If there’s one subject each New Yorker has a special opinion on, it’s e-bikes. Every single day, my workplace receives calls from constituents who’re involved about road security. They perceive that predatory supply apps demand routes and occasions which might be not possible with out battery energy, but in addition need to have the ability to cross the road with out worrying for his or her security. That’s why I’m introducing a invoice — alongside practically one-third of my fellow Metropolis Council members from either side of the aisle — that can defend pedestrians, shield supply employees, and demand security on our streets: the Experience Protected, Experience Proper Act.
For years, e-bikes have been unlawful all through New York Metropolis. Then in 2020, all the things out of the blue modified. Supply employees have been rightly acknowledged as important employees, and with a pandemic ravaging town, Albany and Metropolis Corridor labored rapidly to legalize e-bikes. In a single day, tens of 1000’s of supply employees have been capable of legally journey e-bikes on the streets of New York Metropolis, delivering the meals, private protecting gear, and drugs New Yorkers wanted.
Legalizing e-bikes was a crucial and pivotal step — however the work wasn’t accomplished but. Over the past 5 years, the Metropolis Council has labored to enhance employee situations, guarantee protected battery requirements, and mandate a livable wage for supply employees. Simply this week, the Metropolis Council is overturning Mayor Adams’s veto to shut a loophole within the minimal pay regulation and guarantee honest pay for all supply employees. Now that supply employees received’t have to fret about touring as quick as potential simply to make ends meet and have entry to lower-cost e-bikes with protected batteries, it’s time for the Metropolis Council to come back collectively for a brand new piece of laws that can guarantee a safer, built-in velocity cap of 20 mph for all e-bikes in New York Metropolis.
As our elected leaders work to construct a safer metropolis, exploitative supply firms are nonetheless stealing pay and demanding not possible supply occasions and unsafe bikes simply to make an additional buck. It doesn’t should be this manner. Collectively, we will sluggish issues down within the bike lane — not by criminalizing riders, however by stopping the sale of unsafe, high-speed e-bikes that put us all in danger. New York Metropolis is the one locality with a loophole for these quicker bikes, and it’s time to get according to e-bike requirements carried out elsewhere. With slower expertise, supply employees can’t be pressured into using too rapidly and pedestrians can have extra time to cross the road. As Chair of the Committee on Getting older, I’m devoted to making sure our metropolis’s older adults can age in place with dignity within the metropolis they’ve known as house for many years. And meaning with the ability to use sidewalks and streets safely.
Everybody agrees that the established order isn’t working, and there’s lastly laws to mandate protected bikes from the supply. My Experience Protected, Experience Proper laws will finish the sale of the quickest e-bikes in New York Metropolis, that means slower e-bikes and safer streets for all of us. This isn’t a velocity restrict; it’s some extent of sale restriction. Underneath this laws, shops will solely be capable to promote e-bikes which might be capped at 20 mph.
When large supply firms promote out our fellow New Yorkers, now we have to step up. New York Metropolis leads the nation in supply employee protections, and this laws will construct on these successes to make supply work safer for everybody. Legalizing e-bikes didn’t finish with legalization or minimal pay. And supply work received’t be protected till each employee has protected hours, a protected office, and a protected mode of transportation.
This laws received’t simply shield supply employees from harmful bikes; it’s going to additionally shield different cyclists. Ending the sale of the quickest e-bikes ensures these bikes by no means make it to the road. By regulating merchandise as an alternative of individuals, this legislative repair protects all riders from criminalization that would result in excessive, punitive measures like deportation all as a result of a hardworking New Yorker was making an attempt to satisfy unrealistic calls for. We’ve already seen the implications of the NYPD imposing bike using violations by felony summonses — 1000’s of New Yorkers have been harassed and focused for minor infractions or utterly authorized using.
Slower e-bikes will create safer streets for everybody, and we might mandate this transformation if the Metropolis Council passes the brand-new Experience Protected, Experience Proper invoice. It’s time to make it possible for each new e-bike offered in our metropolis is a protected one.
Crystal Hudson is the New York Metropolis Council Member for District 35 (Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights). She is chair of the Council’s Committee on Getting older and co-chair of its Black Latino and Asian Caucus.
