

The riding is so reckless and so prevalent- it’s a real quality of life issue.

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

I remember way back when the editors of The Onion were interviewed about their recent move from Madison to Manhattan, and one marvelled at the fact that you can have anything delivered to your door. Even weed.

Still can. And edibles. Delivered on a bike.