Thursday’s Headlines: Speed Limits for E-Bikes Edition

A few days ago, we got a tip that the mayor — who has failed in his bid to properly regulate the app-based delivery companies and the customers whose orders have filled the streets with low-paid delivery workers — was going to instead just put a 15-mile-per-hour speed limit on e-bikes.

We chased it for a few days, but the Daily News got the scoop, which then prompted City Hall to issue a press release that was heavy with blame and scant on details. (Gothamist also covered.)

First, the blame: Mayor Adams took aim at the City Council for not advancing his bill to create a Department of Sustainable Delivery, which does indeed offer a wide range of strategies for taming the app companies who play the biggest role in the recent change in our streetscape, as Streetsblog has reported. But Adams has been his own worst enemy here: he never even publicly released his proposal and has certainly not championed it. Nor does he include anything to regulate the demand side, as Charles Komanoff has long called for in these pages.

Instead, he has unleashed his attack dog, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who has spent the last month cracking down on delivery workers trying to make a buck on streets that the Adams administration has chosen to leave unsafe. She even went to the Council last week to defend her crackdown as the fruit of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams's inaction.

Which led to last night's mayoral candidates debate, where the Daily News scoop was a key question. Speaker Adams immediately threw the problem back at the mayor: "E-bike riders, are people that deliver food to our homes, and they have families as well. ... As the mayor normally does, he does not collaborate with the City Council. Had we done that collaboration together, we might have come up with a different solution other than 15 miles [per hour], which I believe is a penalty."

Comptroller Brad Lander also shifted focus away from workers. "We've got to go upstream here to the folks that are causing this: Uber Eats and Seamless and DoorDash need to be held accountable for the trips that are taken where they're making money. They've got the data to keep folks safe."

State Sen. Jessica Ramos pointed out that the mayor has failed to make the roads safe: "It is high time that we ... adapt our street design for the use of bikes and e-bikes."

Even Andrew Cuomo, who had previously embraced the fever dream of e-bike crackdown advocates and loves his car, had a good answer: "This is just another example of dysfunctional city management. ... You have to bring down the speeds, but you also have to have them registered by the apps. They are the ones who are making the money."

Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani jumped all over that, referencing a key donation to a super PAC supporting Cuomo: "I find it ridiculous to hear Andrew Cuomo talk about how we need to regulate the apps when this is the very mayoral candidate who has a super PAC that received $1 million from DoorDash. How are you going to regulate DoorDash when they are giving you a million dollars to influence your street safety regulations and your labor regulations?"

Former Comptroller Scott Stringer said 15 miles per hour seemed right to him, but he also lambasted Cuomo for the $1-million donation.

We are going to have a lot more to say about this today — including why no one is talking about non-delivery workers who commute with e-bikes — but for now, let's get you ready for the day with the other news:

• Gothamist got the scoop on the city's seemingly bold plan for dedicated bus lanes on Flatbush Avenue. We had some questions about how much parking would actually be removed, but Gothamist got the answer from DOT.
• Speaking of decent news from DOT, the agency dumped some new presentations on its website yesterday, including news of a bus priority proposal for Madison Avenue and a protected two-way bike lane on Union Street in Brooklyn between Bond Street and Third Avenue. Not to sound ungrateful, but that doesn't do anything for safety between the Columbia Street Waterfront District and Bond. And any truly visionary plan would go all the way to Prospect Park West or else it's not nearly as helpful as it could be.
• Speaking of improvements, the DOT will add pedestrian safety measures to the intersection of W. 110th Street and Manhattan Avenue where Niyell McCrorey was killed last year.
• The Post won't give up on its fight against clearing sidewalks of garbage and rats.
• Like Streetsblog the other day, amNY covered the court dismissal of a lawsuit against the 96th Street bus lane.
• Warning to cyclists: Look out for kite strings, invisible and at neck height, on the Marine Parkway Bridge. (Gothamist)
• And, finally, in all the debate about e-bikes, let's not forget that car drivers kill and injure at an unfathomable scale that is so rarely talked about in New York. So let's look at the map: