Electric bike crackdown spurs delivery worker concern (bicycle, costs, environmental)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Cheap, electric bicycles have made life a lot easier for New York City's legions of restaurant delivery workers, but the party may be over in the New Year.
City officials are promising a crackdown on e-bikes, which may be loved by environmentalists and the largely poor, immigrant workforce that relies on them, but are loathed by many drivers and pedestrians who think they are a menace.
-Bikes, motorized or not, need to follow traffic laws like the four wheel cages to remain safe. It's not healthy to run red lights or lane split.
-When you do a full energy accounting, the E-bike is probably more energy efficient than pedaling: it take a lot of petrol to grow, transport and prepare food.
Last edited by The Villages Guy; 03-02-2018 at 10:45 PM..
Reason: Removed unneeded commentary.
Seems to me that the solution is pretty simple. Be safer and more courteous while making your deliveries. I'm a big supporter of electric bikes. I have one myself. Very inexpensive transportation. You still have to be courteous.
As a bike rider, I don't know what to make of this, especially when I see stuff like this:
Quote:
Lots of people have stories about close calls where they stepped out into the street, only to nearly be hit by a quick-moving bike they couldn't hear coming.
I don't ride an e-bike, and you know what? New York pedestrians are the biggest jaywalking jerks out of any city, bar none. So when I hear about people having "close calls when they step out onto the street", I have to laugh. We're not talking about people who are lawfully crossing a street at the intersection and getting blindsided by cyclists running a red light. We're talking about idiots who jaywalk in the middle of the street or cross against red lights at intersections.
In fact, because of this issue, I'm more terrified of pedestrians than I am of reckless drivers or other cyclists when I ride. I have also had plenty of "close calls". I'll be riding down the right side of the road with traffic and will suddenly have someone darting out onto the street between parked cars like a toddler.
So this ban seems steeped in bigotry to me, by a class of people who've decided that brown immigrant people on e-bikes are "a menace," as opposed to looking at the real problem, that we have large numbers of idiots who jaywalk constantly and cross against red lights.
Yes, just like many immigrant Italians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Greeks, etc. needed them back in the day. Or are we going to pretend that every immigrant who stepped off Ellis Island all spoke fluent English after 15 years and that this issue of immigrants not being able to do this after living so long in this country is a new phenomenon only specific to Latinos and Hispanics?
If someone does not like Hispanics, I doubt making comparisons to Jews and Italians would impress him either.
Cheap, electric bicycles have made life a lot easier for New York City's legions of restaurant delivery workers, but the party may be over in the New Year.
City officials are promising a crackdown on e-bikes, which may be loved by environmentalists and the largely poor, immigrant workforce that relies on them, but are loathed by many drivers and pedestrians who think they are a menace.
Some have used similar arguments for e-scoots, even e-cars being so quiet they are not noticed by drivers or pedestrians. I have an e-scoot. Yes, its quiet to the point that my main hazard on local roads is the wildlife that steps out right in front of me (we're talking BIG wildlife including moose and bears). Solution? Require noisemaking devices on wheel spokes, horns, or bells in order to legally use them for business. Cite if one is not present. Some new cycling horns are really obnoxious.
It's not the bike, regardless of the power source, or the ethnicity of the cyclist, that causes the problem; it's the total disregard for any law, or anyone else, shown by many of the cyclists, And this is a problem I've seen in many urban or college-centered communities.
That's my take on it, the goal here is to license/tax them. The delivery people will complain, business's will complain, yada, yada, yada. The city will "relent" and offer a solution to tax and license them.
Last edited by The Villages Guy; 03-02-2018 at 10:47 PM..
Reason: Removed quoted post.
It's not the bike, regardless of the power source, or the ethnicity of the cyclist, that causes the problem; it's the total disregard for any law, or anyone else, shown by many of the cyclists, And this is a problem I've seen in many urban or college-centered communities.
It's not the inanimate object that is the issue, it's the people operating them. If that is such a problem you go after them with law enforcement.
One suggestion that could be made here is registration with a plate, not as revenue source but enough to cover costs. Require them to be insured if they are being used for business.
An electric powered "bike" is a motor vehicle under the law and is required to have a license. All of the traffic laws that apply to motorcycles apply. The registration is less burdensome in some locals.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
