New York Is Confiscating Delivery Bikes, Hurting Immigrants, And Helping No One

I know this will anger bikers, but: as a pedestrian in New York, I'm way more afraid of bikes than I am of cars. Cars are dangerous if they hit you, yes, but (a) you can basically always hear (and see) them coming, and (b) they very rarely drive against the traffic or run red lights.

Bikes, on the other hand, frequently zoom down one-way streets against the flow of traffic, rarely make any audible sound (whether ringing a bell or shouting) so you can hear them coming, and treat traffic lights as suggestions.

I can't count the number of times I've almost gotten hit (as a pedestrian)by a biker when I'm crossing a street with the walk signal, because a biker decided that he could barrel down a one-way street, against the traffic, and didn't even need to bother to slow down for pedestrians walking with the walk signal.

Yes, not all bikers are like that. But there are enough of them that they pose an actual problem for NYC pedestrians.

If delivery using cyclists is unsafe and they should slow down, it seems like the city has to go after the businesses that provide the incentive to speed.

Maybe enforce a minimum elapsed time and price for a delivery? If they get there sooner, they have to wait for the next job.

As much as I don't like to malign modes of transportation which are environmentally friendly, cases like this are exactly why regulation is introduced. Once you get large numbers of people getting away with borderline criminal behaviour, regulation is brought in to explicitly deal with it to deal with the now commonly occurring edge cases.

Of course corporate entities don't want it, they tend to be pro-deregulation. So injuries have been downplayed because, as others have said, they are not deaths.

This could perhaps be handled by requiring registration of all vehicles for commercial purposes, as they are usually under the most pressure to increase throughput and thus bend rules. This would deal with the issue of unfairly disadvantaging the poor who need the economy afforded by bike transport, while dealing with the exploitation of the lack of regulation by corporate entities.

I live in NYC and I bike every day. I have no problem with e-bikes and I think the fact that they are getting confiscated is extremely misguided given that they are receiving praise in many other cities as a smart alternative to cars. It's insane that the police in NYC are so concerned about these bikes killing people meanwhile there are dozens of bicyclists dying every year due to car accidents and virtually no bicycle-related pedestrian deaths. Biking is by far the most dangerous thing I ever do by an order of magnitude; I've almost been crushed by cars multiple times, I've actually been brushed by cars a couple of times, and multiple friends of mine have been hurt. I'm considering stopping biking because of this, but the truth is that it is so much faster than taking the train or walking that my morning commute from Greenpoint to LES would not really make much sense without a bike. I find it ironic that police are notorious for parking in bike lanes causing bikes to have to veer out into traffic to get around them, which is extremely dangerous. (See http://copsinbikelanes.tumblr.com/)

I understand that bikes are more concerning than cars for pedestrians due to being quiet and going the wrong way, and I hate as much as the next guy. It is bicyclists' responsibility to obey traffic laws. It seems that the police should enforce the laws against these e-bikes going the wrong way or not stopping at stop signs, not for existing in the first place.

In that case they’d simply carry multiple deliveries. And no one is going to support the “delivery food must be cold” ordinance anyway.

I honestly applaud looking for more fruitful and effective areas to regulate, but in this case, I don’t think you found the appropriate target.