Thursday’s Headlines: NYCHA E-Bike Rules Edition
The New York City Housing Authority is moving to restrict the number and type of e-bikes allowed in its residential buildings after a previous failed attempt to ban the vehicles completely, The City reported on Wednesday.
The “less Draconian” response, in the news site’s words, comes after a spate of deadly fires tied to the lithium-ion batteries used to power the devices, which Streetsblog has covered extensively.
NYCHA’s proposal would also crack down on uncertified and refurbished batteries, allowing only new “UL-certified” batteries.
That’s harder than you might think. As good as the City’s report was, it left out one detail: As Streetsblog Editor Gersh Kuntzman reported in last month, safe batteries cost way too much for many of the delivery workers who need them.
In other news:
- Cyclist struck by 20-year-old curb jumper who also put a pedestrian in a coma. “I saw the pedestrian get hit and the next thing I knew I was hit as well. Could not have been more than a second, really. The speed of the car was … I couldn’t believe it,” Brandon Wheeler told the Daily News
- Q54 buses are the MTA’s latest to get bus-mounted enforcement cameras. (PIX 11)
- Ackeem Chambers, 20, will serve three to nine years in prison for killing 18-year-old Jada Rollins on Eastern Parkway after he fled a traffic stop in 2022. (via Brooklyn DA)
- MTA docs peg MSG-backed Penn Station cost at $2 billion more than advocates claim. (NY Post)
- Council Member Lincoln Restler defied the mayor’s claims he didn’t represent “the community” in the McGuinness Boulevard bike lane debate on Tuesday, trouncing his Republican opponent 88 percent to 12 percent. (Emily Gallagher via Twitter)
- … while Bronx rep Marjorie Velazquez appears to have gone down over housing. (Gothamist)
- MTA bus driver punched in Queens. (PIX 11)
- Adams lawyers up as questions swarm over ties to Turkish government. (Gothamist, The City)
- More and more communities are asking the city to implement daylighting — the act of removing parking from around an intersection — after years of ignoring a state law requiring it at every corner. Two more community boards called on DOT to reverse that policy on Wednesday. Check Streetsblog later on Thursday for coverage.
- You can add your voice to the growing chorus of daylighting supporters here.
- And finally, our Streetfilms pal Clarence Eckerson Jr. has done it again — using the power of his U.N.-recognized documentary skills to show how awesome the Berry Open Street is. Check it out here:
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