Monday’s Headlines: Everybody to the Limit Edition

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani wants to keep Eric Adams's 15 mph speed limit for Citi Bike e-bikes, he revealed during a live podcast event with the staff of Hell Gate on Friday.

Mamdani's answer — a jokingly whispered "I'm gonna keep it at 15" — came in response to a "yes or no" question exclusively about Citi Bike, not the broader 15 mph e-bike speed limit that the Adams administration put into effect on Friday.

That speed limit is much harder to enforce, since privately owned e-bikes can't be centrally programmed to max out at a certain speed like Lyft does with its Citi Bikes. The moderators at last Wednesday's mayoral debate asked about the citywide e-bike speed limit and whether the candidates would "ramp up speeding tickets and other moving violations on motorized two-wheels," to which Mamdani was more equivocal: "I would actually build on the City Council's progress in holding the apps accountable, like DoorDash and GrubHub, to ensure that there weren't incentives for breaking those street traffic laws," he said. "I do not think police should be the ones dealing with the failures of these app companies."

It's a tough needle to thread, partly because no one really knows how NYPD will be able to enforce the new speed limit. Worse, the app companies aren't talking about taking the time pressure off delivery workers so they can travel at the new slower speed. The doyenne of delivery, Sophia Lebowitz, had yet another insightful story about app companies' speed-limit hypocrisy that's a must-read.

But we know where Los Deliveristas Unidos stands:

Back to the Hell Gate event, Mamdani also said he is "interested in residential parking permits" in response to a question about whether he thinks the city should charge more for on-street parking. He also defended his decision to ask Jessica Tisch to stay on as NYPD commissioner.

In one particularly interesting segment, Mamdani talked about his desire to keep biking and riding public transit even as threats against his life put security demands on his commuting decisions. Read that below:

"In the past, you can just move on the instinct you have as a New Yorker: If you miss the train, you can just grab the Citi Bike right? ... I can't, in large part because of the death threats that I continue to receive, move around the city without an armed security detail from the NYPD. And so, you know, one of the first times I was like, 'We're running late. Can we bike?' And I remember one of the officers was like, 'Well, yeah, my gun might fall over the holster." But it's like, this is a reality, you know. But that also means that you have to be intentional about planning that it — because if you don't take the time to put that into your own schedule, you will just travel around in the same car that mayors always travel around, where, more often than not, the only New Yorker they see is their own reflection. And I think that's why I want to ensure that every single week, you know, I am biking to City Hall and taking the train to City Hall. You will lose sight of how urgent it is to make buses fast and free — unless you take a bus and you're like, 'My god, this is so slow,' and it reminds you of the urgency of this. Otherwise, you can just start to think of all of this, all of these policies, as just intellectual concerns, not, you know, the ones that govern whether New Yorkers can actually live a safe and decent life."

Check out the whole Hell Gate live show here. Early voting continues through Sunday, Nov. 2 (hours vary; click here). Have you made a plan to cast your ballot (front and back)?

In other news:

• The Times spoke to Citi Bike users about the 15 mph speed limit — and, thankfully, the paper pointed out that Citi Bike customers are now paying more for a worse e-bike trip because the bike itself is slower, yet carries the same per-minute cost. Sham.
• DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez endorsed Mamdani on Sunday, and the Daily News continued to suggest Mamdani could keep Rodriguez — despite the DOT boss's limited expertise as a transportation professional and failed record on meeting the legal requirements of the Streets Master Plan. (Daily News)
• The MTA is saying goodbye to the MetroCard with a bunch of cute edible partnerships. (amNY)
• Meanwhile, the Times looked at whether buses could really be "fast and free," as future Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants them. The piece, of course, downplayed the real problem: cars.
• The city is getting lots of complaints about illegal street vendors at Myrtle-Wyckoff plaza, the Queens Courier reported. (QNS)
• A police chase resulted in the fleeing driver striking a cop car and cyclist in the Bronx. (amNY)
• The folks at amNY took their IBX tour to Brownsville.
• A Queens man sued the NYPD after being struck by a "clearly speeding" cop car. (Daily News)
• Will Mikie Sherrill or Jack Ciattarelli save NJ Transit? (Bergen Record)
• The construction worker who died at a Gateway Tunnel worksite last week reportedly worked "crazy hours" in the days and weeks leading up to his death. (Gothamist)
• Curtis Sliwa is spending a lot more on for-hire cars than his mayoral rivals. (NY Post)
• The City Council is spending big to defeat the mayor's pro-housing ballot proposals. (City & State)
• Sean Duffy railed against the Democrats as the government shutdown continued to strain the country's air traffic control system. (Politico)